The mood was still somewhat somber for the Oregon Ducks a day after hearing the news that the NIT will go on without them.
But for three members of the men’s basketball team, Monday brought good news to help ease the pain of having their season come to an abrupt halt.
Oregon’s Luke Ridnour became the first Duck ever to be named Pacific-10 Conference Freshman of the Year.
Senior Bryan Bracey ended his two-year Oregon career with a spot on the All-Pac-10 team.
And Luke Jackson joined Ridnour to take up two of the five spots on the Pac-10 All-Freshman team.
“It’s a great honor, but I would trade all of this to keep playing,” said Ridnour, who averaged 7.4 points and 3.8 assists per game while being the only Duck to start every contest. “It’s really disappointing how [the season] ended like that. I was a little surprised, but we were only .500. I thought we still had a chance though.”
As for Bracey, he had no clue about his honor until he arrived for interviews before his team’s meeting at the Casanova Center.
His serious expression soon turned into a large grin upon hearing the news.
“Great,” Bracey said. “It feels good. I worked really hard to try to become a better player. I’m glad that I was able to accomplish some of my goals this year. But we didn’t do as well as we would have liked as a team.”
Bracey ended the season as the Pac-10’s second-leading scorer with 18.6 points per game and the eighth-leading rebounder with 7.1 boards per game. He will now focus his attention on trying to make the National Basketball Association, and that begins with his invitation to the Desert Classic on May 1, a chance for players to strut their stuff in front of NBA scouts.
Jackson, meanwhile, is already looking forward to next season, when he and teammate/roommate Ridnour return as sophomores.
“I think we really have a big future ahead of us,” said Jackson, who averaged 7.8 points per game. “It’s an honor to be on that team, but I’m disappointed that we didn’t make the NIT.”
Assistant coach Greg Graham was impressed with the Ducks’ effort in their 69-60 victory against Oregon State Saturday and knows that his team could have made some noise in the postseason.
“They played their tails off on Saturday,” Graham said. “I thought we would have played well in the NIT.”
The one other Duck awarded Monday was junior guard Freddie Jones, who was an honorable mention selection for the All-Pac-10 team.

Wolvert earns honor
For the second straight year, Oregon women’s basketball player Angelina Wolvert was named to the All-Pac-10 team.
The senior leads the Ducks with 14 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.
Fellow senior Brianne Meharry, who averages just less than 10 points and five rebounds per game, was given honorable mention status for the All-Pac-10 team.
The two will play integral roles this Saturday when 13th-seeded Oregon faces off with No. 4 seed Iowa in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Salt Lake City, Utah.