At any given time of day at McArthur Court, there is at least one ball bouncing on the floor.
One player shows up in the mornings, stays after practice until everybody is gone and even returns in the evenings.
When he’s not in class, he’s working on his game in the gym.
“That’s all I really care about right now,” senior Luke Jackson said.
Along with a non-stop drive to be better and a love of basketball, Jackson has something to prove.
One fan at a time, one critic at a time, one reporter at a time, the All-America candidate is constantly trying to prove others wrong.
“It drives me crazy when I read something in the paper about something that somebody wrote about me and said I couldn’t do that,” Jackson said. “I read that and that motivates me so much.”
So every morning, every day after practice and even in the evenings, Jackson pushes to be better than he is; he recently became just the third Duck in history to reach 1,500 career points, 500 career rebounds and 300 career assists.
“He’s one of the most versatile (players in the conference),” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. “Luke is somebody that can shoot it; (he can) pass it; (he) handles the ball extremely well; he can rebound; he can shoot threes.”
Jackson practices dribbling on the run, ball-handling skills and shooting. He does circuits of shooting the basketball where he needs to make it 150 times before he quits.
That usually takes seven or eight minutes, Jackson said.
All of his persistence is fueled by the criticism of others. Yet people say there are still things Jackson can’t do.
“They’ve been saying that ever since I got here,” he said. “‘He’s from Creswell, I’ve never heard of this guy, he wasn’t a McDonald’s All-American.’”
Jackson’s had four years to make himself known. He is the Pacific-10 Conference’s active career leader in points (1,503), rebounds (585) and games played (104) and is second in assists (320).
The UCLA men’s basketball team knows who Jackson is.
Jackson hit the game-winning three-pointer with 17 seconds left against the Bruins in the semifinals of the Pac-10 tournament last year.
Three months prior, Jackson came off the bench with 13 stitches in his finger and scored 27 points to lead Oregon to an overtime victory at Pauley Pavilion.
Instead of “Hot Hand Luke” he became “One Hand Luke.” Jackson was playing a week after he incurred a bloody laceration to his right ring finger.
Jackson’s special brace, made by Oregon athletic trainer Clay Jamieson, was thrown in the trash by UCLA fans, Jackson said. Jackson wasn’t even sure if Kent would play him. He said it might have been his greatest game at Oregon.
“I just got really competitive and I said, ‘Even though I have one hand, I can still do this,’” he said.
Jackson’s 27 points was a season-high. As Jamieson puts it in the Oregon media guide, Jackson had “about two points a stitch.”
That was in the days of former Oregon point guard Luke Ridnour, the same year Oregon became the Pac-10 Conference Tournament champions. All that has changed.
Jackson is now the sole leader.
After debating on whether to opt out of his senior season for the NBA, Jackson returned. He said he wanted to finish his degree, adding that he had enough credits to take fewer classes and focus on basketball.
“I knew it was going to be a different feeling,” Jackson said. “It’s been really good for me. That’s a role that I accepted as soon as (Ridnour) left and as soon as summer workouts began.”
Jackson has embraced his role, not only in being the team leader but taking the opportunity to teach the younger players from his experience.
“He’s done a tremendous job both on and off the court,” Kent said. “It’s great having him back his senior season because that leadership has allowed us to grow as a basketball team.
“He’s having an outstanding season so far.”
Jackson is the only player in Oregon history to record two triple-doubles. He’s recorded one each of the past two seasons and plans to get at least one this year.
Only Ron Lee, Oregon’s all-time career scoring leader, has recorded the other triple-double in school history, which was in 1972.
The 2003 All-Pac-10 First Team honoree now ranks among the University’s career top 10 in seven categories: scoring, assists, steals, three-pointers, free throws made, free throw percentage and field goals made.
But Jackson is also trying to have a good time. He wants to have fun in his final season at Oregon before he works his way toward the pros.
Jackson said he is just relying on God and giving his game to the Lord, and whatever happens, happens. He is a Christian and attends church and Bible study.
Jackson is a straight-forward guy who works hard and is simple at heart, team manager Kevin Christiana said.
Although Jackson is smooth on the court, he’s the opposite off the court. Jackson says he is clumsy.
“I slipped today when it was icy,” he said. “I see people slipping all over, I’m laughing at them and I just turned around and did the same thing. I really just accepted that I’m a really clumsy person. I just laugh it off.”
However, Jackson doesn’t just laugh off the criticism that comes his way. He says he doesn’t listen to all of it, and he lets it work to his advantage.
That’s why he is in the gym in the morning, afternoon and evening pushing himself to help lead his team to another conference title.
And so the criticism has worked.
It’s made one of the best players in Oregon history and currently the best player in the Pac-10 conference.