There was a time that Mckay Johnson assigned a nice, round number on the likelihood his older brother would make it as a college basketball player.

“I’m going to be honest — there was zero percent chance,” Johnson said of Hawaii’s senior center and co-captain, Gibson Johnson. “I thought there was no chance.”

Mckay knew as well as anyone. In their hometown of Centerville, Utah, he’d tagged along with Gibson and his friends, older by four years, since he was small. He took his basketball beatings until he could hold his own, and then some. At some point grudging respect became best friendship.

He watched as Gibson had a relatively quiet hoops career at Viewmont High. He was tall, but lean and not imposing in the least. (“A 6-6 little boy,” said Mckay.) A golf career seemed much more likely; Gibson was All-State as a senior. Making matters more remote, Gibson put college on hold for a two-year church mission to Brazil.

In a sharp plot twist, he came back 2 inches taller, had filled out, and was balling out against current and former pros in pick-up games in and around Salt Lake City. He was offered a walk-on spot at Salt Lake Community College, excelled, and helped guide SLCC (colloquially called “Slick”) to a junior college national championship in 2016.

Mckay Johnson, a 6-5 guard/forward who’d had the much more decorated high school career, was a freshman on that SLCC team. Improbably, the brothers — two of five children in an athletic family that includes two Ole Miss soccer players, Ella and Grace — got to play together.

“Growing up it was never even a thought in our mind,” Mckay said.

Nor was playing against each other. As fate has it, bragging rights are on the line at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Stan Sheriff Center, as Johnson and Johnson meet up as college opponents. UH (6-2) faces Utah Valley (7-4) of the WAC.

UH’s Johnson also faces another former SLCC teammate in Conner Toolson and the assistant coach who got him on the college hoops hardwood, Chris Burgess, now a UVU assistant.

“(Mckay’s) asked me probably four times already, ‘do you think you’re going to beat us?’ ” Gibson Johnson said with a grin. “He keeps saying it over and over, like rubbing it in my face that he doesn’t think we’re going to beat him. But, the nice thing is I’ll be on the floor being able to change that.”

It’s a continuation of a brotherly theme for the Rainbow Warriors, who boast their first pair on the same roster — Mike and Brandon Thomas — in the program’s collegiate era.

Sunday’s rare occurrence — brother against brother — actually happened two seasons ago, when UH’s Quincy Smith went up against his younger brother Kendall, then of Cal State Northridge.

“When people asked me that earlier about Quincy and Kendall, I mean, I thought I wouldn’t be asked that question for a while,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “It’s a unique situation, a special situation, but once you play the game, I think Quincy and Kendall removed all that and they were going after each other. … I imagine the same for these guys.”

It’s a little different this time, in that the roles are in stark contrast.

UH’s Johnson is a unique combination of undersized (6-8) and elderly. He’s the second-oldest D-I player in the NCAA this season at nearly 26. “Old Man Swag” has started every game of his UH career.

The Rainbow Warriors’ second-leading scorer (10.1) and rebounder (5.9) is shooting well below his custom (42.9 percent) after converting 51.4 percent as a junior. But his role is as important as ever, as he helps direct traffic and distribute the ball from the post while keeping a typically larger player sealed on his hip.

“He has a great role. He’s a really smart basketball player,” Mckay said. “It’s really fun to watch him.”

Mckay had to redshirt his sophomore season at SLCC because of a broken ankle. He went on to UVU but has appeared sparingly for the Wolverines, with a season-high 11 minutes and all seven of his points to date in a 106-44 rout of non-Division I opponent Bethesda on Thursday.

Gibson thinks Mckay simply needs time to rewrite his hoops destiny, as he did.

He will have his hands full against UVU’s 7-foot, 243-pound center, Akolda Manyang, who is enjoying a breakout senior year (15.3 ppg, 9.5 rpg, 2.9 bpg) after transferring from Oklahoma.

“He’s a really good player. It’s going to be tough,” Gibson Johnson said. “But, if Mckay gets in the game, I hope he drives the lane and I block him. That’s what I can hope for.”

BIG WEST

San Francisco 74, UC Davis 61

SAN FRANCISCO >> Frankie Ferrari came off the bench to score a career-high 19 points and added five assists and Chase Foster knocked down four of five from 3-point range and scored 17 to power the Dons (6-3) to a win over the Aggies (7-3) on Friday night.