Kyle Filipowski details growing up with a twin

Duke star sophomore Kyle Filipowski doesn’t have many peers outside of the basketball world who can see eye-to-eye with the seven footer. Except, of course, his twin brother.

Matthew Filipowski, currently on the roster for Harvard’s basketball team, is the perfect foil for his brother. And Filipowski reflected on life with a twin brother on a recent episode of Duke’s in-house podcast, “The Brotherhood.”

“Especially during Covid, too. I hate to bring that up, but he was kind of the only one that I could really play against. And you know, we were very different, too in terms of play style,” Filipowski said.

The Filipowski’s hail from a small town in New York state, so when the Covid-19 pandemic originally hit and the best bet was to limit interactions with others, the twin brothers found themselves facing off frequently.

“So it was cool to just stay a little entertained and keep each other at each others best,” Filipowski said.

Filipowski also explained his jersey number choice at Duke

In basketball, you can be defined by your jersey number just as well as your play on the court, and nowhere in college basketball is that more prevalent than Duke.

The Blue Devils star recognizes that. He’s rocking No. 30, but there’s a fascinating reason as to why.

During an appearance on The Brotherhood Podcast, Filipowski explained that the connection he feels with Duke coach Jon Scheyer is the reason he rocks the number.

“I always wanted to wear a number that had some sort of meaning to me, and I couldn’t — I didn’t really know what that was,” started the young Duke star. “But I mean once I, you know once I committed here, and juts kept connecting with Coach Scheyer, you know what I think, I mean there were already plenty of numbers retired from all the greats that came through, so the options were already limited, so I guess I had to you know, settle with wearing Scheyer’s number.”

He also dished on his personal growth during his freshman season

“The biggest thing I probably took away for myself was just how I grew individually as like as a person and a player,” Filipowski said. “Just kind of stepping into the shoes that have been left for me to fill.”

It’s difficult for a freshman to succeed at a place like Duke. Expectations are massive, having decades of college basketball greats setting the standard before Filipowski got there. On top of that, this was Scheyer’s first season at Duke, adding to the challenges.

“I feel like I did a decent job of that and kind of grew into them pretty well.”