Fraternal twins Mike and Marcus Auman complement each other well as people and as players.
By GREG AUMAN
Published January 18, 2004
WESLEY CHAPEL - They have the same short haircut, the same long arms, the same skinny frame, and the same motion at the free-throw line.
Mike and Marcus Auman are twins, having entered this world May 11, 1985, but don't call them identical. As twins, as brothers, as teammates, they're simply fraternal.
"People think they're identical, but I don't see that," said their grandmother, Allene Vasile. "They're very different people. Total opposites."
Watch Wesley Chapel basketball - as Vasile has for all but one game this season - and you can begin to pick up the differences between the two seniors. Mike has sideburns, Marcus none. Mike wears No. 21, Marcus No. 44. Michael, two minutes younger, is 6-foot-5 and plays on the perimeter, while Marcus is 6-6 and plays inside.
Individually, they're among the county's statistical leaders, and together, they're a big reason Wesley Chapel has barely skipped a beat after losing five starters and the coach from last year's state semifinal team.
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Before this season, the Auman brothers hadn't played together since eighth grade, some 45 minutes north in Bushnell. Mike spent the next summer in Wesley Chapel with his grandmother, who had recently been widowed. He made friends, and when the summer ended, he asked if he could stay with Vasile, who was glad to have his company.
For three years, family members trekked back and forth, watching Mike play with the Wildcats junior varsity, which had a 55-game winning streak at one point, and Marcus play at South Sumter.
After last year's final four, Marcus decided to join his brother. They'd have to split the guest room, but these are twins, after all, so they've shared more confining quarters before.
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Karen Folden pauses when asked the biggest differences between her sons.
"Michael has always been a sensitive boy," she says, "and Marcus has always been the daredevil. There's not anything that could ever embarrass him, and from the age of 2, you had to watch him like a hawk."
Ask Marcus for a story that might illustrate the contrast and he smiles and begins to pat Mike on the back. He fondly recalls the time they were maybe 6 and he convinced his brother to hide in a toy chest, then sat on top. "How long was it, a couple of hours?" he asks.
A healthy sibling rivalry has flourished, and even extended to the basketball court last summer when their two AAU teams played.
"I had the better stats," Marcus explains.
"Better stats? I had three threes!" Mike says.
"I had seven blocks!" Marcus counters.
"Well, my team won by 20 points," says Mike, flashing a no-further-questions grin.
The banter isn't limited to basketball. Ask which one is the messy one, who's leaving dirty laundry on the floor, and both point in the other direction.
"We don't argue like most brothers do, but when we do, it's usually about our room," Marcus says.
"It was always clean before he moved in," Mike says.
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As players, Mike and Marcus complement each other well. Mike is the county's most accurate three-point shooter, hitting 47 percent, while Marcus is among the leaders in rebounding and free-throw shooting. They double as each other's personal coach, offering advice during timeouts, trading criticisms after games.
"I can see his game from an outside perspective," Mike says, "so I tell him, "Oh, you should dribble more or skip the pass next time."'
Said Marcus: "After every game, we'll talk about what we did wrong, what we did well, what we can improve on, every game."
The jersey numbers, the slight difference in height, make it easier to tell Mike and Marcus apart, but still, having twins on the team can make for confusion. You can't shout "Auman" at practice without two players turning their heads, and first names don't necessarily solve the problem. Coaches tell a player to go in for Michael, and they run on the court pointing at teammate Micah Scanga. And Marcus lost sole rights to his name when Marcus Stewart recently returned from an ankle injury.
Once you get past that, the twins have made a big impact in their first season as regular contributors for the Wildcats, who are ranked No. 9 in the state and 13-2 after losing to district rival Ridgewood on Friday. First-year coach Doug Greseth said he's never had brothers on the same team , but likes what it has done for this squad.
"Mike had been here last year and played a little on the varsity, but he's been a pleasant surprise for us," he said. "He's averaging around 12 points a game for us, made a lot of threes for us. He's been a pretty versatile player. And I think Marcus' best basketball is still ahead of him. He's really working hard and has played very well for us in the last few weeks."
Mike and Marcus both want to go to college, and Mike already has enough credits that he'll hit campus as a sophomore. They came into the world as a package deal, so they'd like to stick together for a few more years.
For now, they have basketball, where their biggest fan might be Vasile. She got the boys their first basketball goal when they were 10, not knowing then the way the sport would forge a bond between two brothers who have far more than a birthday to share.
"It's really neat to have them here," she said, "They're a lot of fun, a lot of help, a lot of company for me."
Folden and her husband, Al, drive down from Bushnell for every game. The boys make them proud, as they will be this spring when they graduate together, one just ahead of the other, like it was in the beginning.
"It was kind of neat the other night," Folden said. "Both of them were really on a roll, and the man sitting behind us said, "There go the Auman brothers again."
