It's basketball season

This one will be...challenging.

My good friend Mark Bryan is no longer with us.

I'm already not looking forward to my thoughts the first time I step into Rees Gym for a PCS game. Oh, don't get me wrong; I love the game and the guys still there. But there will be a gigantic, gaping void for me. Plus, it was in that gym that Mark drew his last breath. But I won't go there again. I've written about that elsewhere.

My prediction is that the wound will never fully heal for me. But like many wounds, it will become increasingly more manageable. And I join my buddy Norman Rowe in believing that seeing the gym packed for a game will be most helpful in the healing journey.

Of course, the other change--much less significant than Mark's passing--about hoops season this year is that I'm no longer on the faculty of PCS. So, I'll be going as a sort of outsider, for the first time. Which will be tough for me.

As Mark's successor, my buddy Matthew Lofton, says, "Let's do this!"

I can't wait.