Earl Grant opened practice to the media on Tuesday for what turned out to be an intense, physical, high-activity two hour session.

Several players and Grant also spoke with the six reporters on hand for about 45 minutes following practice. There's a whiff of confidence around and a chip on the shoulder of every single member of the program. This team may be young (no true seniors and only three graduate guys), but there's a lot of experience from the transfer guys. It just happens to be unproven experience from an ACC perspective.

Here's what stood out from the practice. I'll have more from the interviews we had on Friday since the football game's on Thursday night...

-As I said, there's a palpable feeling around the team. It's sort of a 'prove it' mentality amongst this collection of guys young and old (mostly young) that want to show they belong. What does that ultimately get you? Who knows. But, we spoke with 12 guys and at least 4 of them said the tournament and 20 wins is the bar.

-Dion Brown didn't participate (Grant said it was a day or two off as he's still recovering from two sports hernias), but he was the team MVP. His leadership was remarkably impressive. He was constantly hyping guys up, or coaching them up, or banging the floor on the sideline as if he was in playing defense. As a transfer (from Great Barrington) it's great to see how quickly he's taken on a leadership role. During his time with the media, Brown says it just came naturally to him when he joined the team.

-Elijah Strong looks bigger and ready to take the next step. He was also the most vocal and physical player the entire practice. He was constantly chirping with either St. Bonaventure transfer Chad Venning or freshman Jayden Hastings when matched up down low. It's impossible to overstate the physicality of those matchups down low too. Whether BC wins many games or not remains to be seen, but those three guys will provide a certain level of physical toughness that Quinten Post didn't have. Post was extremely killed, but there was a relaxed nature around the team last year with him as the focal point. That's not the case right now.

-The physicality and effort truly stood out above all else. It was 2.5 hours straight of collisions, hard falls, guys diving for loose balls and a lot of trash talk and talk on defense. Again, this might not get you anything in October, but it's going to be hard not to like this team's effort night in and night out if Tuesday was a barometer.

-Clemson transfer Josh Beadle is impressive. I'm not a hoop-head by any means, but he's just got a natural athletic ability, knocked down shots and was one of the guys diving for loose balls and hyping up teammates. He knows what it takes to win in the ACC and said the physical practices this early are needed.

-Needham/Milton Academy freshman Nick Petronio had a nice smooth stroke. I'm not sure how good of a shooting team BC is going to be - it feels like A LOT of this offense will come from inside the paint this season - but Petronio certainly seems to be one of the team's better shooters.

-A little more on Venning and Hastings...it's really fun to watch them and Strong go at it down low. Veining and Hastings had a nasty looking collision going up for a rebound during a full team run. Hastings had to be helped off but came back a few minutes later laughing and hopping right back into the action. Venning reminds me a lot of the NC State kid DJ Burns with his stature. Again, I think this team will be a lot tougher than Grant's previous teams.

-Chas Kelley looks a bit bigger (muscle wise) and looked good. The group of him, Luka Toews, Fred Payne, Donald Hand (taking on a bigger role) and Ethan Soares all made shots at various times throughout the day. Too early to know the rotation, but this is going to be a full team effort I think. Grant might go 10 deep depending on the night.

-Freshman Kany Tchanda is REALLY long and athletic. The Democratic Republic of the Congo native was very soft spoken when he met with us, but is eager to show what he can do when given an opportunity. His length along with Hastings' is something the Eagles have lacked recently.

Overall, I came away impressed and actually encouraged by the roster. They're going to take their lumps and I still think March Madness is a bit too much to ask until we see how quickly this team of ''misfits' if you will gels together. But, another NIT run and a 20-win season could be on the table if things go right.

Basically, I had that image of the grounds crew guys in the movie 'Major League' saying 'these guy's ain't so f'n bad' in my head leaving the Hoag Pavillon on Tuesday.