Highly touted twins opt to stay together

Victoria Sun

Wednesday, July 19, 2000 | 10:23 a.m.

Errick and Derrick Craven.

Derrick and Errick Craven.

By their own will, there is little that can separate the identical twins.

Although they don't dress alike, they are mirror images of one another down to their hairstyle which Derrick says they have kept the same since they were toddlers.

Both 6-foot-1 guards are playing on the Pump & Run team in the adidas Big Time Tournament that wraps up today at 6:20 p.m. with the Open Division title game at Green Valley.

Teammate Dennis Latimore has known the brothers for about a year and noticed how close they are.

"Man, they are always together," he said. "They both talk a lot of trash off the court and they like to goof off.

"They even eat together and eat the same foods."

And as UCLA already found out, those who try to separate the 17-year-olds get rejected in a hurry.

While some twins tend to drift apart in search of their own identity, Errick and Derrick never had the urge.

They pulled mischievous tricks like switching classes with each other in grade school and fooling others into believing one was the other.

They played basketball together, learning the sport at Victoria Park in Carson, Calif.

"We were always good friends," Derrick said. "Never got in fights with each other.

"We'd go down to the park and just be the two brothers trying to play against everyone. We wanted to be on the same team."

When it came time to decide which college to attend in the fall of 2001, that didn't change.

The Craven brothers will be seniors this fall at Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance, Calif.

They grew up UCLA fans and envisioned sharing the court at Pauley Pavilion, but ended up giving verbal commitments to crosstown rival USC because UCLA offered only one scholarship while USC dangled two.

"I liked UCLA," Errick said. "But they wanted to split us up, my brother and I, and my mom wasn't having it.

"I think going to USC is a good opportunity for me to play, coming off the bench or starting. Plus it was close to home. We wanted to stay in Southern California.

"That was good that they had two scholarships for my brother and me because we wanted to stay together. We dreamed of it."

Several scouting services have the brothers listed among the top 100 seniors in the country, though the debate rages on as to who is the better player.

Some scouts feel Errick is the more talented and polished of the two, but the twins share many similarities.

When the two are on the court together, Derrick said they both have the uncanny ability to know where the other is at all times. During Pump & Run's first game of the day on Tuesday, Derrick fired a crosscourt pass to Errick without looking and Errick made good with a 3-pointer.

Both handle the ball well and are adept at playing point guard or shooting guard. And both are extremely aggressive on defense, which will be a great asset when they're in college.

Their defensive prowess alone will help them fit in with USC head coach Henry Bibby's hard-nosed style of basketball. Even more appealing is the fact that both have GPAs of 3.5 to 3.7.

"Errick shoots a lot better," Latimore said. "They're both very explosive and they both like to break their man down

"They get up real good and are really quick."

What do Errick and Derrick think?

"I think he's a better ballhandler than me," Errick said. "He can ball.

"We play one-on-one. Sometimes he wins, sometimes I win. I think we have an equal amount of talent, but different strong points."

Says Derrick, "We're about the same. He has a nice little stroke."