HOUSTON — Kris Jenkins and Nate Britt, brothers in every way except blood, are giving each other the silent treatment for about 48 hours.
Maybe they will exchange a ‘‘good luck’’ or a fist bump before Jenkins and Villanova (34-5) face Britt and North Carolina (33-6) on Monday night in the NCAA Tournament championship game. Otherwise, ‘‘Nah,’’ Jenkins said, ‘‘no talking.’’
It’s the biggest competition yet between a couple of guys who grew up trying to beat each other in everything. While the Wildcats-Tar Heels matchup might be a no-lose situation for the Britt family, for the players involved there will definitely be only one winner.
‘‘Whoever wins the game, obviously the other one is going to be hurt and going to feel bad,’’ Britt said. ‘‘That'll be permanent bragging rights for the rest of our lives.’’
Jenkins and Britt met as 10-year-olds playing AAU basketball in the Washington, D.C., area. When Jenkins started playing for a team coached by Britt’s father, he began spending lots of time at the Britts’ home — especially when his mother, Felicia, needed to devote almost all of her time to her ailing infant daughter. Kori Jenkins was just 11 months old when she died.
Then, when Felicia Jenkins got a job coaching women’s basketball at Benedict College in Columbia, S.C., she and her son had a decision to make.
Ultimately, they decided it would be best for Kris to stay with the Britts in Maryland permanently. So in 2007 the Britts became Kris’s legal guardians.
‘‘It’s been the greatest decision that’s ever happened in my life,’’ he said this week.
Villanova coach Jay Wright says it was Nate Britt, not Kris Jenkins, who was his target when he took a recruiting visit to the Britt home in 2012.
‘‘We liked Kris, but we thought that he was overweight and that he wouldn’t be able to do the stuff we do,’’ Wright said.
But the 6-foot-6-inch Jenkins, who weighed as much as 280 pounds back in high school, liked what he heard from Wright. He ended up dropping 40 pounds, impressing the coach, and committing to Villanova. Britt, meanwhile, chose to study and play at North Carolina.
When the Tar Heels and Wildcats played each other in the first round of the 2013 NCAA Tournament, Jenkins and Britt watched the game together, rooting for their future schools — and not talking to each other. They trash-texted each other and didn’t even sit on the same couch.
‘‘That was fun,’’ Britt said. North Carolina won, 78-71.
The Britts have spent the past few weeks bouncing around the country, watching the two play. Last weekend, they managed to attend all four Elite Eight games, two in Philadelphia (where North Carolina played) and two in Louisville (were Villanova played). Jenkins even attended North Carolina’s East Regional championship victory against Notre Dame.
Nate Britt, a 6-1 guard who averages 5.5 points off the bench, said he doesn’t know which section his parents and sister will be sitting in Monday night.
‘‘I tried to ask them how they would remain neutral, what they would wear,’’ Britt said. “But but they didn’t tell me.’’
Jenkins, who is second on Villanova in scoring at 13.5 points per game, remains close with his birth parents. He says he has two families. And he roots for North Carolina all the time.
Well, almost.
‘‘I do hope he plays well,’’ Jenkins said. ‘‘I hope he’s injury free and things like that. But there’s nobody in the world I want to beat more than my brother.’’
