Lukes beat Cardinal - and maybe the stereotypes.

Byline: Ron Bellamy / The Register-Guard

SO HOW DO you prove that you're tough, in the sport of basketball?

Is it tough enough to erupt from the agony of a first half shackled to the bench with foul trouble, your abject misery obvious to all, your desperate pleas to get back in the game ignored by your coach, to play the second half with so much fire that you threaten to ignite McArthur Court by your very energy?

How do you prove that you're tough?

Is it tough enough to play with a finger so tender, from a deep cut that took 13 stitches, that you're still trying to catch the basketball with one hand, and you're still holding your right hand against your chest to protect it during the post-game handshakes, and yet you scored 27 a week ago on UCLA in the personification of courage on the court?

How do you prove it?

Was it tough enough, Thursday evening, that Luke Ridnour scored 23 points in the second half, took over the game after riding the bench with two fouls for an excruciating 18 minutes and three seconds in the first half, and that Luke Jackson, his right ring finger still aching from that gash, had 14 points and six boards, and that Oregon won a Pac-10 Conference men's basketball game that it dearly needed to win, 79-64 over Stanford, before 9,087 in Mac Court?

"I just play," Ridnour mused afterward. "I ain't worried about what people think, really. I'm just playing and having fun, and if people don't think I'm tough enough, we'll see when they play against me.

"Luke Jackson is real tough. He's playing with one hand, pretty much. He's a warrior and doesn't want to lose. Toughness can be looked at in different ways, but when it comes down to it we don't want to lose and we're going to do what it takes to win."

Toughness. It seems that Ridnour and Jackson will have to continually prove their toughness, in the years to come, to play at the next level, not because of anything you see on the court, but because of their beliefs. Both are Christians, and they're proud of their faith, and while they don't bring it up in every quote, they don't hide it, either.

Wrote Curry Kirkpatrick, in a feature on the Lukes in ESPN Magazine: "Rid himself is near the top of most point guard lists, even as pro scouts wonder about the ramifications for someone so firmly enlisted in God's squad," the implication being that religious athletes make some NBA types nervous. It was a major focus of the article, in part because both Ridnour and Jackson emphasized their faith, and perhaps in part because in examining the too good to be true aspects of the Lukes, the best angle seemed to be the too good part.

"I'm pretty open about it," Ridnour said. "The Lord has blessed us to be in this situation. The reason we're playing is for Him. The glory goes to Him. ... I mentioned it when we talked. That is a huge part of my life - that is my life - serving the Lord."

Ridnour and Jackson said they haven't read the article; it seemed news to them that being a Christian could be held against them, but the fact is that Kirkpatrick's angle had validity because that thinking has clearly existed over the years in professional sports. He didn't make that stuff up.

Go figure. A selfish lout tears apart a locker room, and an NBA team goes and gets another one. But the moment there's the perception that an athlete's Christianity is affecting locker room chemistry, then they're all suspect.

"If that's the worst thing you can put on a guy, that he's a Christian and you think that makes him soft ... ," Jackson said, shrugging, his voice trailing off.

" Luke and I are going to be the nastiest guys out on the court, the most tenacious. I just think being a Christian is a choice, and if that's a downfall to being in the NBA, I don't see how that works, because there are so many temptations and so many distractions in the NBA that people without character and without morals are going to get in trouble and give the NBA a bad reputation."

It is without question that Ernie Kent's basketball program doesn't discourage athletes from having religious beliefs, whatever they are; the Lukes aren't the only athletes of faith on the team. As long as it's not forced, or the basis for basketball decisions, it's hard to see the problem.

"It doesn't mean they're perfect by any means, but it does mean they've got a place to come back to when adversity hits them in their lives," Kent said. "To label them soft because they have that place is wrong. You've got guys like Andre Joseph with the tattoos who plays tough, to Luke Jackson with one-and-a-half hands who plays tough, to Luke Ridnour who plays all out all the time. ...

"They still get riled up. I still get riled up at them at times. But all in all, they do have a place to come back to and settle down again. And that's what it is, and I'm glad they have that, and if people want to see that as a sign of softness, they're wrong."

Stereotypes are always tough to defeat. Thursday night, yet again, the Lukes were tough enough to do just that.