So this is pretty wack

"Bear Down Gym sucks and it looks like shit."

"Yeah, let's build a replica of it on the end of the mall."

That was the likely conversation that occurred before the construction of the new UA athletics practice facility.

It's been in the works for a while, but the Arizona Daily Star had a good feature on the new yet-to-be named facility, which will be finished in the fall of 2008.

The article says: "So when UA's new basketball and volleyball practice facility is unveiled sometime next year, many of Bear Down's design features will reappear."

Why. the. fuck. would. UA. do. this?

Seriously Bear Down Gym probably violated half the building codes and looked old as hell when it was constructed 200 years ago. Basically it would be like Ford producing a new car that looks like the Model T.

This building looks like something a first grader would draw: a brick wall, small door and nice square windows.

For such a hyped-up, "prestigious" sports program it would have been nice to have a practice facility at least half as cool as the Stevie Eller Dance Theater, which sits across the mall from the facility or the other engineering buildings which out-shine the dull UA athletic facilities.

On a better note, props to former Wildcat Steve Kerr for becoming the new GM of the Suns.

I need a favor

So the Adidas Gil Zero X Undrcrwn drop tomorrow for a mere $150 according to Slam Magazine. No word on where they are being released. Whoever buys these for me gets...well something incredibly dope that is TBD.

Let me answer a few questions you may have:
Yes these shoes are pretty retarded. No I probably never would wear them. Yes I still really want them. Yeah, I guess I would buy anything attached to Gilbert Arenas' name.

Random shit poppin

Crunk Willy

I've been meaning to post a lot of this shit for a while, but work, The Tucson Citizen and the show Dexter have all gotten in the way. However if you're living the life de aburrida, the following shit should entertain you.

First, lets congratulate 50 a.k.a. Ferrari F-50 for caking a cool $400 million of Coca Cola. Other rappers should feel free to keep fronting about making their stacks off coke, but apparently soft drinks are a little bit more lucrative.

DJ Premier is God.

Lupe, Kanye and Pharrell rapping on a Thom Yorke beat. Yeah I can dig it, even if Pharrell's 16 is straight garbage.

By the way if you don't have the "Can't tell me Nothing" mixtape you need to step your piracy game up and check it out.

I have always loved outer space.

This is kinda gross, but it could change the world.

Why the fuck didn't I know about this before I signed my contract?

Must get Entourage denim.

It's pretty dope that HBO has this, although I wouldn't expect any less from the best station of all time.

At least he's not wearing fake Nikes, that would cross the line with me. Actually the Jew/American-hating Mickey was dropped from Hamas TV a week ago.

Props to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson for humping a random Asian reporter.

Video links I'm stealing from WithLeather.com: The art of kicking babies. This sick soccer kick. The Preakness. Yes I must go to the Preakness. Motorcycle crashes.

My friend Ari a.k.a. Shiffy a.k.a. Crunk Williams broke something and he's been spending his free time highlighting entire sheets of paper. Respect.

Oh yeah the title of this post, I like the remix better. Let's also reflect on the glory of rap music which allows da kid Cassidy to brag about killing a man by shooting him in the back, then beating the case.

"The million dollar baby, you should call me Swizzy Swank"

Air Canada

Here is a feature I wrote on the Pac-10 pole vault champion Gabriella Duclos. Gabriella is probably the coolest Canadian in Arizona south of Steve Nash and she always genuinely apologizes when she misses my calls for interviews. I don't know if she's a Bryan Colangelo fan or not.

Pac-10 women's pole vault champion Gabriella Duclos remembers breaking down and crying in Arizona coach Fred Harvey's office early in her freshman year.

The stress of getting into classes, finding housing and adjusting to college - all while barely speaking English - was too much for the then-17-year-old Duclos, a native of French-speaking Quebec City.

She arrived in August 2006, never having committed or applied to UA. To top it off, she missed her initial flight after being stuck in Canadian customs for more than two hours. read on...

Hallelujah, holla back

"Wait, so how does T.I. wear his beanie again?"

Brandon Jennings, who I busted a nut over in the 1,000-word post below, committed to Arizona yesterday after telling everyone at the Arizona Cactus Classic that he would hold off on any decisions until mid-July.

Apparently all it took was a smoke session pick-up game with Damon and Salim Stoudamire to convince him to come play under Lute. If Jerryd Bayless sticks around for more than a year, which he's not expected to, him and Jennings will be the sickest backcourt UA has ever seen. That's my word.

Point out the bounce

Now normally I don't do this but...Media credit: Francisco Medina

This weekend I covered the Arizona Cactus Classic for the Tucson Citizen. This was the second year Tucson has hosted the event which featured an insane amount of high school basketball talent, by insane I mean 23 of the nation's top 100 players in the high school class of 2008.

I thought the Pac-10 Tournament was basketball heaven because you got 4 games in a day, but the Cactus Classic had 79 games spread over three days. It was non-stop ball on six courts at a time (three in the McKale Center and three in the Bear Down Gym).

One of the stars of the show was potential UA recruit Brandon Jennings, who led the tourney in scoring by averaging 28.4 points a game. The kid hung 44 on the Reebok Inland Empire, that's 44 fucking points in 32 minutes.

Jennings is a five-star recruit, ranked 12th on Rivals.com top 150 of '08. He said he's currently between Arizona and UConn.

I missed Jennings' first three games and didn't see him perform until Saturday evening when he played the Texas D1 Ambassadors, where he played at what I would guess to be 10% and still had 30 points despite spending a great part of the first half chilling on the bench. In the game Jennings stood around the entire time, never once sprinting, and often times not making it down to the other end of the court. He would play back-to-back offense or defense, but he didn't seemed intrigued by the possibility of playing the conventional both sides of the floor. I only saw him pass once in the entire game, every other went as follows: stand on perimeter with hands calling for ball, cross, shake, bucket.

He got to the rim effortlessly and easily wet threes. He also managed not play a lick of defense and he spent his time on the bench eating peanut M&Ms. For the record he was rocking some white/varsity red-black Air Jordan XXII Omega, which doesn't come out until June 2. Fucking gangster. I'm assuming he got those as a welcoming gift when he transferred to the Jordan Brand-sponsored Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va. or as Jennings called it "the middle of nowhere." Oak Hill is a small private school with approximately 100 students according to Wikipedia. Oak Hill is always ranked No. 1 in the nation for hoops and has produced Melo and Stackhouse among a ton of other NBA players. One of my life goals is to figure out what the fuck they could possibly teach at Oak Hill, since it's a school solely for hoops. I would absolutely kill to sit in on a day of classes.

Aside from going there to work on his grades, which he admits are pretty bad Jennings wants to gain a little more fame to his name. Jennings said: "I want my name to be mentioned in there one day. Hopefully when I leave, people will mention my name with the Carmelos, Stackhouses and Jason Terrys."

Except that Jason Terry didn't go to Oak Hill at least that's what the Internet told me, but I'll let Jennings believe what he wants.

In the championship game, in which Jennings' Belmont Shore lost to the New York Gauchos, Jennings rocked a pair of player-exclusive black and silver Adidas Gil Zero mids to show any potential sponsors that may be that he can ball in all brands. Get your check books out now.

Aside from all the silly crossovers and his ability to jump out of the gym, my personal Brandon Jennings moment of the weekend came after an interview when I bobbled a hand-shake that somehow turned into one of those hand-shake-to-half-hug things people do when they are close to each other, normally not for journalists and their interviewees. After the awkward exchange I didn't look back and kept walking, slightly embarrassed until I remembered that the kid was three years younger than me.

Here is the small article I wrote on him, if you want more, the kid is everywhere, including a 3-page deep highlight reel on YouTube.

More madness:

- Brendon Lavender, the second kid of the '08 class to commit to UA, lost all four of his games, but it's mainly because he was by himself on the team and was forced to play out position at the point. In the one game I really watched of his, he played like trash as I wrote here. Lavender was cool as hell though, an incredibly nice guy and hopefully he'll have better luck in the McKale Center next time.

- It'd be pretty nice to have a college scholarship waiting for you as you enter your freshman year of high school. For Matt Carlino, the No. 1-ranked eigth grader in the nation, that's the case.

- My favorite team of the weekend was the Las Vegas Dog Catchers, mainly because of the sheer insanity that surrounded their team. Their coach, Jamar Clark, had a picked out beard that would rival Freeway or Rick Ross in terms of gullyness. His attire wasn't quite Pat Riley-esque as he opted for the customized Miskeen-looking Dog Catchers shirt, multi-colored Yankees fitted, denim shorts that literally went down to his ankles and a pair of patent-leather maroon-and-orange Air Force Ones. He also earned a few technicals just to prove his thug.

Aside from coach Jamar, the best part of the team was founder Henry Thorns, a grey haired older-black man, who also rocked a customized Dog Catcher tee. Thorns paced back and fourth in the stands shouting claims such as "We always be the best in Vegas" and barking when his team impressed him.

"They also have no class," a parent of the other team said.

The Dog Catchers wore Marcus Banks' name across their jersey to honor the former Dog Catcher, who paid for their bus ride to Tucson.

"To be honest, I never really axed him for one penny," Thorns said. "They just called up asked what we needed."

"'They' meaning Marcus Banks?" I questioned.

"Yeah"

Henry Thorns also talked about how his son, Hank Thorns, was "eating people up" on the court, which he actually was. Hank Thorns was pretty impressive, especially in his Nike ID'd Zoom Flight Fives.

- I'm not sure what team he was on, but I saw a kid with possibly the worst hair cut of all time. The kid had a nappy mo-hawk with a Chevrolet logo etched into the right side and a Famous Stars and Stripes logo cut into the other side. It should be noted that Famous Stars and Stripes is one of, if not my least favorite brand of all time. Any time I see somebody rocking that garbage I lose all respect right off the bat and generally wish death upon them.

- Peyton Siva, I see you. Respect.

Sneaker Watch: A lot of Air Jordan XXIIs...Several P.E. Adidas Gil Zeros...Some kid from the Gauchos was rocking the All-Star gold LBJ IVs...A lot of other dope LBJ IVs...Thorns' Zoom Flight Fives...Whatever Brandon Jennings was rocking including his off-the-court all-black Air Max 360s with lasered etching...Air Jordan Citrus VIIs...Many others which I'm forgetting the high-school kids had a lot of heat, much of which was inaccessible to the general public.

Nic Wise Moment of the Game: We'll he was actually there along with Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger. Nic didn't really do anything too thorough and I was mainly watching the games rather than the spectators, but I did see him block Brandon Jennings' little brother as he tried to dunk on a 5-foot hoop. I guess that's kinda cool.

The story of Craig

Let's a try a little something new. Since this site is starved for content during the college basketball off-season, I got to bust some new shit out. Even though I'm a much bigger NBA fan than college ball fan, apparently my blogging game is vice versa.

Anyways, the following is a little article I'm writing exclusively for Where’s P-Mac about the life and times of Craig Waterman, a baller on many levels. I figure if I write a few bullshit, non-conventional articles about people I know it should keep my writing quasi sharp. Will this be the new face of journalism? Probably not, but at least it should provide for some enjoyable reading on a small-time blog.

"That's him," I shouted. "That's the kid from my English class!"

The kid from my English class, Craig Waterman, was jumping up and down on Lute and Bobbi Olson Court like Miles Simon in ’97 as he had just won a University of Arizona-themed Vespa.

Craig turned the key and started the ignition of the varsity-red colored Vespa in a State Farm sponsored contest during halftime of a Wildcats game.

As the ignition started Craig pumped his arm, which was proudly adorned in a collection of in paper bracelets, which are given out to the first 700 fans at every UA home game. Craig never took the bracelets off during the season.

At the time I barely knew Craig. I knew he was a big Chicago sports fan, which is pretty much all it takes to justify your thug with me.

The story of Craig picking up the scooter is actually better than my recollection of him winning it.

“I just showed up to (the McKale Center) and told them I won the Vespa,” Craig said. “They took me to a back room, opened a closet door and gave it to me, they didn’t ask for ID or anything.” That’s right after paying his $250 in taxes to Uncle Sam, Craig was just handed a new scooter with no advice as how to ride it.

“I opened up the instruction manual and figured out how to start it,” he said. “The hardest part was getting the kickstand up; that took me about 20 minutes.”

Craig then took a practice lap around the parking lot before hopping on to Speedway Blvd. and driving it home.

To say Craig’s house is odd would probably be an understatement. He lives with 13 other people in a large white house just east of 4^th Ave.

As I walked through the gate surrounding his fortress, I met a shirtless man who appeared to be in his mid-twenties walking out a guest house on their property.

“Hey, what’s up Bebber,” Craig said.

“Who’s that?” I asked.

“Oh, that’s Bebber. He lives in the guest house with his fiancé.”

“Of course he does.”

As I walked in Craig’s place, there were four people sitting within two feet of a 20-inch television playing Mario Kart for Nintendo 64 in a room far too large for a 20-inch TV.

Then I walked into Craig’s room, which he shares with a roommate. The most gangsta thing about it: an Andres Nocioni poster which had fell off the wall and was now crumpled up underneath his bunk bed.

His room also had a fireplace, which was blocked by his roommate’s desk.

“There’s like three fireplaces in this house,” Craig said.

He then took me outside to see his Vespa, which was now fairly dirty, had a crack in the front wheel-well and was missing a rear-view mirror.

“Yeah one of my retarded friends crashed it into that wall,” said Craig, as he pointed toward a wall a few feet away.

Craig is apparently the nicest kid ever because he lets pretty much anyone ride his scooter.

“I figure I won it, so I hate being a dick about letting other people ride it.”

Craig took me for a spin around the block as I sat behind him on the scooter. He then let me take it out by myself.

I’ve never drove a scooter or anything like it in my life. My closest experience was probably riding a Razor scooter in middle school. As expected it was fucking incredible.

Craig talked about how badly he wanted to take it back to Glen Allen, Ill. a suburb of Chicago, where he resides in the summer.

Unfortunately it would cost too much to hook up a trailer hitch to his 1997 Volvo A20, his car by the way has the cassette version of the single “I wanna be like Mike” in his deck at all times.

Even though we had only known each other for a semester and we’ve only hung out a couple of times outside of class, he offered me his scooter for the summer.

I declined because it seemed like too much at once and fortunately/unfortunately he ended up loaning it to his friend this summer who totaled her car.

In the words of my friend Owen Beitner, "Craig is good people."

There’s probably a whole lot more great things about Craig that I'm leaving out like this, this, this and this. Oh yeah and this.

B. Diddy run this city, show no pity

Easily the best picture in this history of photography

Well the Warriors did it. Possibly the most gangsta team (not to have AI) in the NBA knocked off the No. 1 seed Mavs with relative ease. My favorite moments in no particular order: Baron Davis hugging Ronnie Lott before he came out of the game! Matt Barnes dunking on Dirk... J-Rich finally getting a sick dunk in on the series... Stephen Jackson being Stephen Jackson... Mickael Pietrus crowd-surfing after the game... Dirk finishing his MVP campaign with 8 pts on 2-13 shooting... This picture of Monta Ellis... Uncle Snoop Dogg, Owen Wilson, and Woody Harrelson showing some love... Real recognizing real... Mark Cuban getting this all night... A "WE BELIEVE" give-away shirt sold for this much.

This was seriously the best playoff series I have ever seen (excluding anything Michael Jordan ever participated in). Not to get too ahead of myself, but if Allah allows it and the Warriors meet the Suns in the WCF I'm going to be very confused as to who to root for.

I can't wait until Dirk is awarded MVP in the most awkward press conference ever.

Also where the fuck are the Bay Area rappers, who claim to own the entire Yay. Surely 40 Water, Keak, $hort Dog and others had to be some where at the stadium. Can I get a pic of this any where? J-Diggs get at me.

I was gonna break down the shear ridiculousness of TNT only having three advertisers, but I'll save that for later on.

Runnin'

Here is my final feature for the 2007 season of the Arizona Daily Wildcat. There's not too much of a side story here, except that I was surprised that somebody with a biomedical engineering degree is now working at Home Depot. That's no slight to Danny. Apparently it's the best fit for some Olympic/Paralympic athletes because Home Depot, being one of the hugest sponsor of USA Olympics, has a program that allows the athletes to take weeks off at a time and still get paid. For the full interesting story read below:

After concluding a set of sprints, Danny Andrews sits down and peels the silicone liner off his left leg. He then pulls off his prosthetic carbon-fiber running leg, wipes the sweat off his residual limb with a small towel and switches to his walking leg. read on...