You only need to look at Robert Woodard II to tell he is serious.

The Columbus High School junior boys basketball player’s arms glisten with perspiration as he rises up for another jump shot in the 3-point contest. Woodard II’s leg uncoil with a ferocity that lifts him to the rim in the slam dunk contest.

It’s only Purple Madness, the kickoff event for the school’s girls and boys basketball teams, but Woodard II’s 6-foot-6 frame looks leaner and stronger. The veins burst from his arms as the sweat gathers on his forehead in the moments following the All-Star game that ended the evening.

As players and fans gather on the Columbus High court, there is no mistaking this is Woodard II’s team. There also is no denying Woodard II is ready for the challenge of being a marked man and leading a young team after a history-making season.

“It really got to me not making the USA Team (over the summer) and it made me want to work harder,” Woodard II said. “Ever since then, it has been driven into my head that nobody is going to outwork me, nobody is going to outplay me, and no one is going to defeat me on the court.”

Woodard II said he tried out for the U17 National Team in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and left the event determined to use the disappointment to help him get better. He said he talked with God the night before finding out he didn’t make the team and feeling it wasn’t his time to be selected. Woodard II said he woke up the next morning with a positive attitude and re-focused on making the most of the experience.

Woodard II said he returned to the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) circuit with the Mississippi Express and attacked the rest of his summer. He said Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Florida State, Iowa State, Mississippi State, Alabama, Ole Miss, Baylor, Stanford, North Carolina State, Tennessee, and LSU are some of the schools recruiting him. He said he isn’t “biased” toward any school.

Columbus first-year boys basketball coach Gary Griffin said not making the U17 National Team gave Woodard II a “sense of urgency” for this season. He said he saw it in Woodard II’s attitude toward offseason training and in the preseason when he worked before and after practice to improve his skills.

“He has conditioned from June until now like no other high school player I have seen in my 17 years of coaching,” Griffin said. “If you get up on him, you can see the transformation in his body, going from some pudginess to being straight lean, 215 pounds of solid muscle.

“If I ask him to run two miles, he will run three. That is his mind-set, and I think his mind-set is to take it to another level.”

In 2015, Woodard II averaged 5.6 points and 3.8 rebounds in 12.8 minutes per game to help the USA Basketball Men’s U16 National Team win the FIBA Americas Championship.

Last season with Columbus, Woodard II was regarded as the best player on a team that had multiple players who were 6-8 or taller and 10 seniors. As a result, Woodard II spent a majority of the time on the perimeter and wasn’t always the team’s first option on offense. That didn’t matter because Woodard II still found ways to contribute. He had six points and earned game MVP honors in Columbus’ 37-33 victory against Starkville in the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 6A State championship at Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson The title was the first in the program’s history.

This season, though, Woodard II is going to demand more of himself. He will take his first step as the unquestioned leader of the team at 5:30 p.m. Saturday when Columbus takes on Yazoo City at the Tiger Land Classic in Canton.

Griffin said Woodard II has been more vocal and set the tone from the first day he took over the program from Luther Riley.

“If he sees one of his teammates struggling to run the last lap of a two-mile event, he will go in and run the last lap with him, even though he is finished so he can push him,” Griffin said.

Woodard II said he plans to be more of an inside-outside player who looks to score everywhere on the court. Griffin said he plans to put the basketball in Woodard II’s hands more to take advantage of his improved ballhandling and his passing ability.

The expectations are profound. Griffin said he has talked to Woodard II about how he should handle the weight of the bull’s eye on his back this season. Woodard II isn’t worried because he is prepared to show everyone he is different.

“I feel it is a killer mentality inside of me and I have changed my whole mind-set,” Woodard II said.

Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor

Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.