COOL-HAND LUKES RIDNOUR, JACKSON SHARE MORE THAN FIRST NAMES AS OREGON'S LEADERS.

Byline: Chris Cocoles Staff Writer

This was the backdoor play no University of Oregon basketball fan ever saw from Luke Ridnour and Luke Jackson.

Two summers ago, they found ways to slip through supposedly locked doors and broken windows at McArthur Court, the Ducks' home arena, and they convinced teammates to come along for what turned out to be a program-changing few months of late-night pickup games.

Oregon was an Elite Eight team last season. And Jackson and Ridnour continue to work themselves into the ground to get there - or beyond - again this March.

The No. 22 Ducks (15-4, 5-3 Pacific-10 Conference) have the ability to get to the Final Four in New Orleans. They hurt their chances of repeating as Pac-10 champions by losing three of their first four conference games but have recovered nicely: They take a winning streak of five games into their game at noon Sunday at USC.

In Ridnour and Jackson, Oregon boasts arguably the best tandem in the country. Ridnour (19.0 points, 6.7 assists) is an unflappable point guard with savvy court awareness. Jackson (16.9 points, 6.3 rebounds) can drain 3-pointers, squirt through the slightest of cracks in a defense or post up in the paint.

But they remain unsatisfied. Ridnour and Jackson, while counselors at a Nike basketball camp last summer, returned to the court to play pickup games after hours. Nothing new there.

``Everybody got in the gym,'' said senior forward Robert Johnson, who joined the Ducks last season and first tasted Jackson and Ridnour's relentless drive. ``Those guys were the ones who kept saying `Let's go to the gym, let's go shoot around.' We all come along, and we just end up shooting and shooting. These guys are perfect examples to be around. We'll go out late at night, whenever they want to.

``It just seems like we play basketball all the time.''

Ridnour and Jackson are remarkably similar. They have the same first name, bushy blond hair and religious values, and they hail from similar tiny Pacific Northwest towns where basketball is the No. 1 pastime.

Oregon was a disappointing 14-14 their freshmen year, and the Lukes wanted more. Eugene isn't a bustling place to be in the summer; the campus is basically abandoned. And it can be stifling hot.

But the basketball players stayed. And played.

Clever Oregon students can figure out ways to break into Mac Court. Jackson, Ridnour and their buddies plotted theirs.

``We had a way to sneak in. There were a variety of ways,'' Jackson said. ``The janitors would catch on to maybe a cracked window or a door taped shut. If they closed us down one way, we were in another.''

Eventually, the custodial crew accepted that the basketball players were going to find a way onto the court. So one batch of lights was left on, leaving just enough illumination to scrimmage halfcourt.

The summer workouts helped raise the draft stock of then-senior Frederick Jones, who blossomed from a solid college player to an NBA first-rounder. During the season, Oregon played perhaps its best basketball since winning the 1939 national championship. Kansas finally finished off the Ducks in the Midwest Regional final.

Oregon coach Ernie Kent had told the story of the summer workouts too many times in the past year to rehash it again after the Ducks outlasted UCLA 96-91 in overtime Thursday at Pauley Pavilion. But he called Ridnour and Jackson the ``driving force of our program. Their work ethic, their leadership, their strong faith. They are the two guys who have gotten us moving into this level.''

Jackson gave a typical performance at Pauley Pavilion: 27 points on 9-of-14 shooting. The 6-foot-7 swingman showed touch from all over the court, making running jumpers in the lane, reverse layups along the baseline and spotting up behind the arc.

And it was a fluke he was able to play at all. He'd missed one game after suffering a deep cut on the right ring finger of his nonshooting hand against Washington the previous week. Jackson was cleared to play Thursday but left behind the specially made cast protecting his 13 stitches during the morning shootaround at Pauley Pavilion. However, someone miraculously found the device in a trash can near the court.

Jackson then went out and gave Kent another tale to share.

``I've never seen an athlete do what Luke Jackson did,'' he said.

Rob Ridnour saw his son Luke do the unfathomable throughout his career at Blaine (Wash.) High. Ridnour, Luke's coach, had to drag him kicking and screaming away from basketball. An avid fly fisherman, Rob Ridnour often brought Luke to their cabin at Idaho's Priest Lake.

``It was tough sometimes because he needed to be in the gym or doing something like using the jump rope. There's something about him when he gets in the gym. It lights him up,'' said Rob Ridnour, whose Blaine teams went 97-11 with Luke as an eventual McDonald's All-American point guard.

Despite his lofty credentials as a prep senior, many elite college programs weren't rushing toward Blaine, which straddles the Washington-British Columbia border, to scoop him up. Kansas coach Roy Williams backed off from what looked like a talented but skinny guard.

``When I saw him in high school, I didn't think he could be as good as he has become,'' said Williams, whose Jayhawks were torched by Ridnour (25 points, nine assists, seven rebounds) in a Ducks' revenge victory in December.

Jackson grew up in Creswell, Ore. (pop. 3,200), located off Interstate 5 not far from Eugene but effectively an eternity away from big-city life. The number of places to hang out in Creswell were limited.

``We have about three gas stations, three or four restaurants, a (paper) mill,'' he said.

Jackson played pickup games with older youths at a city park as far back as fourth grade.

He considers both himself and his ``Lukes of Hazzard'' partner Ridnour ``gym rats'' but with so much more in common.

``We're both just Christian kids who have a unique perspective on life, I think,'' said Jackson, who considers it a compliment that he and Ridnour often are described as blue collar. ``Just for our work ethic in the offseason and being competitive out on the court. And not really fearing anybody.''

Or locked doors and windows.

OREGON at USC

Sunday, noon

TV: Fox Sports Net

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) LUKE JACKSON

(2) LUKE RIDNOUR