The Twin Towers of UW-Milwaukee: Brett and Alex Prahl

When Brett and Alex Prahl walk around UW-Milwaukee’s campus, they are hard to miss. Both stand 6’9” tall, weigh in the range of 250 pounds, and have been a part of the men’s Basketball team at UWM for the last five years. People of this stature will stand out wherever they are, but many people on campus still would not know who they saw walking around campus for one reason.

Brett and Alex are identical twin brothers. According to the Centers for Disease Control, identical twins are born once in every 250 births, or 0.45 percent of the time. Take that and add it to the fact that their heights put them in the 99^th percentile for height in the United States, and you have a combination rarely seen anywhere.

Being a twin on a Division 1 basketball team is a feat in itself. There have been some notable basketball-playing twins in the past according to Bleacher Report: Marcus and Markieff Morris – Kansas, Brook and Robin Lopez – Stanford, Jason and Jarron Collins – Stanford, Dick and Tom Van Arsdale – Indiana, Joey and Stephen Graham – Oklahoma State, Ronell and Donell Taylor – University of Alabama at Birmingham. While there are more names here than you might expect, the Prahls are the only pair to play for Milwaukee in the history of the program.

Brett, the younger of the pair, elaborated on some of the best parts of being a twin. “For basketball, it was nice always having someone to go to the gym with and push you to get better, and we always had someone to play one on one with, which definitely helped us improve our games quicker.” Brett said, “I would say the biggest pro is just that you always have a friend to talk to and hang out with.”

While most people have wondered at some point in time what it would be like to have a twin, Brett and Alex are on the opposite side of the question. ”I don’t think I would choose to not be a twin if I had the option because I like being a twin for the most part,” Alex said. “I think the pros outweigh the cons, but sometimes I just wish I had the chance to try not being a twin for like a week just so I could see which I liked more.”

The twins grew up less than an hour from Milwaukee, which helped influence their college decision. “We chose UWM because it was close to our hometown, East Troy,” Brett said. “It’s only a 50 minute drive, and we liked that the enrollment was the second largest in the state, only behind Madison.” Alex added that UWM has a great business school, which helped with the decision

Brett and Al both graduated from UWM in 2017; each with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance, and have spent the last two semesters working towards a master’s degree in accounting while playing their final seasons as Panthers. While on the path to attaining these degrees, they have always had the same class schedule throughout.

“We got to work on all of our assignments together and help each other out when one person didn’t know something,” said Brett when asked if they gained anything from identical class schedules. “A con would be that we probably didn’t make as many friends in our classes as some of the other kids because we would just sit next to each other in most classes.”

Going to different colleges was an option for the twins, but not for very long. “We planned on going to the same college early on in high school and never really considered different colleges,” Brett said. “We have always been really close and enjoyed playing basketball together so we figured it would be best to go to school together.”

During each of their five years at UWM, they have collected many memories. “My favorite experience at UWM would probably be winning the Horizon League Tournament and going to the NCAA tournament,” Alex said. “That was during my first year here.”

While the twins might look alike, not everything about them is the same, including their favorite memories. “My favorite experience was our Horizon League tournament run last year making it to the championship,” Brett said. “It was a cool experience because we were the lowest seed and we made history as the first ever Horizon League 10 seed to make it to the finals.”

According to mkepanthers.com, Brett ended his Panthers career with averages of 5.4 points and 2.9 rebounds per game, and Alex finished with averages of 0.4 points and 0.5 rebounds per game.

After graduating from graduate school this coming May, they do not plan to immediately pursue the same career. Alex plans to work as an accountant in the area, and Brett wants to play professional basketball overseas.