Harrell's friends keep him grounded

— -- It's hard to imagine a time when  Louisville forward Montrezl Harrell wasn't the most physically imposing, most feared player on the basketball court.

There are eight guys who do remember, though. They remember when he took too many jump shots and wouldn't play in the post. They remember when he was benched at the age of 15. They remember when he was, at best, the fourth-best player on their team.

Harrell met them all around the age of 13 playing basketball. Most of them would play on the same AAU team, which always struggled to generate enough sponsorship money just to be able to travel and play. Many times, it was a local coach who came up with the funds from his own pockets.

Harrell is grateful for reminders of those days, which is why he had to let those who shared them with him know they're not forgotten.

Like the other members of his family, he carries their names etched in permanent ink on his skin. The tattoo crawls up his ribs and onto his chest, and is a small banner listing their names, one by one:

Aaron.

Da'Cor.

Mike.

Myles.

Tabias.

Terrill.

Tevin.

Tyrie.

"I got all my brothers' names tattooed on me," Harrell said. "We started off playing AAU, and we created a bond that's unbreakable."

They call it "B4L" -- brothers for life.

They use the three characters or the complete phrase as a salutation to end most conversations.

"It's just a code, one of the things to say, 'I love you' without being sentimental," said Terrill Hilliard, who, along with Tabias, are the only two actual brothers in the group.

All eight are from the small, rural towns of Rocky Mount and Wilson, North Carolina. They're the guys who keep Harrell grounded. They're also the guys who push him to be greater.

It's always been that way since they first met Harrell, a Tarboro, North Carolina, native.

Myles Sharpe, a sophomore sports management major at Winston-Salem State University, remembered when they were 16 and Harrell had some success in summer tournaments. While playing a game of 2-on-2 with Tevin Taylor and Hilliard, Sharpe said they told Harrell he "wasn't as good as he thought he was."

"He ended up snapping. He threw the ball and left the gym," Sharpe said. "It put it back in his head that he had to work hard. I think he got a little comfortable 'cause people started to know him, and the coaches did, too. It was all out of love, though. We wanted to see him get better."

Aaron Rountree III, a junior forward at  Wake Forest, was the best player of the group growing up. He said part of their drive was that they all desired to "make it out of the 252," which is the area code for the eastern part of the state.

"We always pushed each other and got competitive, and now, he's on draft boards and I'm just trying to catch up," Rountree said.

It's very competitive within the group, but that makes them all very productive, too.

It would be very easy to see Harrell around his friends and label them his entourage. It would also be very wrong. None of them is just waiting for Harrell to make it to the NBA so they can live off his success. They're all achieving in their own right.

Harrell beams with pride when talking about each of his eight friends, the majority of whom are on full scholarships -- either academic or athletic.

"The thing that's different about our bond is nobody hangs on nobody's coattail, nobody is just along for the ride," Harrell said. "Everybody has things they trying to pursue in their own life and their own plans and their goals and dreams."

The city of Louisville, Kentucky, embraces the Cardinals basketball team as the professional franchise it doesn't have. There's a reason they're the main tenant playing in a pro-quality, downtown arena.

Harrell is already treated like an NBA star in some respects as the star on a top-10 team that faces  Duke this weekend. When he's out in public, he'll inevitably be asked to take a picture with fans or sign a few autographs. To those well wishers, Harrell can do no wrong. To his buddies? Well ...

"That's what I love about those guys, 'cause at the end of the day, they still let me know that, hey, I'm just one of them," Harrell said. "That's the best feeling about it because when I'm at school, people just see me as Montrezl Harrell, Louisville basketball player."

When Harrell hears others talk about his potential NBA draft status, his friends remind him that he could really be more consistent with his jumper, or they'll point out plays he didn't make.

"They always bring me back to reality," Harrell said. "And the best thing about them is they never really harp on what good I've done. They harp more on the bad things I've done in a game."

Rountree, who missed Wake's game against the Cards with a hand injury, is the only other player from their old AAU team who is playing on college basketball's highest level. But Harrell takes all constructive criticism from his friends to heart no matter if they're still playing competitive basketball or not.

Tyrie Mack gave up basketball for football and is a junior defensive back at Eastern Michigan. Da'Cor Wiggins didn't play AAU basketball at all; he's just one of the crew. But neither would be afraid to chime in if Harrell needed advice.

Wiggins, a junior double majoring in accounting and management information systems at Winston-Salem State University, says their friendship is far from an echo chamber of endorsement.

"Everybody else is going to glorify him," Wiggins said. "So he's got to have somebody to be there to tell him, 'Nah, that wasn't good enough.'"

The last time that happened?

Earlier this month at Wake Forest.

Harrell dropped 20 of his 25 points in the first half against the Demon Deacons and added 13 rebounds. He's only scored more once this season, when he posted a career-high 30 against  Minnesota in the opener. He's had more rebounds only once this season as well, when he snatched 17 against UNC Wilmington.

The dunks and 3-pointers he made were accompanied by a glance to where his buddies were sitting -- most were in a Wake Forest section using tickets provided by Rountree -- with a wink or head nod of acknowledgement.

They drew stares and questionable looks on several occasions when they forgot where they were sitting and stood up to loudly cheer Harrell.

Yet after the game when it came time to evaluate his performance?

"He was kind of slacking off in the second half," Wiggins said.

They do more than just criticize. They encourage Harrell up, too.

Harrell's freshman season at Louisville was typical for of a rookie. Though he played every game, averaging 16.2 minutes, he thought he should be making a bigger impact than his 5.7 points and 3.6 rebounds suggested.

It didn't help that forward Chane Behanan would routinely school Harrell in practice.

"Chane was dominating him every day, every day, like, killing him," Mike Westry, one of Harrell's eight friends, said. "That was the worst thing. He hated it. He was getting dominated every day, and he didn't like that. He doesn't like losing at anything."

Terrill Hilliard, a redshirt sophomore forward at Division II Wingate University, recalled a phone conversation with Harrell late in his freshman season. Harrell was saying things weren't going right. Hilliard tried telling him it was only his first season.

"He wanted to have a big freshman year, but I told him to be patient and your time is going to come," Hilliard said. "It's just going to take one tournament game you're going to get your chance."

A few games later, Harrell had his breakout performance, scoring 20 points with seven rebounds to help rally the Cardinals over  Syracuse in the 2013 Big East tournament title game.

Harrell found himself again needing the support of the group at the end of last season, when he mulled returning to school or turning professional. Though they were split on what they believed he would do, their advice was unanimous to do what he felt was best, without considering any outside pressures or influence.

Normally, the group shares big news via phone or a group-chat app. That time, they had to hear he was staying in school from media reports. Harrell initially told them he was going to declare for the draft but woke up the next morning and had a change heart.

The announcement didn't change the chat much at all. Their collective message to Harrell was to get back to grinding, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

"We're there for each other. We've been there with each other through the good times and the bad times," Harrell said. "So no matter what, we're always going to be there for each other. I think that's what makes it special."

B4L.

Brothers for life.