Texas State senior guards and twin sisters Brooke and Bailey Holle have always played on the same team, be it with the Bobcats or in high school at Austin Westlake.
But what would happen if the two faced off against each other?
“We really don’t like to play one-on-one with each other because we’re probably the most competitive with each other,” Brooke said. “So it can get real scrappy, real quick.”
Brooke said the last time the two squared off was this past summer, but couldn’t remember who the victor was. Bailey doesn’t recall the matchup, but did say the two used to go at each other often in high school.
“Maybe freshman year, we used to go to a shooting coach all the time, (Richmond McIver Jr.), and he would make us play one-on-one,” Bailey said. “That was the only time we would do it because we get so mad at each other.”
McIver is a former collegiate basketball player who spent two years at Michigan and UT Austin each and is currently a personal basketball trainer. The Holle sisters would visit him for skill work outside of regular school practices. Toward the end of their sessions, McIver would pit Brooke and Bailey against each other to apply the skills they just learned.
“They were very competitive as you can imagine, twins being very competitive,” McIver said. “For them, it was great because they were able to push themselves. You know, get a little bit out of your comfort zone and just challenge you to really begin to work on things.”
Brooke and Bailey will play in their final regular season game when Texas State (12-15, 5-11 Sun Belt) goes up against Louisiana (16-11, 9-7) on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Daily Record interviewed multiple sources to answer one important question before their collegiate careers end.
If Brooke and Bailey played one-on-one tomorrow, who would win?
Michelle Holle, mother of Brooke and Bailey: “I don’t know. Would depend on whose shot was falling I suppose.”
Richmond McIver Jr., co-founder of Go Get It Basketball: “It depends. I don’t know, man. You’re trying to get me in trouble. If they were to play tomorrow, who would win? Good question. Let me think about that.
“OK, the person who would win is the one who would keep the most level head. And so that could be Brooke or Bailey, whoever has the most level head will win the game.”
Paige Love, Texas State assistant coach: “That would be a tough match up, I can’t pick either but it would be fun to watch because they would compete so hard.”
Nathan Teymer, Texas State assistant coach: “I don’t think the game would end because I think they’d be so competitive. It would end in a draw or one of them walking off mad at each other. So that’s what I’ll go with. I’ll go with super competitive, but they won’t finish the game.”
Jericka Jenkins, Texas State graduate assistant coach: “I feel the same way, honestly. I do feel like they’re so competitive. I mean, especially if there are no refs, they’re just gonna be doing whatever it takes to beat the other and I just feel like that’s just who they are. They’re just going to compete and scratch and claw until one of them comes out on top. And if they go to 10, they’re gonna say, ‘No, let’s go to 12.’ And then they go to 12, ‘No, let’s go to 15.’ And it’s just going to be like back-to-back and back-to-back and ‘win by two,’ and then it just probably wouldn’t ever get to that point. They’ll probably go to like 100.”
Brooke Holle: “You know, she’s probably gonna say, ‘Oh, I don’t, know probably (Brooke).’ And I’m probably gonna say, ‘Oh, I don’t know, probably me.’ So maybe it depends on who’s hot that day.”
Bailey Holle: “Oh gosh. It depends on if there’s a ref or not because if there’s no ref, I probably win because I foul. But if there is a ref, it’s probably Brooke. I guess it depends on who has the hot hand because it’s gonna be too hard with like — driving, that just depends. But like, basically, it’s who can shoot the 3 that day or not.”
Zenarae Antoine, Texas State head coach: “Well, if you watched the light shoot around (Tuesday), I would probably — if you forced me to say, I would say Bailey because Bailey thinks two or three steps ahead. Brooke probably only thinks, ‘Right now, I’m gonna go get a bucket.’ And it’s not a knock, it’s just the mentality if they played one-on-one right now. But I will tell you, Brooke isn’t gonna make it easy on Bailey.”
