Thybulle cousins, Johns Hopkins basketball’s Sidney and 76ers’ Matisse, thriving with defense-first mentality

Throughout household reunions over Thanksgiving, cousins Matisse and Sidney Thybulle regularly competed towards one another in video games like hide-and-seek and Nerf gun battles.

A type of aggressive moments occurred in video video games the place Matisse Thybulle, who's 4 years older than his cousin, used his data to his benefit. When Sidney inquired how one can pull off a “energy slide” in Mario Kart, Matisse advised his cousin that he needed to hit the buttons in a selected sample to name up a dialog field through which he needed to sort a sure password to amass the particular transfer.

None of it was true, Matisse admitted.

“He would sit there yelling, ‘It’s not working! I can’t get it!’” Matisse Thybulle stated with amusing. “And I might yell, ‘You’re not doing it quick sufficient!’ whereas I used to be simply flying by him.”

Added Sidney Thybulle: “I had no concept how one can do it. I stored asking him and Chloe [Matisse’s younger sister], ‘How do you do that? I preserve shedding.’ However he wouldn’t inform me. He stored giving me the mistaken controls and stuff to mess me up.”

Now years faraway from online game hijinks, the Thybulle cousins have discovered frequent floor within the sport of basketball. Sidney Thybulle is the projected beginning middle for the Johns Hopkins program and the reigning Centennial Convention’s Defensive Participant of the Yr.

Matisse Thybulle is a capturing guard-small ahead who was chosen with the No. 20 general decide of the 2019 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. He was named to the league’s All-Defensive Second Staff in 2021 and 2022.

Basketball has fortified the already-strong household ties between the cousins.

“I keep in mind being youthful and going, ‘Rattling, Matisse is so cool. I need to be like him,’” stated Sidney, a 21-year-old senior. “So he’s undoubtedly been a giant function mannequin in my life and somebody I nonetheless look as much as.”

Added Matisse, 25: “It’s inspiring and gratifying. It makes me proud not due to any affect that I'll or might not have had, however I’m at all times happy with gamers who personal their id as defensive gamers after which do it higher than everyone else, and it means much more to me when it’s my child cousin who's doing it and doing it at a really excessive degree.”

Sidney Thybulle’s father, Errol, is the older brother to Matisse’s father, Greg. The households normally reunited twice a 12 months throughout summer season holidays and Thanksgivings.

Matisse Thybulle described Sidney as a little bit brother and acknowledged there have been occasions when he “tormented” his youthful cousin.

“The age hole was sufficient that I might type of use it to my benefit,” Matisse stated. “It was at all times enjoyable and playful. Whether or not it was or hide-and-seek, we have been at all times competing at one thing, and I used to be leveraging my age and data.”

When Matisse Thybulle started to get critical about basketball throughout his sophomore 12 months of highschool, he might not attend the household reunions and didn't see Sidney and his youthful sister, Grace, at the moment a sophomore ahead on Yale’s basketball staff, till Sidney’s highschool commencement in Irvington, New York, in 2019.

By then, the 6-foot-8, 245-pound Sidney seemed down at his 6-foot-5, 201-pound cousin.

“I noticed Sid as this little, type of chubby, tremendous uncoordinated child,” Matisse stated. “After which I noticed him, and Sid had turn out to be this colossal Greek god who's tall and good-looking and coordinated and powerful. This little child I might manipulate at will was not, and I needed to be humbled by this child who was now larger and stronger and smarter than me.”

Added Sidney: “I suppose I did humble him a bit. Perhaps received him again a bit for these days of Mario Kart.”

Protection has turn out to be the Thybulle cousins’ forte on the ground. Final winter, Sidney ranked second within the Centennial Convention in whole offensive rebounds (82) and general rebounds per recreation (7.3) and fourth in blocks per recreation (1.4).

In 2021, Matisse averaged profession highs in each steals per recreation (1.6) and blocks per recreation (1.1) in simply 20 minutes per recreation. Final season, he bumped his steals common to 1.7 and tied his price of blocks to turn out to be the one participant within the league to achieve these marks.

Blue Jays coach Josh Loeffler stated the Thybulle cousins share a uncommon tenacity on protection.

“I believe that skill to only actually change the sport with the presence of defending may be very comparable,” he stated. “They do it in numerous methods, however they're each gifted defensively. … I believe gamers who're in a position to have that constant defensive effort whether or not they’re scoring so much or not are uncommon, and the 2 of them do it so constantly that I've to consider neither of them sees basketball as, ‘What number of factors can I rating?’ and that’s not frequent.”

Sidney Thybulle stated he and his cousin respect they'll management how they play protection.

“I believe it’s only a worth we've got intrinsically, after which we simply apply it to the court docket,” he stated, including that he's making an attempt to soak up his cousin’s skill of luring opponents into throwing lazy passes to teammates. “Loads of occasions, your shot may not be falling and the sport may not be going your means, however one of many issues you'll be able to management is your protection. I believe we each know that and actually respect that a part of basketball and attempt to make it our personal.”

The following step for Sidney Thybulle, based on Loeffler, is changing into extra constant, particularly on offense. Thybulle averaged 7.9 factors for the season however reached double digits in seven of his final 11 video games final season.

“He’s nonetheless a piece in progress in a great way, and it’s thrilling when you might have an excellent participant nonetheless growing,” Loeffler stated.

The Thybulle cousins are in common contact, and Sidney attended a pair of 76ers playoff video games final season as his cousin’s visitor. A number of of Sidney’s teammates and Loeffler are followers of the 76ers and Matisse, which continues to shock the latter.

“It’s humorous to me as a result of Sidney and me know one another as the youngsters who simply used to mess with one another and play disguise and search and simply be children collectively,” Matisse stated. “Now he’s grown up, and he’s in an atmosphere the place his friends look as much as me, and I believe that’s type of enjoyable for us as a household. We’re all like, ‘Are you able to consider that these guys assume I’m cool?’ We will joke about that type of stuff.”

Sidney Thybulle stated his cousin is the satisfaction of the Thybulle household.

“The celebrity or consideration has by no means modified him,” he stated. “He’s unapologetically himself ever since he received to the NBA, and I do know that’s not the case for lots of people. Simply watching him deal with himself with composure, it’s actually so inspirational and speaks volumes for the individual he's and the individual he’s about to turn out to be.”

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