5 A.M. MONDAY, GILL COLISEUM — For the untrained internal clock, it was a morning of agony.

Functioning at this time of day hurts the head like an unrelenting alarm after a long weekend, but the philosophy of new Oregon State men’s basketball coach Craig Robinson is that it prepares his players for life after college.

So the Beavers were out and about Monday before the sunrise or Starbucks opens. The only things moving in downtown Corvallis were the street sweepers.

The initial 5:30 a.m. practice for the Beavers got underway like the first two, with fast starts. This time players could get on the court early for extra shooting since no one was there before them.

“They are good on a couple of levels,” Robinson said of the early start. “It’s a real indicator of who cares. If you want to play, you get up in the morning and play.”

Other benefits include having all the players there without class conflicts, players aren’t rushed out the door at the end with so many teams on campus fighting for court time and it keeps players out of nightlife trouble.

The approach is such a curiosity that several media members throughout the state were here to chronicle the event, including TV cameras.

Players arrived 45 minutes beforehand through the dimly lit halls to get taped, stretch and get focused while in the catacombs of the arena. Some had evidence of bed head and were a little groggy.

They’ve built up to this by working out at 6 a.m. since July 19, but now they added the soreness of their first two full practices Friday and Saturday.

“If they are making any shots, that’s how you tell if they are ready,” Robinson said as he watched pre-practice shooting. “There, you can see they are ready. These guys really set the tone by doing the individual workouts early.”

Veteran players Josh Tarver, Rickey Claitt and Lathen Wallace started practicing on their own early in the spring and the others followed.

That evolved into early morning team weightlifting sessions and fall individual workouts.

“At first this was a big deal,” Wallace said. “Then we started getting up early to be prepared and it’s not that hard anymore.”

He woke up at 4:20 a.m., and went to bed at 9:30 p.m. to get enough rest. Wallace was sleeping when many college students go out on the town partying.

Once practice ended players hit the shower, went to breakfast and then to class. They are able to lift weights and meet with coaches in the afternoon, before doing it again the next day.

“It’s not that difficult now since we’ve been doing it all summer; we got used to it,” forward Omari Johnson said. “Nobody is up as early as we are, so we have a jump on everybody else.”

None of the players were late for the first day out of the fear of Robinson’s wrath. He has an unspecified punishment for tardiness.

Players police themselves, starting back with the lifting sessions. When someone is missing as practice time draws closer, guard Joey McConnell sends a text message or calls them to make sure they haven’t overslept.

As Monday’s practice proceeded, the players had their ups and downs. Robinson challenged them to get better, and gave them grief about not being ready for the time of day if they lagged behind.

The players can earn their way out of the morning practices if they make significant progress learning the new offense and develop as a team. However, that is going to be a long time off.

Robinson will be flexible once games begin. He likes to practice 24 hours before playing a game so afternoon practices will be worked into the schedule in November.

“They just needed more discipline and a little more direction, and they have risen to the occasion,” Robinson said. “It won’t be like last year.”

If the players maintain the discipline of a schedule like this and with how hard Robinson is working them, they are bound to win more than the six games they did last season just from the effort.

Cliff Kirkpatrick covers the Oregon State men’s basketball team for the Corvallis Gazette-Times. He can be reached at cliff.kirkpatrick@lee.net.