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After being swept in the Bay Area last weekend, the Arizona Wildcats may have had it even worse on Monday.

They woke up early to catch a flight home, arrived in the early afternoon, then went into the film room, the weight room and finally hit the practice floor.

It was about a 12-hour day.

If there was a lunch stop in there somewhere, UA interim head coach Russ Pennell didn't remember it too well.

"Um, yeah, I think so," Pennell said Tuesday. "Yeah, we did."

Fortunately for Pennell, there are no NCAA-mandated practice limitations during the winter break. So he was free to work the Wildcats hard, both physically and mentally, after finding himself on a "slow burn" while the UA's 76-60 loss at Stanford on Sunday sank in.

"I thought at Stanford our attitude was horrible," Pennell said. "I didn't like what I saw. It was just unacceptable. And so it was my job to make sure we point those things out and correct it."

The conversations were one-way.

"I didn't even ask them" about their response, Pennell said. "It didn't matter to me. They're players and they have to play hard. There's always this talk about should they get paid — they do get paid. They get a scholarship, they get tuition paid, room and board paid, travel basically first class, stay in great hotels, and the least they can do is give an unbelievable effort in a game.

"Nobody is asking them to win. Winning's a byproduct of if you do things correctly on the court. But when your effort is subpar, you've gotta be called on that. So (Monday), I was in no mood to answer any questions. It was, 'This is the way we're going to do it.' "

Point guard Nic Wise said it was a similar situation to the day after, in December, the UA lost 72-71 to UAB, a chance to get back on the court and go over what happened to determine what could have been done better.

"I just think when you re-enact what happened the night before, then you get it out of the way," Wise said, adding the Wildcats focused on zone defense, boxing out and when to deny the ball to their opponent.

But unlike UAB, when the Wildcats nearly pulled out a victory after trailing by 10 points at halftime, Arizona continued to go downhill at Stanford. The Wildcats trailed 35-26 at halftime and never made it a close game.

That's what bothered Pennell the most.

"The thing we have to learn is to push through adversity," Pennell said. "At times, we've shown that. We actually did that against UAB. … In the Pac-10, when you get up against it on the road, you better punch back. I mean that in a game context, not literally."

With the Pac-10's unique schedule, having to play two road games in three days nearly every other week, Pennell said it is easy to fall into the habit of brushing off road losses and thinking of exacting revenge at home.

The Wildcats won't reach their goals by doing that only, Pennell said. Already, the two losses have left them at 9-5 overall and out of ESPN.com's latest NCAA tournament projections (UA also has a No. 54 RPI that won't be helped by conference games the rest of the way, as it was last season).

"I just didn't want it to become habit-forming," Pennell said. "There's nothing more lonely than waking up the next day after that first loss (on a road weekend), thinking 'Oh, we lost last night, we've got another one tomorrow, we've gotta prepare.' You almost have to learn to turn it into anger and get energy the next game, and I don't think we did that at all.

"We're not brow-beating — that's not our style at all — but it's accountability. If you don't do something right, do it again, do it again, until it becomes the new habit."

At the same time, Pennell also remained optimistic, saying the Wildcats will bounce back. The two UA players made available for interviews Tuesday, Wise and Jordan Hill, were of a similar mindset.

Wise said the Wildcats are not panicking, but know the importance of winning home games this weekend against Oregon and Oregon State.

"There is a sense of urgency," Wise said.