Stewart Still Undecided on Return

Lodrick Stewart, USC’s leading scorer at 14.7 points a game, said Tuesday he was “50-50” as to whether he would return next season to play for incoming Coach Tim Floyd.

“We’ll see what happens,” said Stewart, a sophomore guard. “The recruits that come here will make my decision.”

Stewart also said he probably would test his chances in the NBA draft at the conclusion of the season, regardless of the quality of recruits Floyd landed for a team that would return four players at most.

“I just want to win,” Stewart said. “I want to win this season, but at the end of the year I’ll talk to my dad and my closest people to see what’s best for me.”

Stewart, whose twin brother Rodrick was academically ineligible at USC for the fall semester before transferring to Kansas at the semester break, initially quit the team after the Trojans’ loss at La Salle in USC’s third game. He had a change of heart a day later, though, and in the wake of former coach Henry Bibby’s firing Dec. 6, Stewart has blossomed under interim Coach Jim Saia.

“Everybody wants me to step up,” Stewart said. “[The seniors], they’re saying it too, ‘You’re our go-to man.’ I accept the role.”

But with cross-town rival UCLA coming to the Sports Arena on Saturday, Stewart said he was concentrating on maintaining the Trojans’ recent dominance of the Bruins. USC has won five of the last six meetings, including four in a row.

“We need to zone up on them,” Stewart said. “Dijon Thompson can make every shot if he gets within 15 feet.

“We need to press them into the zone, speed up and slow down and mess them up, see what happens.... In a 2-3 zone, we can’t just sit there. We’ve got to move because they’ve got two shooters -- Dijon Thompson and Brian Morrison.”

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Freshman guard Nick Young received his qualifying score on his final attempt last summer. And because it came after the late signing period, several schools made a last-second rush at him, including UCLA.

“Oh yeah, they came at me,” said Young, who played at Reseda Cleveland High. “They were just on me. I sat down and talked with [UCLA] Coach [Ben] Howland. The campus was cool. It was a nice environment.”

But with Young long considering USC his dream school and Trojan assistant Eric Brown maintaining a relationship with him, Young kept his commitment. Plus, Young liked other things USC had to offer.

“I knew Gabe [Pruitt] was coming here [but] at SC, there’s always a lot of gossip and drama,” Young said. “I wanted to come be a part of that. It makes you grow up fast.”