Trojans like the shape they’re in

USC’s first basketball practice lasted three hours Friday, and Coach Kevin O’Neill didn’t make it an easy three.

But after it ended, his crew had plenty left in the tank. “Which I was really, really glad to see,” O’Neill said.

O’Neill credited the off-season conditioning program administered by first-year strength coach Shaun Brown, who had held the same position at Virginia for three seasons and before that was strength coach for the NBA’s Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors.

Several players added muscle, according to Brown: forwards Evan Smith, 20 pounds to 225, and Garrett Jackson, 14 pounds to 215; guards Marcus Simmons, 12 pounds to 220, and Bryce Jones, seven pounds to 200; and forward Alex Stepheson, seven pounds to 250.

And Fordham transfer guard Jio Fontan, who came in last winter at around 190 pounds, is down to about 175.

“He’s a drill sergeant, man,” Stepheson said of Brown, who got Stepheson to start doing yoga two days a week and later had the team doing it one day a week. “I feel a huge difference,” Stepheson added.

On the court, the team appears much quicker. Brown credited that to hard running drills four days a week during the summer: two on the court, two on a track.

Brown was modest about the team’s improved conditioning.

“Not that anything they did in the past was wrong, but there’s just a lot of ways to do things,” Brown said.

The Trojans did have one advantage, though. While many teams’ players were away for the summer, the Trojans mostly stayed home for summer school, and Brown said they had 100% attendance in voluntary workouts that started in May.

So, the Trojans essentially got a three-month head start.

“We’re at a whole other level, conditioning-wise,” O’Neill said.

Etc.

Simmons changed his number from 20 to 43 in honor of former teammate and “best friend” Kasey Cunningham, who played just 15 games in three injury-plagued seasons. . . . O’Neill’s son, Sean, a recent graduate from Arizona, will work with the Trojans this season as a graduate assistant. . . . USC Athletic Director Pat Haden and senior associate athletic director Steve Lopes attended portions of practice.

baxter.holmes@latimes.com