No wonder Luke Ridnour trusts Dan Dickau like his brother and talks with him nearly every week as he prepares for all the interviews, tryouts and business decisions associated with the NBA draft. They befriended each other at the 2001 Nike camp.

Ridnour can look at Dickau and see how everything might go ?including, perhaps, a fall from the middle to the bottom of the first round.

Dickau, the former Prairie High School and Gonzaga University star now with the Atlanta Hawks, strongly encouraged Ridnour to skip his senior year at the University of Oregon when the nervous junior called last month.