Cats, ducks, twerkers, and everything in between

Yes I love Oregon. I love their ridiculous uniforms - all 900 of them. I love their dope shoes. I love the fact that Aaron Brookes gave Ryan Appleby a fierce 'bow to the dome in the Pac-10 tourney last season. I love the fact that it's a school whose sole academic booster that matters is Phil Knight. That being said I was much more devastated then I thought I'd be when the Ducks came into McKale and killed my Martin Luther King Jr. Day Eve with one floating bank shot. I guess my heart bears down more than I thought because that loss stung for a while. Shit, it still hurts. I guess we just weren't as fly as them. Let's get to the notes, they're heavy today, dare I say as heavy as a seven series beamer, man.

• "It's bright orange and it's from the 80s," said the cop to the hardcore Cats fan who was dressed in full hunting attire and was packing a Nintendo Duck Hunt gun. Eventually the higher-ups would veto the fan's creativity and take away his gun.
  
• Almost two hours to tip-off and the Zona Zoo is going all out to boo an Oregon player while he warms up with a trainer.
  
• Oregon's Tajuan Porter does his early warm-ups with iPod in hand. Fuck a team chemistry.
  
• Chase Budinger practices his shot from halfcourt then decides to do more practical reverse-no-look-left-handed lay-ups.
  
• Not to be upstaged by Chase's worthless drills, Marcus Williams and David Bagga shoot from sitting in the courtside seats. Bagga sinks one on about his fifth attempt.
  
• Jordan Hill takes some practice jumpers and grabs rebounds all with a granola bar in his mouth. The only thing that could make UA warm-ups cooler would be if somebody was able to pull off this.
  
• Oregon's Chamberlain Oguchi and Jawann McClellen meet at halfcourt to exchange some love. I check Champ's tags and they read Houston, Texas. Now I see the connection.
  
• 18:27 Tajuan pulls up for a deep 3 before even thinking about running any sort of offense. Wet. 0-3, Ducks.
  
• 16:00 Tajuan rolls with the 3-ball, but misses on his next two attempts.
• 15:08 Jawann gets another poster-worthy dunk after killing Oregon State's Kyle Jeffers last game. This time he goes baseline and has a sick two-handed jam. 12-10, Cats.
  
• 12:47 Marcus strokes a 3 from the top of the arc for his 10th point in less than eight minutes.
• 11:33 Marcus gets the and-1 on a strong drive through the lane, 19-15, Cats.
• After Williams completes the and-1 Jordan Hill tries to switch it up to makers and attempts to take the ball out from under the Cats’ basket. Apparently the NCAA frowns on that sort of thing and Jordan is forced to hand the ball back to the referee so the Ducks can have their possession.
• 9:07 Jawann and Fendi check in the game, I think this is the earliest Fendi’s ever checked in a game this season. Fendi lasts a whole one minute, enough to log a foul and turnover.
  
• 7:34 Aaron Brookes strokes a deep 3 to put the Ducks up 20-24.
• 4:47 Marcus Williams again powers his way through the key to put the Cats back on top 28-27.
• Halftime: 38-37, Cats
• The security guard who stands near the visitor’s tunnel all game has a tattoo that reads “hate” across his right forearm. I was never able to see what his other arm was tatted up with, but I’d assume it said “my life.”
• A hardcore Duck fan - dressed much more conservatively than last year - makes his way to Zona Zoo to enjoy the boos as he proudly waves his huge Oregon flag. Last year the same dude threw tennis balls to the students saying "Go Ducks." The man has my respect for being die-hard.
• Halftime: 38-37, Cats. The Cats have pretty much met their worst nightmare aside from a dominating big-man - the Ducks are making a lot more 3's than any other team the Cats have faced.
  
• 14:05 Oregon's Adrian Stelly - who doesn't see a minute of playing time - somehow falls out of his chair after an Oregon turnover. Oregon leads by six at the break 49-55. It's not worth noting that Oregon sits in the middle of the court for timeouts.
  
• 12:22 Mustafa Shakur competes an and-1 to put the Cats up 56-55.
• Where the hell is Ooo-Aah man?
• 6:14 Chase Budinger starts a fastbreak by blocking Adam Zahn. The break ends with Shakur spinning to the basket and finishing a reverse lay-up. It was the coolest Arizona play I've ever seen in person and it really just looked like somebody was playing a video game and pushing down every button while holding turbo. I've never seen so many silly moves performed in such a short time span.
• G'd up fan of the night award goes to the dude rocking the Lance Briggs Bears jersey.
• 3:43 Marcus Williams is the only guy for Arizona who can get a board, as he grabs a crucial offensive board and is sent to the line. 73-72, Cats.
• 2:45 Marcus Williams swats Aaron Brookes jumper 77-72, Cats.
• 1:50 Brookes crosses up Jawann pretty badly before drilling a 3 to tie the game up at 77.
• :22 With the game still tied Staf goes to his go-to move drive in the lane jump in the air and pray. This time it doesn't work as Aaron Brookes steals the ball. Timeout Oregon.
• Aaron Brookes nails a floating lay-up off the glass to put the Ducks up two with two ticks on the clock.
• I'm reminded this isn't the NBA as Radenovic is forced to throw the down the entire court for the Cats to have a shot at forcing an OT/winning the game.
  
• The ball is deflected out of bounds on Oregon, the Cats have it on their sideline.
• :01 The ball is inbounded to Marcus Williams. He fades back from 15 feet along the baseline and hits the iron.
  
• Ducks win. 77-79.
• Marcus Williams reset his career high with 34 points (11-20 from the field, 10-10 from the line) to go along with 12 boards. Staf had 21, Jawann had 12, the next leading scorer was Radenovic with 6.
• Radenovic is making me look like an idiot for saying he is gonna be good in the NBA and is better than Staf. He played horrible tonight as he got out-worked in every possible aspect of the game. He was pretty much worthless and I would have liked to have seen more Jordan Hill. Not that I would even think about screaming, "Put in Jordan."
  
• This leads to my biggest pet-peeve of going to games: students who yell plays at the court. Kid behind me, we get it, you play EA Sports March Madness 2007 all-day, you came off the bench for your high school team, this does not give you the right to challenge anything Lute Olson does. The man has a ring and 23 straight tourney appearances to his name. That holds a little more weight than being the video game king in your dorm hallway.
• UA bench stat line: 15 minutes, 2 steals, 2 dimes, 2 turnovers, 2 fouls, 1 board, NO shot/free throw attempts.
• Oregon went 13-26 from beyond the arc. UA: 3-15.
• Chase Budinger was invisible - not in the Tony Yayo 'you can't see me' invisible, but in the 'I didn't know he was on the court' invisible - in the game, putting up seven shots for four points in 33 minutes.
  

Nic Wise Moment of the Game: Why Nic? Why couldn't you just turn in your paper and allow me to exagerate your greatness to the 10s of readers of Where's P-Mac. Why Nic? Why? For the time being the Nic Wise moment of the game will be the 'What the fuck am I doing in life' slouch Nic rocked pre-game as he sat on the bench my himself.

Sneaker Watch: Staf switched back to the black/red Zoom Lebron IV...Jordan Hill black/red Jordan Dub Zero...Jawann and Marcus still ???...Aaron Brookes warmed up with the Air Moneys then switched before the game to all-black Huarache 2K6...Tajuan Porter black/green/yellow Huarache 2K5...Adrian Stelly black/white unreleased Jordan XV...Joevan Catron Nike ID'd Oregon colorway of Air Zoom Flight Five...Some injured dude on Oregon white/green Jordan IV

Douchebags of the Game: 1) The kid behind me who sang along to Kanye's "Golddigger" pregame. Dude if you were alive at any point during 2005 you know the words to "Golddigger," there is no need to sing along and think you're cool. 2) There was a little kid in the Oregon section who would scream any time a Wildcat was shooting a free throw. He is not the douche, nor are they Zona Zoo fans who yelled "Santa's not real" and "I want to band your mom." The douche would be the student who yelled "I want to slit your throat with my teeth" toward the kid who could not have been older than 10.