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Double Trouble on the Court

Basketball's Dana and Ian Smith

Throughout the years, the two have provided each other with a fierce competitor as well as a fierce friend.

"Competing with each other the way we do has made both of us better," Ian says. "Competing day-to-day inadvertantly made us both better."

Yet the competitiveness was controlled. After all, you don't want to beat up on your brother.

"We never got into physical fights," Dana says.

And like most siblings, they are in constant contact, whether it is via telephone or if they just run into each other while biking around campus.

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"I talk to Dana nine or 10 times a day on the phone," Ian says. "I'll call him at crazy hours, or he'll call me. If I'm watching something on TV, I'll call him, and he will be watching it too, and we will be thinking the same thing about what we just saw."

This feel for each other extends to the basketball court, where the two led their high school team to the Western Connecticut Athletic Conference championship.

"I know what he is going to do next, sometimes before he does," Ian says. "If I make a pass, and he's not there, then I know he's added something to his game."

Despite being only minutes apart in age, Dana and Ian both know who is the oldest.

"Since he was born first," Dana says, "he's the oldest brother."

"Better," Ian says.

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