Kansas wants to raise its intensity during Holiday break

Darrell Arthur shoveled down soul food in Texas. Brandon Rush laid low in Kansas City and spent some time with his older brother JaRon. Russell Robinson, the only Jayhawk who didn’t go home, took in the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War” instead.

All three players returned to campus for practice on Wednesday night with the same realization: The grind has begun.

“It’s crunch time now,” Arthur said.

KU’s four-day break, which began after last Saturday’s impressive 78-54 win over Miami (Ohio), was the Jayhawks’ last chance to breathe. No. 3 KU hopes it won’t stop playing again until early April, beginning with tonight’s game against Yale at Allen Fieldhouse.

“We just have to buckle down and become closer as a team more than we have and be great right now,” Arthur said. “This is the year that we have to try and do it. We’ve got these six seniors leading us, and they’re trying to win it all. I’m trying to back them up.”

The Jayhawks have the campus all to themselves for now. Without school or any distractions, they’ll take advantage with two practices per day. On Thursday, KU went hard for an hour in the early afternoon and then had a light shootaround in the evening.

“As much as I don’t want to (practice twice a day), I think it’s the best thing,” Robinson said. “It keeps everybody up and busy and mentally strong. It’s a little tiring at times, but it keeps our bodies in shape.”

Right now, there aren’t many pressing needs for the Jayhawks to work on. KU is 12-0, beating its opponents by an average of 24.4 points per game, and has been playing its best ball in the last three games — minus the last 5 minutes on the road at Georgia Tech. One place the Jayhawks could use some fine-tuning is at the free-throw line, where they’re shooting only 64 percent as a team.

KU worked on stationary shooting and free throws on Thursday night. KU coach Bill Self wasn’t in attendance, so the Jayhawks could relax a little bit.

“It was kind of fun,” Brandon Rush said, “not having him there yelling in our ear.”

The respite won’t last long. Self said before the break how crucial it was that KU was playing well going into the holiday. The Jayhawks know they need to pick up where they left off in becoming the first team in 45 games to score 70 points on the RedHawks. KU has three more nonconference games before opening Big 12 play Jan. 12 at Nebraska.

“You gotta come out pretty strong the first game back,” Robinson said. “If you don’t, it’ll bring up some red flags. We don’t wanna do that. We’re playing too well for anybody to have any type of concerns.”

While it was hard to leave his mom, grandma, little brother and the rest of his family back in Dallas, Arthur was glad to get back to basketball. The sophomore has a good feeling about the undefeated Jayhawks.

“I think we’ve gotten smarter basketball-wise,” Arthur said. “I think we all know our roles now and know what we have to do to win.”