Wisconsin's Davises, Iowa's Murrays and the dynamics of recruiting and coaching twins
Matt Brown
February 01, 2022
Good morning, and thanks for your continued support of Extra Points.
I'm flying to Louisville today for some Extra Points/D1.ticker business meetings, so today's newsletter comes from Andy:
The college basketball bingo card that you receive in the mail before every season is full of tropes you'll hear a gazillion times during every broadcast. Past bingo squares have included "Did you know that Xavier's Matt Stainbrook drives for Uber in his free time?" and "Did you know that Northwestern walk-on Charlie Hall's mother is Julia Louis-Dreyfus?"
This year? Well, we're talking about the fascination with twins.
Two of the breakout stars of the men's basketball season are sophomores in the Big Ten – Iowa's Keegan Murray and Wisconsin's Johnny Davis, a pair of players who each averaged roughly seven points per game last season, before exploding onto the national scene last fall. As of Jan. 31, they rank fifth and eighth nationally in scoring average, respectively, at 22.4 and 21.4 points per game.
Both players aren't just twins, but they are teammates with their respective twin. For casual fans, the twins talking point might actually carry some value because Johnny Davis plays far more than his brother Jordan Davis does for the Badgers, and to a lesser extent, Keegan Murray does the same for the Hawkeyes compared to Kris Murray.
So, I wondered: What is it like for a coaching staff to recruit twins, both personally and positionally, for the same roster?
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