LOS ANGELES — Aaron Craft is tough.
Ask any of the opposing point guards the Ohio State star has broken down with his relentless, scrappy style.
Brandon Craft is tougher.
Ask Aaron Craft and he’ll wax on about his older brother, who a year ago was deployed as a U.S. Army soldier to Afghanistan, where he spent nine months.
“I’m really proud that he’s doing something that’s so much bigger than me playing basketball,’’ Aaron said yesterday, on the eve of Ohio State’s NCAA Tournament West Region final game against Wichita State at Staples Center. “He says he’s proud of me and my sister [Cait, a point guard on the Ohio State women’s basketball team], but in all reality he’s doing something that’s much tougher and much harder.’’
A year ago, one of the hardest things Brandon had to do was board a plane to Afghanistan while Aaron and Ohio State were playing Syracuse in the Elite Eight for a chance to get to the Final Four.
“The emotions I was feeling at the time I was being deployed was regret that I wasn’t going to get to experience watching Aaron in the Final Four,’’ Brandon told The Post yesterday by phone from Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Wash., where he is stationed. “That’s how it’s been the entire time Aaron’s been at Ohio State. That’s always been a little difficult to deal with.’’
Not as difficult as what he witnessed during his nine months battling the Taliban in Afghanistan.
He said it is “hard to describe’’ what he saw there, calling it an “eye-opening experience’’ and saying, “You find out exactly what you take for granted living in a country like the United States.
“One of worst things that I encountered when over there was seeing this little kid that we brought back to our outpost because he was on one of the roads leading to the village and had set off an IED that blew off all four of his limbs,’’ Brandon said. “That kind of summarizes the entire situation.’’
Brandon also experienced combat, being attacked by rockets and mortars and navigating around road-side bombs. He survived it, returning to the U.S. in November and actually has been able to see his brother play a few games.
“If anything, my deployment taught me and Aaron and our sister not to take time we have together for granted,’’ Brandon said. “We stay in touch more now. We all kind of grasp that time we have together is one of most important things we have.’’
Aaron, who said Brandon sends him the occasional “make-your-free throws text’’ before games, added, “I go to him for guidance and advice when I need it.’’
Brandon said he experienced the epiphany about joining the Army when he was a college freshman, sitting in a political science class. The professor showed a video of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. He watched the towers falling and people jumping from the windows.
“I looked around class and there were people crying,’’ he recalled. “That’s what reinforced the feeling that I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself.’’
Now that he’s back in the States, he would love to be a part of his younger brother’s postseason glory, to make up for what he missed a year ago when he was getting text-message updates from his mother during a layover in Anchorage, Alaska, before flying overseas.
Ohio State defeated Syracuse during Brandon’s layover. He received no text-message updates on the Final Four once he got to Afghanistan.
If Ohio State defeats Wichita State tonight and advances to the Final Four in Atlanta, Brandon said he plans to put in for a leave from the base to go watch his brother play.
It’s difficult to imagine a more deserved trip.