COLLINS MIX

Everything is working out exactly the way Jason and Jarron Collins planned. It’s just happening a few years later than they expected.

In everyday life, they’re studying for degrees from one of the nation’s most prestigious universities. On the court, the towering twins are playing some seriously impressive basketball side-by-side for the nation’s top-ranked team.

This is how it was supposed to be when they left Harvard-Westlake High in Studio City in 1997 for Stanford as the most heralded recruits in the school’s history.

“It’s fun to both be playing well and contributing at the same time,” Jason said. “That’s what you always want. That’s the best way to do it.”

They had been a team throughout their lives, but early on in their college careers, Jarron appeared to be leaving Jason behind. While Jarron quickly became a key contributor for the Cardinal, Jason missed all but eight games of his first two seasons with injuries.

But now, it seems that big brother (by eight minutes) is finally catching up.

As the Cardinal pursues its third straight Pacific 10 Conference title and makes another national championship run, Jason is healthy--and he has become one of college basketball’s best centers while Jarron continues to excel at power forward.

“I told him before the season, I said, ‘This is our year,’ ” Jason said. “This is our chance to do what we want to do.”

Though the good times won’t last as long as they could have, Jason and Jarron are enjoying each moment of what’s likely their final season playing together. Jason’s injuries have left him with two more years of eligibility, while Jarron’s is finished this spring.

“We know this is probably the last time we’ll be on the same team playing together, so that’s kind of a weird feeling,” Jarron said. “We don’t dwell on it. We’re just trying to win everything we can in this last year.”

Jason is an inch taller than 6-foot-11 Jarron, according to the school, but it’s easiest to tell them apart by Jason’s slightly longer hair and the white knee pads he wears. It’s not only their looks that are eerily similar.

Jarron is averaging 13.8 points and 7.3 rebounds to Jason’s 12.9 points and 8.4 rebounds. When one plays well, the other tends to respond--they combined for 41 points and 21 rebounds in Stanford’s win at Arizona earlier this month.

It’s clear that as good as the Collins brothers are separately, they’re even better together: at 27-0 entering Saturday’s game against New Mexico, Stanford has never lost with both twins in its starting lineup.

“Sometimes it doesn’t do any good to tell them apart,” Cal Coach Ben Braun said. “We were always afraid we would have to deal with four years of what they’re doing right now.”

Though Casey Jacobsen is the team’s leading scorer, the Cardinal gives much of the credit for its success to the scoring, rebounding and defensive presence provided by Jason and Jarron.

“We really seem to get more confident when those two come off the bench back into the game, because we know when we get the ball to them, it’s one dribble and a basket,” Ryan Mendez said. “We also know that our rebounding is going to be much stronger, and I personally feel more confident dribbling to the basket when they’re in there.

“The Collins twins play with so much confidence and play so well together, they make all of us more confident.”

Jason missed all but one game of their first season with a knee injury, and most of the next with a dislocated wrist. Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery was worried that Jason’s development would be hindered.

“Those were frustrating times,” Jason said. “I can’t lie and say there weren’t times when I wondered what was going on. But Jarron and my teammates all said I couldn’t give up. That was a little setback compared to other things you have to deal with.”

Jason averaged just eight points a game last season in his first full campaign, but he doesn’t seem to show any negative effects from two seasons on the sidelines. Jason never stopped learning and paying attention while he was injured, Jarron said.

It appears that Jason was studying Jarron. Both have proven to be proficient low-post scorers with remarkably similar moves, and the outside shooting of Jacobsen and Mendez has opened the paint for them.

Montgomery has praised the twins for improved defensive effort, an area that appears to be Jason’s forte. He has blocked 62 shots in his career--six more than Jarron, who had nearly a two-year head start.

“It’s nothing special. I get a lot of opportunities for blocks because of what Jarron does,” Jason said. “He’ll send somebody over to me, and I’ll block the shot, or vice versa, or Curtis [Borchardt, a 7-foot reserve] will block it.”

Jason hasn’t made any plans for next year, but it’s highly unlikely that an NBA team would try to draft both brothers in the way the Vancouver Canucks maneuvered to pick Swedish twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin two years ago.

That’s just fine with the Collins twins, who think they’re ready to stand on their own.

“They’re great together, but they would be great players apart,” Montgomery said.