They used to talk about this, the two of them. The three of them, actually.

(OK, so not about this, exactly. No one talks about this, unless they’re 5 years old and unburdened by the poison of adult understanding).

They used to sit around up there 90 miles to the north and west, the three of them, and talk about what would happen when they left the Notre Dame cocoon. Talk about where they’d end up. Talk about where they’d be playing basketball for money someday, or if they would.

(Never dreaming, of course, that it would end up like this).

Kyle McAlarney assumed he and his faithful roomie, Ryan Ayers, would go their separate ways.

Ayers figured the days of hanging out together like they did in South Bend were done.

Rob Kurz guessed that he and Ayers, whom he’s known since they were high school kids in suburban Philadelphia, would finally say their goodbyes, and McAlarney, with whom he’d worked out in the summer, would say his goodbyes to both of them.

Now here they are. Now this has happened.

Now McAlarney sits in a sideline chair in Memorial Coliseum wearing No. 12 in Mad Ants yellow, and a couple of chairs away sits Kurz, wearing 24. Three or four more chairs down sits Ayers, wearing 22.

Together again, here on Mad Ants media day. Together still.

“Definitely a rare thing,” McAlarney says.

“A nice little dream,” Ayers says.

And Kurz?

“We were all taking different paths in our careers,” he says. “But I think we’re all excited to be back together.”

Sure they are. Yeah, it’s weird. Yeah, they never expected it. But, yeah – heck, yeah – they’ll take it.

“I’m very excited to have them as kind of a support system, someone to lean on, to talk to,” says McAlarney, the 6-foot guard from Staten Island. “Sometimes you go into a basketball situation, and you don’t know who’s gonna be on your team, who your roommate is, what they’re gonna be like. But it’s kind of comforting feeling knowing you know these guys well already.”

Off the floor and on.

“Kyle and I worked out together in L.A. this summer, and Ryan and I worked out every day back at home. We live five minutes away from each other,” says Kurz, the 6-9 forward from Lower Gwynedd, Pa. “So it’s not just from all the years we played together in college. We have an unbelievable chemistry just from the fact we’ve played so many games together, so many hours of practice.”

For that reason, perhaps, they won’t dwell on the odds-busting nature of this. McAlarney, for instance, says he and Ayers sent the text messages flying back and forth when they heard Ants coach Joey Meyer was interested in both. And then Kurz got in on the text-fest when he learned the Ants were swinging a deal with Erie to bring him in, too.

“I’m going to Fort Wayne,” Ayers texted McAlarney.

“Me, too,” McAlarney texted back.

“Me, three,” Kurz texted both, or words to that effect.

Strike up the Victory March.

“It feels just a little ironic that ended up happening this way,” Ayers says. “But it’s kind of a good thing that (in) me and Kyle’s first step in the pro ranks, Rob will be there to help us out.”