Stewart’s Father Says He’ll Stay Put

At one time or another this season, Lodrick Stewart has mulled (a) quitting the USC basketball team (b) transferring (c) throwing his name into the NBA draft hat (d) playing football at USC and (e) running track for the Trojans.

But after a soul-searching weekend back home in Seattle with his father, the sophomore guard has decided to return for his junior season to play for incoming Coach Tim Floyd.

“I told him, ‘With you, Gabe Pruitt and Nick Young, you can’t get a better backcourt than that,’ ” Bull Stewart said in a telephone interview. “We went over the pros and cons of staying, and there’s really no cons of staying. They can put USC back on the map.”

Lodrick Stewart has been deemed off-limits to reporters by the USC interim coaching staff.

Still, Bull Stewart said his son had no intentions of playing football, running track or making himself available for the NBA draft.

“He was a good football player and track [athlete] in high school, but he just said those things out of frustration,” Bull Stewart said. “He hates losing.

“After his junior year, then he’ll see where he stands [with NBA scouts]. I want him to sleep, eat, dream basketball and take care of his schoolwork this summer, get ahead in his classes.”

The elder Stewart, who runs a fitness center in Seattle, said he would oversee his son’s training this summer.

“He’s going to drop about 10 to 15 pounds,” Bull Stewart said. “I guarantee he’ll be the best basketball player to ever walk on that campus.”

In all USC games this year, Stewart leads the Trojans with a 12.7 scoring average, just ahead of Pruitt’s 12.6 mark. But in Pacific 10 Conference games, Stewart is third at 11.6, behind Pruitt (13.6) and Young (13.2).

Stewart has been in a “funk” lately, his father said, citing an inability to deal with being separated from his twin brother, Rodrick, for the first time as well as personal issues at home. Rodrick Stewart transferred to Kansas at the semester break.

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Interim Coach Jim Saia said he was “probably going to start” junior guard Dwayne Shackleford in place of Stewart against Oregon, saying he wanted to relieve pressure on Stewart.

Said Shackleford: “It feels good knowing that it’s sudden death and Coach has the confidence to put me out there.”