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Double trouble Seattle's Stewart twins unselfish, coveted
Updated: Monday July 16, 2001 4:11 PM
By Albert Lin, CNNSI.com HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Gregg Doyel, watch your back. The Charlotte Observer reporter wrote a story Sunday night in which Seattle twins Lodrick and Rodrick Stewart, the Nos. 2 and 3 rising juniors in the country according to CNNSI.com analyst Brick Oettinger, said they had committed to North Carolina. The story was picked up by the Stewarts' hometown Seattle Times, which led to a lot of confusion and frantic phone calls. "I'm trying to find him [Doyel] right now," Lodrick said Tuesday afternoon at the adidas ABCD Camp. "We didn't commit; we want to go there." "He made it seem like we already committed," Rodrick said. "He took it the wrong way." What is clear, however, is that the Tar Heels still sit at the top of the 16-year-olds' wish list. The Carolina coaching staff has been in contact with the Stewarts' high school and AAU coaches, as well as their father. "They said as long as we keep playing good, they've got scholarships waiting for us," Rodrick said. What has UNC -- and a host of other prominent programs -- so interested? The fortuitously named Stewarts (Lodrick is lefthanded and Rodrick righthanded) are a pair of 6-foot-4 athletes from Rainier Beach High who actually seem more concerned with playing basketball than merely putting on a show (not that they can't do that, too). Rodrick has more of a point-guard mentality, while Lodrick is the better finisher and scorer. Each can handle the ball, put it in the basket, run the court, pass and defend. This is the first time in their lives they haven't played on the same team, and both have been frustrated by the me-first mentality on display. Needless to say, that makes them coaches' dreams. "People who are not rated so good want to show their game, so they shoot every time they get the ball," said Rodrick, the younger by four minutes. "I think they should make a rule that there has to be five passes before you shoot." Echoed Lodrick, who says he's always been the talkative one: "I'm not coming to this camp no more. They could at least have put us together if it was gonna be like this. If he was playing on my team, we could be playing with a bunch of nine-year-olds and we'd still do good." Each Stewart calls the other his best friend and says neither would be as good as he is without the other pushing him. Amazingly, the Stewart family has plenty of experience with twins. Lodrick and Rodrick have twin uncles, twin cousins and -- get this -- twin younger brothers. "It's fun," Lodrick said of being a matched set. "We like playing games, tricks on people. In class, if one of us doesn't want to take a test, the other will take it. We never get caught." Hmm, maybe that explains their 3.5 and 3.6 grade-point averages. The reasons for their athletic success are also easy to see: Father Andrew (Bull) Stewart was an NFL running back for two years before an injury ended his career, and he is now an 11-time world champion power lifter. Plus, Lodrick and Rodrick play AAU ball for a Friends of Hoop club sponsored by, among others, George Karl, Gary Payton and Jamal Crawford (also a Rainier Beach alumnus). Friends of Hoop coach Robert Lowden, who spent time Tuesday chatting with UNC boss Matt Doherty, says that a lot could change between now and whenever the twins commit. Schools like Maryland, Arizona, Duke, St. John's, Southern California and Michigan State are still under consideration. Lowden also thinks Lodrick and Rodrick might grow another two or three inches, which would only make this package deal even more desirable. "Every time we play together, they can't stick us both," Lodrick said. "They can try to shut one of us down, but they can't stop both of us. One night I'll score 30, the next night he'll score 30." Michael Jordan (Rodrick wears No. 23) and Vince Carter (Lodrick wears No. 15) at the same time? Let the drooling in Chapel Hill commence.
Top dogsThe most anticipated matchup thus far came Tuesday afternoon when 6-7 small forward Lenny Cooke (No. 2 in senior class) faced off against 6-6 1/2 small forward LeBron James of Akron (Ohio) St. Vincent-St. Mary (No. 1 in junior class). The two dazzled everyone in attendance for the first quarter-and-a-half. James, playing the point, showed off a Magic Johnson-esque game by bringing the ball up, penetrating and distributing. He plays below the rim but is quite effective. Meanwhile, Cooke, the quintessential athletic slasher, brought the crowd to its feet on one trip by dribbling between his legs four times to shake James and then stepping back and draining a 17-footer. After sitting for a quarter-and-a-half, the two never got into the flow during the fourth quarter. However, in a turnover-filled final minute, James' team made up an eight-point deficit to win 85-83 on his running 25-footer at the buzzer.
Worth notingFrancisco Garcia, a 6-7 small forward from Chesire (Conn.) Academy and Oettinger's No. 66 rising senior, announced that he would attend Louisville. The Cardinals already have a commitment 6-3 combo guard Taquan Dean from Neptune (N.J.) High (No. 62). New coach Rick Pitino, taking advantage of his northeast connections, wasn't exaggerating when he said that Louisville was working on an excellent recruiting class. ... They may not be Cooke and James, but two forwards who continue to show that they do belong among the cream of the crop are 6-9 DeAngelo Collins from Inglewood (Calif.) High (No. 20) and 6-10 Jason Fraser from Amityville (N.Y.) High (No. 16). Both play more physically than their slender builds would suggest, with Collins running the floor and showing more of a wing game and Fraser displaying more post skills. ... The biggest player here is 7-1, 270-pound Zhengdong Tang from Nan Jing, China. It was at the Nike All-America Camp three summers ago that likely 2002 No. 1 NBA draft pick Yao Ming first made a splash, but Tang isn't near that level. He gets up and down the court OK but isn't very mobile otherwise, and in all-star situations guards always dominate. ... Speaking of backcourts, there were two elite point guard battles in Tuesday's afternoon session. Rising sophomore Sebastian Telfair (Brooklyn, N.Y., Lincoln) got the better of Duke commitment Sean Dockery (Chicago Julian), while Raymond Felton (Latta, S.C., High) continued his impressive week by upstaging Florida-bound Anthony Roberson (Saginaw, Mich., High) in a battle of Oettinger's top two points in the senior class. ...
Today's coaches roll call reads like a who's who of the college ranks: Matt Doherty (North Carolina), Gene Keady (Purdue), Gary Williams (Maryland), Dave Odom (South Carolina), Mike Brey (Notre Dame), Perry Watson (Detroit), Skip Prosser (Wake Forest), Lorenzo Romar (St. Louis), Barry Collier (Nebraska), Quin Snyder (Missouri), Dave Bliss (Baylor), Rick Barnes (Texas), Jay Wright (Villanova), Seth Greenberg (South Florida), Jim Harrick (Georgia), Jerry Dunn (Penn State), Mike Montgomery (Stanford), Eddie Sutton (Oklahoma State), Lute Olson (Arizona), Roy Williams (Kansas), Bill Self (Illinois), Paul Hewitt (Georgia Tech), Tubby Smith (Kentucky), Nolan Richardson (Arkansas), Henry Bibby (Southern California), Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), Cliff Ellis (Auburn), Rick Pitino (Louisville), Kelvin Sampson (Oklahoma), Steve Lappas (Villanova).
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