Those who know him now see a single-minded, gritty player, albeit one that can be a paradoxical mix of intellect and intensity.

“He’s a guy who usually has a smile on his face, someone who was smart enough to graduate from our university early,” said Will Hicks, the Syracuse strength and conditioning coach. “But in practice or games, he flips a switch. He’s not one of those coolly efficient offensive linemen. He’s fierce. And at the end of a play, you better have your head on a swivel because he’s always looking to put somebody on the ground.”

Pugh’s high school coach, Vince Bedesem, noticed the same thing even when Pugh was a sophomore guard and barely 200 pounds.

“Everybody gets up for games,” Bedesem said. “But I saw Justin in practices as a young kid going against older all-conference players, and he was trying to dominate. He wasn’t waiting for the games to ratchet it up. He was going after our own people. You don’t see too many high school sophomores just named to the varsity with that kind of drive.”

His mother said Justin always had a presence and was the child everyone noticed in a room.

“Even as a little boy, everybody knew his name,” Carolyn said. “Probably because I was always yelling it and chasing after him.”