Their Styles Differ, but the Results Are Similar : Prep basketball: The on-court demeanor of brothers Dwan and Cedric Hurt is miles apart, but each has guided a team to a title game.

When Dwan Hurt was named basketball coach at Serra High three years ago, he immediately asked his older brother Cedric to be his assistant.

It was logical request. After all, Cedric was an accomplished coach himself, having been an assistant for the Loyola Marymount and New Mexico State women’s teams.

But Cedric Hurt turned down his kid brother’s offer because, as they both now agree, their divergent styles might have created problems on the sidelines. In hindsight, Cedric’s polite “no thank you” was a good move, otherwise the Hurts wouldn’t be in the unique position they are now.

Dwan Hurt has Serra (14-15) in the Southern Section Division IV-A boys’ championship game at 7:30 Friday night at Santa Monica College, and Cedric Hurt’s Bishop Montgomery girls (24-6) are in the Division II-A final at 11:15 a.m. Saturday at the UC Irvine Bren Center.

But there’s more. Not only are they brothers, the Hurts are also roommates, and with both teams in their respective finals, it makes for one hectic household.

“We hardly see each other during basketball season,” said Cedric Hurt, who was The Times’ South Bay Girls’ Coach of the Year in 1991 after guiding the Knights to the Division II-AA final. “And if we do at all, it’s in the morning. We don’t really have a social life during the season.”

Said Dwan: “Sometimes we’ll go over videotape together at night.”

Even when they are just standing around talking basketball, it is easy to tell where the Hurts’ styles diverge. Dwan is animated and emotional; Cedric is calm and serious. Differences between the boys’ and girls’ games notwithstanding, they are similar coaches in terms of Xs and Os, but their on-court demeanors are miles apart.

“It’s hard sometimes for people to understand Dwan’s philosophy,” Cedric said. “He demands a lot from his players, and it’s sometimes hard for them to get used to that. Sometimes he’s a lot like Bobby Knight.”

It becomes apparent that the Hurts like to talk about each other’s philosophies more than they like to talk about their own.

“One thing I like about Cedric is his cool and calmness on the floor,” Dwan said. “Last year, I got to watch him in the finals and I was impressed with him and his team. He handles the pressure well. He thinks everything through. He’s always very well-prepared for a game.”

Being seven years younger, Dwan naturally looks to Cedric for advice. That was especially true when Dwan took the reins at Serra, his alma mater, for his first coaching job after a successful playing career at Gonzaga.

“In the beginning, I found it hard to stay calm,” Dwan acknowledged. “It was a big step for me, going from playing to coaching. I found myself getting really caught up in the game, and it was hard to pull back. Cedric would tell me to calm down and concentrate more.”

But Serra struggled, and Dwan needed more than a voice to tell him to calm down; he needed confidence. And Cedric came through with that too.

“I used to go home and say, ‘Well, at least one of us is winning,’ ” said Dwan, able to smile now about the tough times. “But one thing Cedric told me was to have patience. He said, ‘It’ll come around.’ ”

Things did come around, but slowly. This season Serra struggled because several players were academically ineligible, which is reflected in the Cavaliers’ record. But the players became eligible and Serra started winning. Dwan Hurt found it coming together, just as his brother had promised.

Like many basketball success stories, this one begins humbly. The Hurts’ basketball careers started with a ball of aluminum foil and a cut-out paper sack attached to the wall.

“We used to really go at it,” Cedric said. “We considered it big-time basketball.”

Cedric’s playing days ended in high school, but he took to coaching immediately. He was the coach at St. Mary’s Academy in Inglewood before taking the girls’ job at Bishop Montgomery two years ago.

Meanwhile, Dwan was a standout point guard at Serra and earned a scholarship to Gonzaga, where for two seasons he played behind John Stockton, now an NBA All-Star with the Utah Jazz. Dwan assumed the starting role after Stockton graduated.

There is also a sister, Lisa, who played basketball at Arkansas and Pepperdine.

“Our family background consisted of a lot of basketball,” Cedric said.

When Dwan graduated from Gonzaga, he followed Cedric into the coaching profession, and the rest, as they say, is history. But this version of history is much different than what might have happened if Cedric had accepted Dwan’s offer to be his assistant.

“He said he didn’t know if he could do that,” Dwan said.

It sounded for a moment as if it might have been pride, not style, that prevented the Hurts from coaching together. But with a smile and a wink, Dwan Hurt quickly shot down that theory: “I’d be his assistant any day.”