Friday afternoon at Belk

1. “Toughen up!”

“Knucklehead!”

“Jesus Christmas!”

“You caught it and got soft instead of catching it and busting his face!”

What’s that sound like? Sounds like a Bob McKillop-led individual workout here on campus on a late September afternoon. Friday's group was Bryant, Will, JP, AJ, Ben and Brendan.

2. JP’s turned more man since the last time I saw him. He’s not that much shorter than Will. He doesn’t move cool, he moves effective, and his ball wants to go in. And I heard from the coaches a version of something they always said about Stephen: What JP’s told, JP picks up quick.

3. Ben’s a V with a tan and a British accent.

4. No Bob McKillop team at Davidson, ever, has had a pair of post players who are built the way Ben and Frank are built.

5. Where are all those points going to come from? No one place. But Will is going to score a bunch this year. Bryant on Will right now: “Best I’ve ever seen him play.”

6. McKillop: “Come here. Look at Steve’s body.”

7. After the whole team worked out on the red rack behind Baker, McKillop called his guys together and told them that nobody’s talking about them right now, and nobody’s expecting anything of them, and nobody’s picking them to win anything.

“And that’s fine,” he said.

8. I asked Steve about Stephen.

“Who?” he said, then grinned.

9. Bryant: “The past three years, so much of our offense revolved around Stephen. If something was going wrong, we looked to Stephen.

“It’s just us now.”

It’s just us now.

It’s Just Us Now.