Kansas freshman guard Merv Lindsay sat in his bed in the Jayhawk Towers with eyes wide open the night before coach Bill Self’s boot camp started.

“I couldn’t go to sleep,” Lindsay said. “I was so anxious.”

Self’s boot camp begins every day at 6 a.m. and lasts 45 minutes to an hour. The training, which never involves a basketball and spans from Monday until next Friday, includes defensive slides, close-out drills, backboard taps, lots of running and whatever else Self can think of.

“Boot camp is all the stuff that we really don’t want to do that has to do with basketball,” senior guard Tyshawn Taylor said. “It’s not the fun stuff.”

Former stars Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers and Wayne Simien were in town for the Legends of the Phog exhibition last weekend and spent some time warning the freshmen about boot camp. Lindsay said they told him to get some sleep. Junior forward Thomas Robinson and Taylor told him that boot camp is when training “gets real.”

Freshman guard Christian Garrett learned the definition of real on Monday, when he puked in a trash can next to the practice court after a running drill.

“I gave him a little pour of water on the neck to cool him off,” senior guard Conner Teahan said.

Taylor said that other than that incident, Garrett has shown no signs of slowing down.

“As older guys, we’ve got to smack them on the butt and tell them they can do it,” Taylor said. “Boost them up a little bit.”

After Late Night at the Phog on Oct. 14, Self’s practices will show no mercy.

“If you went right into practicing the way we practice after late night, you wouldn’t be able to handle it,” Teahan said.

Boot camp serves as a way to prepare for those practices and as a barometer of the team’s current condition.

“Everybody was in decent shape,” Lindsay said. “But now we’re getting into Kansas basketball season shape.”

With the departure of the Morris twins and Josh Selby to the NBA and with Brady Morningstar and Tyrel Reed now playing in Europe, Self cannot rely on skills alone to trump opponents. When playing against premier talent such as Anthony Davis of Kentucky or Jared Sullinger of Ohio State, Kansas could benefit from having an extra burst of energy in crunch time. Boot camp can provide that extra burst.

“If you can get through this, you can get through anything,” Taylor said.

Self doesn’t give his players any formal breather, but Taylor said that every once in a while he sneaks a sip of water. However, Taylor said he wishes the training was in the afternoon instead of before the sun rises.

“I think that’s the toughest part,” he said of the 6 a.m. start.

Self has been barking at everyone, catching minor details that may seem trivial but make a difference to him.

“I got caught slipping a couple of times,” Lindsay said.

Lindsay said he knows that Self yells only to bring the best out of talented athletes.

“We’ve got goals this year,” Lindsay said. “So we’ve got to work toward them.”