Believe it or not, we’re not the only ones who have heard about and dissected the pointed and seemingly pessimistic comments Bob Huggins let loose Friday night. Either your suspicions or your worst fears were confirmed Monday afternoon: The players hear, read or hear about that stuff, too, though I’d have to think it would be hard to avoid that particular episode.

The opinions? Well, they were interesting, though plucked only from Truck Bryant and Kevin Jones, who as seniors  have the best background to draw upon to have the conversation I wanted to have.

For starters, that postgame scene is not nearly as normal as we profess and believe.

“It’s different,” Jones said. “I think Coach just hates losing so bad and I’m right along with him. I hate losing. Not used to it. And sometimes words come out in ways that, he might not necessarily mean it, but in ways that he wasn’t saying what people interpreted it as.

“Coach is very passionate. He says what’s on his mind. It’s hard, especially as freshmen. They see that and say, ‘Man, we’re not any good,’ but I tell them all the time, ‘I was told I’m not any good the last four years. You’ve got to find a way to lock it out, man. You’ve got to find a way to filter what Coach is saying and get the real message out of it.’ “

Bryant had a few examples he was willing to share. He want back to his sophomore year when he and Wellington Smith, then a senior, had a hard time defending the ball. The rest of the team was really, really good against the ball and Bryant and Smith were actually pretty good help and team defenders.

Individually?

“Me and Wellington couldn’t play defense like that,” Bryant said. “We’d always get beat. We’d watch film and we’d be getting beat all the time on film. One time, Coach was like, ‘When you see 2-5 or when you see 3-5, scream, “Heeeeeeelp! Heeeeeeelp!” because they’re getting beat.’ “

That made Bryant feel smallish at that time. Today, he laughs.

“He’s getting a point across,” Bryant said. “Honestly, that motivated me to get better defensively. Now I guard the other team’s best player.”

With Huggins, the message is the message and you have to take it or leave it and live with the consequences of your decision. Sure, there’s something to be said about the delivery, but understand there’s another part of that. There’s just as much to be said about the recipient.

Over time, players say they grow to realize and maybe even accept what Huggins does, which is draw a line and act one way on one side and another way on the other. On both sides, he has the best intentions in mind the entire time.

“I feel like as a coach, he’s more of a father figure, more of a stern guy who tells guys what you did wrong, but after practice or the game is over goes right back to consoling you and being a friend,” Jones said. “That’s what I’ll remember most about him. He never took stuff that happened on the court off the court with him.”

The relationship won’t always function perfectly. It can. It does. But sometimes it breaks. Other times it’s defective and needs a repair. Jones and Bryant have seen a little of everything. They know it’s a challenge and they know that dynamic really isn’t any different here than it is on other college campuses.

Can Huggins be harsh and sarcastic and unique and, OK, mean? Sure. But, at the root, he’s no different than others tracking toward the Hall of Fame.

“He likes to try to motivate guys to try to get better and to do things differently,” Bryant said.

He again dug into his book of stories and again went back to 2010. Deniz Kilicli and Dan Jennings were freshmen and Jennings had a pretty high opinion of their potential together in the future. Huggins heard about that a short time later and one day, with that in mind, could take no more of what he’d heard and what he was seeing in practice.

“The funniest was when Dan Jennings said him and Turk were going to be like David Robinson and Tim Duncan,” Bryant said. “Huggs sat us all down because we were having a bad practice and said, ‘Are you (kidding) me? David Robinson and Tim Duncan?’ That was pretty funny.”

That was also not suitable for the seven dozen video cameras and microphones that had surrounded Bryant — Aside: Casazza 1, Field 0 — and he figured that out pretty quickly.

“I’ve got a cleaner one,” Bryant said. “I’ll use DePaul as an example. Last year, we”re playing DePaul and we’re tied at halftime. He said, ‘I’ve got a new cheer for us: Let’s go … lose.’ That was funny, too.

“Coach has got a million of them. As a matter of fact, that’s going to be one of my best memories of being here.”