Lodrick Stewart tried to remain strong and hold back the tears the day his identical twin brother, Rodrick, packed his belongings and left the University of Southern California for Kansas.

He failed.

Miserably.

“I broke down in practice. For 20 years, we had never been separated,” said Lodrick Stewart, Rodrick’s teammate in grade-school basketball, high school, AAU and college.

“The hardest thing I’ve ever experienced was walking to class by myself. We were always in class together. I felt it was weird and sad. That’s my role model, my brother, my best friend, my clone – gone.”

Unhappy at USC playing for Henry Bibby and being academically ineligible at the start of his sophomore year, Rodrick Stewart was granted a release from his scholarship agreement on Nov. 9, 2004.

On Thanksgiving Eve, he announced plans to enroll at KU, where he now is a junior guard ready to take the floor against his brother – USC’s best player – for the first time in an organized basketball setting.

Tipoff for a nonconference clash between Lodrick’s Trojans (5-1) and Rodrick’s Jayhawks (6-2) is 8 tonight, with a live telecast on ESPN2 (cable channel 34) and replay at 10:30 p.m. on Sunflower Broadband Channel Six.

“I think it goes both ways,” KU’s Rodrick Stewart said of missing Lodrick, who is the older brother by four minutes. “Think about it. He’s your twin brother, your big brother. You have been with him your whole life, never apart for more than a day.

“It was hard coming down here being looked at as an individual rather than a twin. You never fully get used to it.”

The once-inseparable Stewart twins – “Anything he likes, I like. Our favorite color is red, favorite food is fried chicken,” Rodrick said – have not really gotten used to being apart despite the fact it has been two years since Rodrick bolted California for the Midwest.

“We talk four times a day, five times a day sometimes,” Rodrick said of the two, who were born and raised in Mississippi, then moved to Seattle, where they won two state titles at Rainier Beach High.

“We can talk about some of the littlest things, like, what class are you going to? Every day he runs a mile. He wants me to call him and remind him to run. With him, he reminds me to go out and shoot, not be late, keep my mind on what I have to do. It really doesn’t matter what we talk about. As long as we are talking, it feels like we are in the same place.”

Lodrick Stewart

Lodrick cherishes each phone call: “We talk so much from the day he left until now … we talk so much it’s ridiculous,” Lodrick said, noting it’s “cool” to have an identical twin brother. “When we see a pair of shoes, I don’t have to ask him if he likes them. I know if he likes them or not.

“We talk, and we feel we’re not apart. We talk until we get tired of talking, then we still talk.”

Bull Stewart, the twins’ dad who is a personal trainer and former U.S. powerlifting champ in Seattle, is amazed at how close his sons truly are.

“We’re on the same cellphone system. Those guys text 4,500 per month. They text each other 15, 20 times a day, every chance they get,” Bull Stewart said. “It’s ‘I love you a lot Rodrick.’ ‘Love you back.’ They are mirror images of each other. Lodrick is left-handed; Rodrick right-handed, true mirror images.

“Their separation has been tough, but they work on it and have gotten through it. Now they get to meet on the court playing for two great schools. They’ll cherish it forever,” Bull Stewart added.

Both admitted it will be strange trying to ruin the best friend’s night tonight.

Sure they have played one-on-one in the past – “It’s serious every time; I win one, he wins one,” Rodrick said – but mostly they’ve been teammates working on a common goal.

They earned three state championships in middle school, a 106-10 record and two state crowns in high school with Rodrick at the point and Lodrick shooting guard. The two were so dazzling they received 40 scholarship offers from teams desiring both players.

“It’ll be a different experience, kind of fun,” said Lodrick, who averages 14.7 points off 42.3 percent shooting and 4.3 rebounds per game. The fifth-leading three-point shooter in USC history is 51 treys from becoming the school’s all-time three-point marksman.

“I don’t look at him as an enemy. I look at it as it would be great to get a win against one of the best teams in the country.

“I can’t wait,” said Rodrick, who has scored 11 points in 54 minutes this season, while logging 7.7 minutes a game in seven contests.

“I want to be able to say, ‘I went at you. I did my best.’ It will be competitive.”

Especially if coach Bill Self lets Rodrick guard his brother.

“I don’t know if I will or not. If he scores on him, he’ll get only one chance,” Self cracked.

Rodrick doesn’t think he’ll be lit up by Lodrick, who hit six of nine threes and scored 21 points with five rebounds in Saturday’s 67-50 home win over Loyola Marymouth.

Rodrick Stewart

“He hates when I stick him. Just as much as he hates when I stick him, I hate when he sticks me too,” Rodrick said. “Whoever is the smarter player is going to win that day. We’re the same strength, pretty much have the same moves, and it’s just going to be whoever’s the smarter player on the court will get the best of the other one.”

Of course, there could be trash talking.

“Lodrick was saying ‘Don’t try to come down here and try to dunk on me. You know I’m not having it. You already know I’m not having it,”’ Rodrick said. “He said ‘I’ll get one flagrant foul,’ because he said he was going to try his best not to let me get a shot off, and I’m for sure going to do the same thing with him.”

It’ll be competitive, but no blood will be drawn.

“If we had to guard each other the whole game we’d foul out. He knows my moves, and I know his moves,” Lodrick said. “We’ll both play hard. We’ve always been taught to sacrifice for the team. The important thing is to do what it takes to win.”

Lodrick admitted he wished his brother would have stayed at USC. Remember, Bibby was canned after Rodrick arrived at KU, former Iowa State and Chicago Bulls coach Tim Floyd taking over the Trojan program.

“I will not lie. Sometimes I think if he (Rodrick) was still here it’d be something special,” Lodrick said of Rod, who started 17 games his freshman season at USC and averaged 4.4 points per contest.

“Everything worked out for the best. Hopefully we’ll play together at the next level. So much crazy stuff has happened in life I wouldn’t count that out.”

“I never thought about wishing I was still there,” Rodrick said. “I moved on. I love KU. I never regretted coming here one day.”

Meanwhile, their biggest fan, dad Bull, loves both schools.

He plans on being impartial tonight, maybe even wearing colors of KU and USC.

“I am hoping to find a way to sit on both sides for a half,” said Bull Stewart, who has tickets for 15 friends and family members.

“The outcome doesn’t matter. Any father would dream of seeing identical kids on center stage, playing for two great universities. They’re going to have fun and remember this moment the rest of their lives.”

Amazingly, Bull may go through this again down the road.

There’s another set of identical twins in the family, both projected to be college players. Lodrick and Rodrick have 5-foot-11 brothers Hikeem and Kadeem, 13, who next year start their careers at Rainier Beach High.

“They can play. Their skill level is good,” Bull said of the duo, who won’t be here tonight because of a school conflict.

“They remind us so much of ourselves it’s crazy,” Rodrick said. “They’re the same as us. Best friends, too.”

But, “they may not be as close as Rodrick and Lodrick,” Bull intoned.

Not many brothers are.