Luke Ridnour became the third player in Oregon history to be named Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Year, Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen announced Monday.
In a vote of the conference’s 10 head coaches, Ridnour won the award over Arizona’s senior duo of Jason Gardner and Luke Walton, among others. Ridnour was the first Duck to win the award since Terrell Brandon in 1991.
Ridnour ended the regular season second in the conference in points per game, and he easily won the assist crown. He set a Pac-10 record with 62 consecutive free throws at one point, and is the biggest reason the Ducks won 20 games on the season.
Before practice Monday, Oregon head coach Ernie Kent, who at that point didn’t know Ridnour had won the award, said he was just frustrated he wasn’t allowed to vote for his star because coaches can’t vote for their players. But the rest of the Pac-10 coaches took care of that problem for him.
“Obviously, my vote would be for Luke Ridnour, but I couldn’t vote for him,” Kent said. “He’s put us in the position we’re in today, and he’s just been on a tear in the last few games.”
Ridnour joins the illustrious company of Brandon and Ron Lee in Oregon’s Player of the Year club. Lee won the award in 1976, his senior year. Brandon won the award after his sophomore year.
It’s the second Player of the Year award, sort of, for Ridnour. He was the first Duck ever to win the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year award two years ago. Ridnour also was named to last season’s All Pac-10 Team.

“It’s kind of hard for me to believe, but it’s a tribute to my team first of all,” Ridnour said. “There’s a lot of good players in the league that had really good years with teams that have done better than we have.”
Luke Jackson joined Ridnour on this year’s 10-member All Pac-10 squad. It was the first such award for Jackson and ensured the Ducks would have two members on the conference team for the second straight season.
Jackson was the only Pac-10 player to rank in the top 10 in scoring, rebounding and assists. He was sixth in rebounds and seventh in scoring and assists.