That will be impossible tonight.
Tyler, a 6-foot-9 junior center at North Carolina, has a 7:10 p.m. tip-off against Mount Saint Mary's at the RBC Center in Raleigh. Ben, a 6-foot-3 sophomore guard at Mississippi State, opens NCAA Tournament action at 7:25 p.m. against Oregon in Little Rock, Ark.
"I always try to watch him closely, but we're kind of on the same schedule now," Tyler said on Thursday afternoon. "I'm not sure if I'll be able to catch him at all.
"The one thing I know is that he's such a competitor. I've played with him so long that I feel like I know what he's thinking in certain situations."
While Tyler already has been named national player of the year by Sports Illustrated, Ben is a solid performer but with much less of a national profile.
Ben starts and averages 10.4 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game for MSU.
How are the parents juggling the games? Dad Gene is in Raleigh, while mom Tami will watch from Little Rock.
"My mom has family in Little Rock, so she's staying with her brother there," Tyler said.
GOODE GUY: He's a sophomore from Charlotte and one of the best players at the RBC Center this weekend.
Davidson's Stephen Curry?
Nope. Jeremy Goode, a 5-foot-9 guard from Providence Day School, leads Mount St. Mary's into tonight's NCAA Tournament opener against North Carolina. Goode leads The Mount in both scoring (14.5 ppg) and assists (5.53), and poured in 21 points during Tuesday's 6960 win over Coppin State in the play-in game.
Goode scored more than 2,000 points in high school and was a first-team all-state performer by the Associated Press. But his lack of height was a factor in not being recruited by major colleges, including ACC schools. "I grew up a Carolina fan," said Goode. "I guess it means a lot to play against them because you watched them growing up and then you step on the court with them. I envisioned myself playing for them as a kid. To play against them now, it means a lot."
COMMON CONNECTION: Davidson's Curry and Gonzaga's Matt Bouldin play basketball on opposite sides of the country, but they have one big connection.
Both played for the U.S. team that finished second in the Under-19 World Championships last summer in Serbia. On a talented squad that also includedKansas State's Michael Beasley and UNC's Deon Thompson, Curry averaged 9.4 points in just 18 minutes per game, while the 6-foot-5 Bouldin averaged four points in 13 minutes while often playing out of position inside.
The U.S. team finished 8-1, losing only 74-69 to host Serbia for the gold medal.
"(Bouldin) was actually my roommate, and I think we had the closest bond out of anybody else on the team," Curry said.
Added Bouldin: "It was nice, because we are both from smaller schools on the rise."
Do the two still keep in touch?
Yes, but not with phone calls.
"Texting and Facebook," Bouldin said.
TALL ORDER: Aside from North Carolina, the biggest favorite among the eight teams at the RBC Center today is second-seeded Georgetown, which plays No. 15 seed Maryland-Baltimore County at about 3 p.m.
The Hoyas are such a huge favorite against a fellow D.C.-area team that UMBC coach Randy Monroe joked about trying to defended Roy Hibbert, Georgetown's 7-foot-2, 275-pound center.
"I plan on having all the five players cover Hibbert and my managers will come off the bench and bite him in the kneecaps," Monroe said.
To see more of the High Point Enterprise, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.hpe.com. Copyright (c) 2008, High Point Enterprise, N.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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