Friday, February 04, 2000
Brotherly battle for Esterkamps
The Associated Press
Dave and Steve Esterkamp grew up playing basketball on a concrete court their dad poured. Now they have taken their backyard battle to college.
Dave, 21, a senior at Bowling Green, and Steve, 19, a freshman at Ohio University, will face each other for the first and only time in the regular season Saturday at BG's Anderson Arena.
The last time the two were on the floor together in a game that meant so much was while in high school in 1996, when LaSalle won the Division I state title. Dave, a senior, scored 17 points; Steve was a freshman.
Both will be in the starting lineup Saturday.
“It's going to be an unbelievable and uneasy feeling. I'm playing against my best friend,” Dave said.
“Seeing him over there warming up in an orange-and-
white uniform when I'm in a green-and-white uniform is going to be weird,” Steve said. “I don't know what I'll be thinking.”
The game also will be emotionally taxing for the family.
The players' father, Dave, will be wearing a hat with Bowling Green's colors on one side and Ohio's on the other. Their mother, Terri, has a T-shirt with BG's Falcon emblem on one sleeve and an OU Bobcat on the other. Printed on the back is: “This Mom Cannot Lose.”
Ohio coach Larry Hunter said he won't let Steve try to one-up his brother.
“If I see Steve getting in an individual battle with Dave, then I'll just have to remind him of what the bigger picture is,” Hunter said. “I'll switch matchups so they're not guarding each other.”
That's fine with their parents, although their father is imagining what would happen if the next showdown comes in the Mid-American Conference final, with an automatic to the NCAA Tournament berth at stake.
“Then I'd be sure I'd be going to at least one game in the NCAA,” he said.
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