Oregon’s 78-53 loss to Michigan last week in the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament didn’t just end the Ducks’ season.
It also ended the college careers of four seniors and an era unparalleled in Oregon’s history.
Goodbye, Luke Jackson. See you later, James Davis. Hit the road, Jay Anderson. Don’t look back, Andre Joseph.
Their careers are done. But in doing so, those legacies open the door for the future of Oregon basketball.
“Luke Jackson has had an incredible career,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said after the loss. “He’s going to leave numbers, footprints and legacies that may never be matched again at Oregon. I can’t say enough about what he’s accomplished.
“With the other three seniors, for this team to go through the injuries and the adversity, we played some outstanding basketball our last six out of seven games. I’ve got to take my hat off to these guys how well they put us in a position to be here today.”
Now, they leave. They give way to the core group of players that will make up Oregon’s roster for the next four seasons.
Or so the Ducks hope.
Those include Chamberlain Oguchi, Bryce Taylor and Maarty Leunen, three players who give the Ducks one of their best recruiting classes in program history.
“We’re going to be young, which is going to give me a few more gray hairs to coach that group next year, but at the same time, I feel good about the group that’s coming in the door,” Kent said.
They’d better be as advertised, or the Ducks (18-13 overall) may not see the postseason for the first time in four years.

Oregon returns a core group of players to the 2004-05 team, headlined by point guard Aaron Brooks and forward Ian Crosswhite. But it is a group that didn’t completely show its promise.
Crosswhite struggled late in the season. Freshman Mitch Platt went down with an injury early on and lost valuable playing time. Brooks sat out 10 crucial Pacific-10 Conference games. Some of those contests the Ducks should have won, and in turn they probably cost Oregon a chance at an NCAA Tournament berth.
The list goes on with Adam Zahn, Jordan Kent and Matt Short, individuals who will need to find consistency that wasn’t there this season.
“I think the good thing about the group that’s coming back next year is they have had the opportunity to sit here and get a firsthand look at what it takes to be a great player, have a great team and great tradition,” Ernie Kent said.
That group will try to outdo what the four seniors accomplished during their time at Oregon. That included a Pac-10 regular-season championship, a Pac-10 Tournament championship and three visits to the postseason.
“I just really appreciate my teammates,” Jackson said. “I’m going to miss just going out every day and working hard and being with the guys you enjoy so much. Just to appreciate the coaches and the faith they’ve had in me all season long.”
Hard work is what got the Ducks through the season. They battled to a 5-2 nonconference record to start the season, then went 9-9 in Pac-10 play. Oregon defeated Cal in the first round of the Pac-10 Tournament, probably a must for the postseason, and hung with Stanford for 38 minutes in round two before bowing out.
For as much hard work as Oregon put in, inconsistency became a problem. But Jackson, Ernie Kent and the Ducks fought through it and showed they deserved as much as a berth in the NIT.
“People thought we weren’t even going to make it to postseason play,” Davis said. “Coming back from Colorado, it was just a huge atmosphere for us. To be one of the last eight teams left, that’s something in itself when nobody thought we’d be playing in the postseason.”