Brothers & Ballers

By: Devin Smith

When a team experiences constant adversity it creates a brotherhood, and for two Trojan basketball players the sentiment is literal.

Enter Tevin and Jarrett Calhoun, two of four brothers from Linden, N.J., and members of the Troy men’s basketball team. They’ll be the first to tell you how instrumental these relationships are.

“It’s insane how good and how in sync we are when we play,” said Tevin. “In the summer time when we would play it’s like, I’ll know what he’s going to do with the ball before he does it and he’ll know when I’m gonna shoot the ball before I do it.”

Jarrett also let me know the two brothers don’t miss an opportunity to push each other, even if that means correcting each other verbally.

“And if he messes up I’m gonna tell him,” said Jarrett.

Tevin laughs and replies, “Yeah he’ll tell me real quick. He’ll tell me and he won’t be kind about it either. But it’s him pushing me with me pushing him thing.”

We spoke more about some of the advantages that playing with someone for such a long period of time presented. They explained the court presence and having the ability to know where each other is positioned on the court at all times, including personal “quick reads” in situations that they’ve been practicing since grade school.

But the closeness shared by Jarrett and Tevin isn’t something that exists only between the two of them, but with the entire team.

“Coach Maestri said we were one of his most closet-knit teams,” said Tevin. “We do everything together. That’s going out, eating in the cafeteria, and it doesn’t matter where we are or which guys it is. We’re a real close team, and I think it definitely helps.”

The mentality of being someone’s brother is something that the entire teams feels they all share, and it helps them play better as a unit.

“Well you want to play well for the guy next to you,” said Tevin. “You know, say you’ve got a guy who will do anything for you, just like you brother. You want to play well for your brother and play well for your teammates, and you want to represent the school well, too.”

Jarrett and Tevin both played together in high school during Tevin’s senior season where they reached the state semifinals, and also for one season at Hill College in Hillsboro, Texas.

Tevin, having committed to Troy in April, knew Jarrett was looking for a situation that would allow him to continue playing basketball and get his degree. Although he was originally considering a junior college, fate had other plans for the Calhoun brothers.

“He (Jarrett) would come up here during the summertime and work out with the team,” said Tevin.”Then when the players noticed that he had some promise to him, they told coach. So coach checked him out and he worked out with us some, and eventually they signed him.”

“At first it was pretty hard,” said Jarrett. “Eventually I got used to the workouts, players and coaches. Then they told me I had a spot here”

Though they are more than happy considering how things turned out, they both admit that playing together was never something that was necessarily a priority.

“It had never really crossed our minds, really. He was the basketball player, I wasn’t really sure of what I wanted to do. Then I hit a growth spurt and started playing more, playing more and eventually, since we grew up together playing basketball, it just sort of happened.” “We played together in high school, at Hill and now Troy,” said Jarrett. “It’s just a blessing.”

Jarrett admitted that it was a rough adjustment from Hill College to Troy, in more ways than just on the court. But having his older brother at his side continues to be an advantage that he doesn’t take for granted.

“The toughest part for me was proving that I could play at this level, you know,” said Jarrett. “And of course the school work.”

“It really is way different,” said Jarrett, still laughing. “But having him (Tevin) with me has helped a lot, and helped me become a lot more comfortable with everything.”

They were also sure to remind me to mention that the Trojans had not yet reached their potential this season. “We’ve had a couple of great practices,” said Tevin. “We’re getting back to the basics with our regular sets, and I feel like we are flowing better. I think once we get to the point where we aren’t thinking so much and getting pushed out of our comfort zone, we can get our offense moving a little bit and help out our defense some. I wouldn’t jump ship too quickly.”