Brother Battle

A sibling rivalry will continue in the midst of one of the most anticipated games in all of college basketball this season.\nThe Crawford brothers – IU’s Jordan and Kentucky’s Joe – will face off Saturday for the first and likely only time in their careers as the No. 15 Hoosiers host the rival Kentucky Wildcats at Assembly Hall.\nThe pair of brothers from Detroit are at opposite points in their college careers. Jordan is just starting his freshman campaign with the Hoosiers, while Joe is one of the senior leaders for the Wildcats.\nThe two brothers are close friends and speak almost every day on the telephone about college basketball and life, Jordan said. \nThe IU freshman characterized the relationship “like any other brotherhood.” Surprisingly, when Joe entered middle school, the two began to drift on the hardwood, rarely playing basketball with one another. When the brothers did play together, Jordan Crawford said they would get on each for little mistakes like most brothers do.\nAnd of course, there was the typical brotherly roughhousing.\n“Oh yeah, he beat me up a lot,” Jordan Crawford said.\nDespite their close off-court relationship, there will be no love lost once the Crawford brothers step onto Branch McCracken Court.\n“Oh, there is going to be a little trash talking,” Crawford said. “But I am trying to focus on the win. I am not trying to make this an individual battle, because it is way more than that.” \nThat may be understating the situation. The Hoosiers (7-1) will take on long-time rival Kentucky (4-2) for the 51st time in the two schools’ histories. A typical Hoosier bar argument would debate whether Kentucky or Purdue is the bigger rival, but at this point in the season no game looms more important than the one on Saturday.\n“None of the other games matter to these fans except Kentucky and Purdue,” Jordan said. The freshman, who is coming off a three-game suspension for violating an undisclosed team rule, said IU coach Kelvin Sampson is stressing the importance of the game.\n“He wants us to come out and win.” \nThe sibling rivalry will be one of the side stories in the annual border war between IU and Kentucky. The IU players, though, have jokingly played the game up to tease Jordan as he prepares to go against his older brother.\n“We joke with him about it in the locker room, calling it the Crawford Bowl,” senior D.J. White said. “I think he is very excited about playing his brother.”\nWhile the players are having a good time teasing Jordan, Sampson said he hasn’t given any extra thought to the Crawford duel, but did say Joe would be a challenge for the Hoosiers on Saturday.\nJoe is averaging a team-high 18.3 ppg for the Wildcats.\n“This is a kid that is going to have a chance to play basketball for a long time,” Sampson said of the older Crawford. “Joe will present problems for every team that has to face him.”\nThe two brothers have continued to talk this week leading up to the game, but Jordan said they would cut off communication as the tip-off approaches.\nJordan said he has improved since his brother last saw him play. Their play on the court will answer the question of which brother is better – one Jordan will readily answer.\n“I am by far,” he said when asked which brother was better. \nAnd what would Joe say about that?\n“Yeah, that’s what he would say,” Jordan responded laughing.