SEEING DOUBLE.

Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

Not any one thing made the decision for Michael Dunigan and Matt Humphrey to announce Monday that the two Chicago prep basketball players decided they would sign with Oregon, but it all came together well for the Ducks.

There was the fact that all six of next season's UO seniors are on track to graduate. It also figured into the analysis of the situation that Oregon coach Ernie Kent was speaking of his alma mater in the recruiting process, and that his son had played for the UO, too.

And, yes, the experience of Joevan Catron, another Duck from the Chicago area, played into the decision, as did Oregon's playing style and success last season.

`We scrutinized everything,' said Darryl Humphrey, Matt's father. `It finally came down to, why not Oregon? What did any other school have to offer that was different and better?'

The Ducks have three commitments for the 2008 class of high school seniors, with Dunigan and Humphrey joining Drew Wiley, who will be a senior at Thurston High School, in making an early decision.

They can't sign until November, and UO coaches are prohibited by NCAA rules from speaking about recruits who haven't signed.

Humphrey said there should be no concern that his son nor Dunigan will have a change of mind, though they expect other schools to continue recruiting them.

`People who aren't upstanding, they're still going to try,' Humphrey said. `As I told coach Kent, we honor our commitments and this is not something we thought about lightly.'

Added Pearlie Dunigan of her son's commitment: `This is the best decision ... there's no hesitation.'

While the announcement came together, the families insist it was independently made, though they welcomed the fact it turned out that way.

The families have an acknowledged close relationship, and traveled together for an unofficial visit to Eugene in June.

The 6-foot-10 Dunigan, who plays for Farragut, and the 6-5 Humphrey of Hales Franciscan, are teammates for the MeanStreets team that tours nationally in the summer, playing last weekend in Atlanta.

Catron, who will be a sophomore at Oregon, also played for MeanStreets, which obviously played into the commitment of the latest Chicago Ducks.

`He loved talking about Oregon, and the experience he had there,' Humphrey said. `It wasn't the determining factor (for the recruits), but it all adds up.'

Both Dunigan and Humphrey are considered among the top four players among the class of 2008 in Illinois, and are rated high nationally. Rivals.com lists both Dunigan and Humphrey with four stars out of five, and has Dunigan as the No. 10 center in the nation with Humphrey No. 19 among shooting guards.

Scout.com awards Dunigan five stars, its maximum, and lists him as the No. 4 center in the nation for the '08 recruits, and puts him 20th in the nation overall, counting players at all positions. Humphrey was ranked 13th in the nation among shooting guards by Scout.com, which gave him four stars.

Humphrey told the Chicago Sun Times that `Oregon was just the best fit for me as a basketball player and for my family as well. They just always stayed consistent. They were one of the first to offer and stick with me.'

Tai Streets, the MeanStreets coach, said Dunigan and Humphrey are both qualified academically.

`These kids are 4.0 students,' he told the Sun Times newspaper. `Mike's mom is always making sure he does the right thing, and it's the same way with Matt's family.'

While there long had been speculation that they would choose a college together, their parents insisted that wasn't the case, and the fact the Ducks recruited them separately and were interested in either one individually if the other chose another school also helped Oregon's cause.

`They do have a close relationship,' Humphrey said. `I think (this decision) will help from the transition standpoint because they can motivate each other.'

Dunigan said when her son was making up a list of reasons why he wanted to go to Oregon, at her request, `one thing I told him was I didn't want to see it was because someone else was going there. This had to be his decision.'

The visit by the families to Eugene seemed of special importance, if for different reasons.

Dunigan said she and her son felt `a total welcoming atmosphere' on that June trip. `A lot of schools seemed to just feel it was enough to let us come to their campus,' she added.

She said one of her regular questions to coaches who spoke glowingly of their schools was `did you go to school here?'

The answer was no, until she posed it to Kent, a UO graduate.

`I like the fact coach Kent is from (Illinois) and has settled at that university, and it certainly can't be a bad place if his own kids went there,' she said.

Humphrey said `when we went to Oregon, Ernie Kent approached it from a business standpoint. He told us the purpose of school is X, Y and Z and laid it all out, but the primary goal was to get an education. His players graduate, and that was significant.

`There's no question we also liked the style of play (of the Ducks) because we want our kids to prepare for the next level, but they also need to prepare for their life after basketball, and Ernie Kent coaches for life.'

Dunigan and Humphrey will be with their MeanStreets team for a tournament that begins Saturday in Las Vegas.

They both will be in Portland at the end of the month among 40 American high school players and 40 international players who will participate in the Nike Global Challenge, scheduled to be played at the University of Portland.