STRONG REBOUND

Leaving Los Angeles would have been the quick and easy solution for Lodrick Stewart last season when so many things went so terribly wrong.

His twin brother had transferred to Kansas. The USC Trojans were staggering toward a last-place finish in the Pacific 10 Conference. His girlfriend, pregnant with an unplanned child, was alone in Seattle.

“I was left by myself like on an island, and I didn’t know what to do,” Stewart said. “I almost felt like I wanted to quit.”

The temptation to leave was so strong that Stewart signed papers releasing him from his scholarship and mulled his future elsewhere.

Strangely, given the circumstances, something was holding him back, tethering him to a place that had offered little besides heartache.

“I was like, ‘Nah, I’m not going to run from this situation,’ ” Stewart said. “ ‘I’m going to stay here and just see what happens. I don’t want people in the Trojan family to think that I’m a quitter.’ ”

Anyone who has witnessed Stewart lead USC to a better-than-expected 10-3 start, including a victory over nationally ranked North Carolina, knows better. The junior shooting guard has experienced a striking transformation on and off the court, spurred largely by a new coach and a newborn son.

“He’s the happiest kid I’ve ever seen,” said Bull Stewart, Lodrick’s father. “He keeps saying, ‘Dad, I’m ready, I’m not going to disappoint anyone.’ He has the same personality he had coming out of high school, and a lot of that has to do with the coach.”

Tim Floyd had heard stories about loquacious Lodrick, the kid whose motormouth prompted the previous coaching staff to occasionally bar him from speaking with the media. Floyd put all preconceived notions aside during an April meeting in which he told Stewart, the only Trojan with two seasons of Division I experience, how he expected him to conduct himself on campus, in the classroom and on the court.

“He had to understand that, and if he wasn’t happy with my expectations for how he was carrying himself, it would be a great opportunity for him to look elsewhere,” Floyd said. “He’s embraced that. He’s been dependable, he’s been accountable, he’s been respectful not only to his teammates but to coaching.”

Twenty pounds leaner thanks to a daily jump-rope regimen, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Stewart has diversified his game to become much more than a three-point specialist. He has added a pump fake and a jab step that allow him to take opponents off the dribble, and he has become a much more active defender.

“Now I’m blocking shots, going up high to get rebounds,” said Stewart, who is averaging 13.5 points and 4.4 rebounds, career highs. “It’s changed my game.”

Stewart’s most impressive statistic might be his grade-point average, which surged above 3.0 last semester for the first time.

Going to class was one of the last things on Stewart’s mind at this time a year ago.

Rodrick Stewart, who had accompanied Lodrick to USC as a highly acclaimed guard from Seattle Rainier Beach High, quit the team shortly before the season, at a time when he already had been declared academically ineligible and would have had to sit out at least the first six games. Rodrick departed for Kansas at the semester break, leaving Lodrick in a daze.

“Twenty years and we walked every step together. Then just one day he leaves and I had to go on by myself and I had nobody to talk to,” Lodrick said. “That was just weird.”

Stewart walked around campus with his head down and sat on the steps of Heritage Hall, “just sad.”

“Everybody knew what it was, but they couldn’t help me because they didn’t know how hard it was,” he said.

Basketball, which for so long had had a soothing influence, suddenly became another source of distress.

Coach Henry Bibby benched Stewart early in the second half of a loss to La Salle in November 2004, prompting an angry Stewart to consider quitting. Stewart stayed, in part, he said, because of his relationship with Athletic Director Mike Garrett.

“He’s like a father figure to me. I love Mike Garrett,” Stewart said. “He always brings me into his office and talks to me, not even about basketball, just about me, like, ‘How’s your family doing?’ and stuff like that.

“From me having a close relationship with Mike Garrett, that really kept me from leaving because I didn’t want to let him down like that. He kept telling me, ‘Trust me. Everything will be all right.’ ”

Bibby was fired in December 2004, but Stewart’s funk lingered under interim coach Jim Saia.

“You could tell on the court as the games went on, it got worse and worse,” Stewart said. “My intensity level in the games wasn’t as high. I would make a shot or do a dunk or something and I wouldn’t celebrate. It was weird. I felt like I was by myself.”

As the losses began to mount, Stewart said he considered running track or joining the football team as a receiver. “I just wanted to win,” he said.

Soon Stewart would be buoyed by several winning influences. Floyd took over the program in April, and Stewart’s girlfriend, Sherrill Simmons, and son Jaylin moved to Southern California in August.

“I’m glad I got a kid because it makes me look at stuff differently now,” Stewart said. “When I come home and I see [Simmons] and my son, I don’t want to fail. Everything I do, I’m just going at it hard.”

Said Simmons: “I feel he got a lot more mature than when we first started dating each other.”

Stewart’s teammates say they also have noticed a dramatic change in a player who once sulked when things went wrong.

“Last year when we were down he was always frustrated,” sophomore swingman Nick Young said. “This year, he’s looking to build us up. He brings enthusiasm out there on the court and keeps us going.”

Said sophomore guard Gabe Pruitt: “His head is more in it. Things are not getting to him. He wants to win, and he’s doing everything he can to help us out. He’s letting the younger guys know what they need to do and speaking up more.”

Stewart’s spirits were lifted even higher recently when Rodrick became eligible to play for Kansas. He has scored four points in two games for the Jayhawks (7-4).

“That’s what I’ve been waiting for, for him to step on the court,” Lodrick said. “That was stressing me out, wondering how he was going to get through that sitting out a year. But he did it. He just kept working hard every day. I don’t think I could have done it.”

Not everything has gone perfectly for Lodrick recently. His Hummer H2, a gift from his father, was stolen (it has since been recovered). He slept only two hours before USC played Stanford last weekend, so distressed was he about a loss to California that ended a nine-game winning streak.

“I was thinking about that we could be 10-0 the last 10 games,” Stewart said after the Trojans rebounded with a victory over Stanford. “But now we’re back on track and we’ve got a win under our belt. Hopefully, we can go get two on the road.”

Stewart will leave Los Angeles today as the Trojans embark on a trip to play the Arizona schools. For once, he can’t wait to get back.