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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Michelle R. Martinelli

Eastern Washington’s Groves brothers briefly stole basketball fans’ hearts before NCAA tournament exit

It happens all the time during March Madness. Fans fall in love with a team, a player, a parent or someone like Sister Jean, and then usually at some point, that team loses in the NCAA tournament and hearts are broken.

Saturday during the men’s tournament, it was all about No. 14 seed Eastern Washington’s Groves brothers, Tanner and Jacob, who dominated in the first-round matchup against No. 3 seed Kansas despite ultimately losing.

Junior forward Tanner Groves led the entire game with a whopping 35 points, five rebounds and three blocks, while sophomore guard Jacob Groves was tied for second-most points in the game with 23, along with nine boards. They were a big reason why Eastern Washington had a 46-38 halftime lead.

The Groves brothers combined for an incredible 58 points in the Eagles’ 93-84 loss to the Jayhawks. According to CBS Sports, that’s the second-most points scored by bothers in an NCAA tournament game since 1953.

If Eastern Washington had pulled off the upset, these guys could have been huge March Madness stars this year.

“It was hard,” Kansas coach Bill Self told CBS Sports after the game. “They out-played us today. Those brothers were terrific, and I guess they combined for 58 [points]. I didn’t even realize they had that many.”

But in addition to the Groves brothers’ dominating performance in the loss, fans loved their big-hair looks, plus older brother Tanner’s lumberjack beard. At one point, even the broadcasters compared the pair with Bill Walton and Napoleon Dynamite, and when you think about it, those are actually kind of accurate comparisons.

Regardless of why fans fell for the Groves brothers, for a brief moment Saturday, they captured the hearts of college hoops fans everywhere.

They’re gritty, talented, tough and gave people a lot of hope they could lead Eastern Washington to an upset against Kansas.

That hope evaporated about midway through the second half, but people were no less amazed by the pair. At least we’ll always have the West Region first-round game and the dream of what could have been for the Groves brothers this year.

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