Smiling for a picture, senior identical twins Ethan and Drew O’Connor pose with a statue of a parrot mascot. The twins will both attend the University of Arkansas in the fall and major in business. “I didn’t really mind going to different colleges, but we had the same [college] choices,” Ethan said. “We both liked Arkansas, and I don’t mind him coming with me. If we can’t get [a] rooming situation down, we’re just going to do a quad together. Which I’m kind of down for a quad, because there is more room.” Photo courtesy of Drew O’Connor

An opposing defender readies to play zone as the team dribbles toward him, sprinting with the ball. He watches as the right shooting guard takes position and quickly moves to try to block his shot. The ball is passed around him to the other shooting guard and the defender rushes to man him, but stops short. Swearing he had just guarded this shooting guard, he looks back at the right wing, and wildly compares the two players. As the ball swishes into the net, the two guards, with their matching curly brown hair, brown eyes and smiling faces high five and run back down the court together.

Senior twin brothers Ethan and Drew O’Connor played together on the basketball team all four years of high school and have been on the same team since they were six years old. While they will not play college basketball, the O’Connors will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall and will both major in business.

“I’ve been involved in basketball a lot,” Drew said. “Our last season was the most fun I’ve had because we had a lot of returning players. It was just all my friends, and we were winning more.”

As sophomores, the twins moved from the freshman team to the JV team together and both made the varsity team as juniors.

“We’re always connected on the court,” Ethan said. “We play together all the time, so it’s just easy. And it’s fun playing with someone with the same skill sets. [At basketball practice] I try to help them out with stuff, and he tries to help me, but sometimes I take offense to it. I try not to, but it’s just the way it is.”

Ethan and Drew plan on forming an intramural team in college or joining one, and currently play pickup games at the Cedar Park Rec Center and Life Time Fitness, which has a men’s league. 

“[When we] play pickup games, me and Drew are usually the better players in the gym,” Ethan said. “He’s just a good teammate.”

Navigating high school with a twin can be helpful when struggling with classwork or other problems, but there are some downsides.

“There’s some pros and cons [to being a twin],” Ethan said. “Some people think we’re one person. Even our friends say that. But it’s also good to have a built-in best friend. Growing up with Drew, we both shared the same experiences. First times, we’d handle them together. Jobs, tryouts; he’s always there.”

One downside of being a twin is friends and strangers alike comparing the two against each other with anything, according to Drew.

“A lot of people would compare us when we played basketball,” Drew said. “People would say ‘Ethan is better than you,’ or ‘you’re better than Ethan.’ It just gets annoying. Because with everything we do, it’s ‘Oh, who’s better at it?’”

People often have endless questions for the twins, Ethan said, about twin telepathy, pulling a switch and which twin is older (it’s Drew, by 16 minutes).

“People come up with the most random things, really,” Ethan said.

The twins shared a car until their 17th birthday. When they first started sharing their car, Drew said they would fight over who could drive, but once driving got old, neither wanted to be the one behind the wheel.

“[Sharing a car] was not good,” Ethan said. “He was trashing it. I’d say I’m a little bit of a cleaner person, but he just left his trash everywhere. [We both drive] Honda Civics, but mine is a grayish blue and his is silver. We have different models, too. I have the better model.”

The twins hope to take both cars to college, but may have to share one. They are not planning on rooming together, but will spend lots of time together between college classes.

“We both have two separate roommates,” Drew said. “I don’t think we could handle rooming together.”

Attending the same university was not done entirely on purpose, but the twins had many of the same schools on their college lists.

“I didn’t really mind going to different colleges, but we had the same [college] choices,” Ethan said. “We both liked Arkansas, and I don’t mind him coming with me. If we can’t get the rooming situation down, we’re just going to do a quad together. Which I’m kind of down for a quad, because there is more room.”

Having a sibling in school can get messy once in a while, which is when the twins need a break from one another. Drew said each having their own rooms helps with excessive arguing.

“We’re basically just stuck together all day,” Drew said. “We argue a lot. [Being around Ethan] doesn’t really get old, but some days we just argue all day. One minute, we’re arguing. The next? We’re perfectly fine.”

The twins are mostly part of the same friend group, with a few closer friends from different classes. Drew said their friends compare their personalities to each other, and how they act apart versus together.

“If we were to go to an event, we would definitely prefer to be together than alone,” Drew said. “We’re just more comfortable being together. I’m more comfortable with Ethan. I definitely feel more like myself. A lot of people say he’s quieter and I smile more. I’m more upbeat and he’s more mellow.”

Sometimes, they disagree with how others describe them.

“I don’t know why people say that [I’m quieter],” Ethan said. “He’s more, like, hyper and louder around people we know, but I don’t want to say he’s more outgoing. People do say I’m more laid back, though.”

According to the twins, there have not been too many mix-ups between them, but one memorable moment from last year continues to be something to laugh about.

“Last year, at the end of the year, we both went into our math teacher’s room to retake a test, and she was like ‘Wow, I never knew you were twins,’” Drew said. “We both had her the same day.”

Pulling a twin switch was once an idea, but the two never tried to completely switch places.

“I feel like people would notice [if we switched places] because people in our classes can tell the difference between us,” Ethan said. “I was thinking about it, but it would be hard because I’d have to act like him or do stuff he would do in that class. We probably won’t. I asked him to do it a while ago, but he didn’t want to do it.”

For their first year in college, the twins will take general studies as they pursue a degree in business. They said they will miss their friends and playing basketball together the most about high school.

“[I will miss] my friends,” Drew said. “A lot of us are splitting up into different colleges. I’ll miss hanging out with them throughout the day, and basketball, because I’m not going to play serious basketball in college. Basketball is just a huge part of my life. That’s what I will miss the most.”