Stewarts change directions, LA-bound

After announcing in the Seattle Times Sunday morning that they would be staying home and attending the University of Washington, Lodrick and Rodrick Stewart made a suprising about-face and chose the USC Trojans live on Fox Sports Northwest Sunday evening.

The 6-3 twins from Seattle had narrowed down their list to Washington, USC and Washington State, but it was apparent early that the Cougars were a distant third to the Huskies and Trojans.

The Stewarts were accompanied live on the air with their father, Andrew "Bull" Stewart and the head basketball coach at Rainier Beach, Mike Bethea.

The announcement on Fox Sports Northwest caps a lively 24 hours for the Stewarts, who told Sandy Ringer of the Seattle Times last night that they would be staying home and playing in front of friends and family at Washington. This story came out Sunday morning, even though their 'official announcement' on FSNW was still scheduled for Sunday night at 10:30.

USC was a strong challenger for the Stewarts from the beginning, and it was the appointment of new Husky head hoops coach Lorenzo Romar that brought the hometown school back in the picture. They came on strong at the end was apparently it wasn't enough to overcome the lure of Southern California.

The Stewarts will be the second set of twins to play for Trojan head coach Henry Bibby. Errick and Derrick Craven are 6-2 sophomore guards from Carson, California. Errick averaged nearly 12 points a game for the Trojans last year and Derrick played sparingly last year after suffering a stress fracture in his right leg.