Bob Huggins looks a little different on the sideline this season and the behavior, despite two technical fouls, has been both curious and comforting to his players. Take, for example, his final thoughts before a game last week, as described by sophomore point guard Joe Mazzulla.

“His pregame speech before the Auburn game was simply, ‘I’m ready. Are you?’ We were fired up. It’s good to see he’s very relaxed and calm before the game.”

That got me thinking and I remembered John Beilein’s “pep talk” before the UCLA game last year. I recall staring at the television in amazement.

Last week I caught up with someone who played for Beilein and he, too, remembered that and admitted the pregame ordeals sometimes did more to panic than to prepare his players.

“He was a (bleep) Energizer Bunny.  He’d spend an hour-and-a-half dissecting everything and reminding us about everything one last time. It was always  ‘We’re family. I love you guys’ and (bleep) like that. I didn’t need to hear that. I wanted to play basketball.”