MORGANTOWN -
Kevin. Kyle. Forward. Point Guard. WVU. Radford.
The Noreen brothers will be facing off for the first time in
different uniforms when the Mountaineers host the Highlanders Saturday and
while they're looking forward to the meeting, it's also a bit strange for two
guys who have only ever called each other teammates.
"It'll be a first for me. I've never seen one of his games,"
WVU's Kevin Noreen says of his brother. "I'll just probably give him a hug and
then we'll go at it."
"He says I better not get any switches or he's going to go
at me in the post and try to score on me," says Radford's Kyle Noreen. "But it
hasn't been too bad. We're usually pretty friendly to each other."
Kevin, the Mountaineer, is the older brother. Born 18 months
before Kyle, the Highlander, and checking in at about five inches taller, he's
been the one to look up to. Bob Huggins will tell you how much he wishes his
Mountaineers would take from Kevin, but that's a lesson his little brother
learned a long time ago.
"He was always a hard worker," Kyle says of Kevin. "He's the
first one in the gym, the last one to leave. That's probably what I learned
from him most – that you have to work hard to get where you want to get in
life."
Before heading off to West Virginia and to Radford, Kevin
and Kyle starred together on the high school court in Minnesota. Running the
show at Minnesota Transitions Charter School, the two brothers pushed each
other and the rest of their team to find unparalleled success in Minneapolis.
Kyle, the point guard, feeding the ball to his big bro in
the post. It worked, and they excelled with each other's help. The Noreen name
grew to represent something special on the courts they shared.
"I'm proud of it," says Kevin. "We both spent six years on
varsity, won a state title, were runners up to the state title – the awards
just kind of went on and on throughout high school and I wish I could've played
with him in college and continued it, but it didn't happen and we just have to
cherish this next game on Saturday."
So far in his third season playing for WVU, Kevin averages
three points and 3.4 rebounds in 14.7 minutes of action per outing, while Kyle
is putting up 4.4 points and 1.3 assists in his 27.1 minutes for Radford.
Little brother pokes fun at big brother for the fact that they're each
classified as sophomores despite the age difference.
Saturday will be the first time they face off in opposing
uniforms, but they've had plenty of one-on-one battles. Of course, their
positions and their sizes are not similar, so each holds an advantage in
certain situations during a game, but in the head-to-head games, there is
typically one brother who comes out on top.
"I'd like to say I would [win], but he's just too big for me
in the post," Kyle admits of Kevin. "I can't cover him."
On Saturday, for 40 minutes or so, they aren't brothers.
They're opponents on the court, each looking to best the other. Ever since WVU
defeated Oakland and Radford fell to Charlotte, the scouting the Noreens have
done involves a player whose name plate is identical to their own.
Their conversations may be a little testy at this point in
the pregame routine, but as it turns out, they have just decided not to have
any conversations until the Mountaineer fires his rifle at the end of
Saturday's contest.
"Communications has been cut the last week," Kevin says with
a smile. "We haven't talked, but that's just us being competitors."
What are the parents doing through all of this, you ask?
Well, both Jerry and Karen are making the trip to see their boys at the
Coliseum and they will be sitting in the Radford section.
That's not to say that they'll be on Kyle's side over
Kevin's, it just turns out that they could get seats closer to the court if
they used tickets from the Highlanders' allotment.
When the game's over, they're back to being the Noreens. In
fact, with their parents in town, it makes for the perfect scene for the family
Christmas.
"I'll stay in Morgantown for Christmas and get to see a lot
of the family, so that'll be good," Kyle says.
But all that holiday stuff will just have to wait. Kevin and
Kyle have a game to play. Let the sibling rivalry begin.
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