Can you dig it?!

No, not really. Definitely not now at least.

(not my genius, credit Niketalk)

Yesterday as Shaq to Phoenix rumors started swirling, I thought nothing of it. There is no way Shaq is coming to Phoenix, If the Suns couldn't pull KG, who was begging to come to Phoenix, how are we going to now get Shaq. More importantly why the fuck would we want Shaq. It's not the early 00s or whatever you call the period from 2000-2005, it's 2008. Last time I checked Shaq was a shell of his former self, on the injured list and on the worst team (9-37) in the league.

Last night I was still in a delusional state hoping this was another retarded trade deadline rumor a la the rumor of Portland giving up Jarrett Jack, Travis Outlaw and Channing Frye for Devin Harris in a Jason Kidd trade. I joked I'd rather trade Shawn Marion straight up for Devin Harris for two reasons: one, Devin Harris is not 52 years old, two, he is not owed $40 million over the next two years (that one is not an exaggeration).

More of angry, pissed off Justin's thoughts:

We might as well see if we can trade for a 2001 version of Allan Houston, so we can officially have the worst bang for the buck of all time. Seriously though, worst case scenario, the Suns can Allan Houston Rule Shaq.

If we are going to trade our second-best player, I'd rather have anybody not named Kwame instead of Shaq.

As much of a constant bitch Shawn Marion, he still fit the Suns offense better than anybody in the league, period.

Why not just keep Kurt Thomas, who the Suns traded to Seattle to save a little over $8 million. Seriously Kurt averaged 4.6 points and 5.7 boards in 67 games for the Suns last year. This season he's 7.3 and 8.9 and has played 38 games for the Sonics. Shaq put up 17.3 and 7.4 in only 40 games for the Heat in '07 and was averaging 14.2 and 7.8 in 32 games for the Heat this season. Yes Shaq's numbers are better but are they $12 a season better?

What the fuck is Steve Kerr doing?!

Justin's coping-with-it thoughts on the Shaq trade:

First and foremost, Shawn, you were never happy being an all-star, playing along side two all-stars on a championship caliber team, while getting paid a max contract. You're now on the worst team in the NBA, a team which already lost 15 straight games this season. Suck a dick and a half bitch (c) E-40.

Honestly we were never going to win a championship with the team we had, not unless the rest of the west caught the Black Plague, any change is good, I guess.

It is Shaq, at least he'll be entertaining.

Maybe proving the world wrong and keeping Kobe from ever getting another ring will be all the motivation he needs.

We no longer have Marcus Banks. That's just great.


In other horrible basketball news, Where's P-Mac's prodigal son, Nic Wise may be out for the season after knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus. This sucks in more ways than I'm able to comprehend right now, the only silver lining is Nic's Facebook status which reads: "Nic Wise Had surgery. P.S. USC & UCLA i gave you buckets with a torn meniscus."

On a positive note, if you follow Philly women's prep hoops like I do this article is a must-read. Or if you just want to learn about the Tarnowski hoops history.

Washington wrap-up

Here's the delayed wrap-up of Thursday's Wildcats' upset of No. 6 Washington State

What you need to know:
Arizona hit 12-21 (57%) shots from 3-point land to defeat Washington State 76-64, handing the Cougars only their second loss of the season. Bayless had 23, Budinger had 22, pretty much any time that happens the Cats should win. The Cats lead the entire second half and almost the entire game as they held Kyle Weaver to 15 points and Derrick Low to 5 points.

What you don't really need to know:

• It was Zona's first home game since their Jan. 5 loss to Oregon and their first time playing in front of a fully-loaded Zona Zoo -which was depleted by winter break - since the Nov. 28 match-up against Cal State Fullerton.
• Officially it was rally-towel night as the entire McKale waved the towels in the air throughout the game. Unofficially, I declared it Petey Pablo night. Either way it got Jordan Hill excited. "They had those towels waving around, and we're really fired up," Hill said. "We got fired up with them tonight."
• Not worth noting: "Who am I?! Petey Pablo motherfucker!!" If you are going to be a 3-hit wonder, there's no better way to start a song.
• Worth noting: Hill didn't pick up a foul until midway though the second half, opposed to his normal style of picking up two fouls during pre-game lay-ups drills.
• Props to UA for ditching Kanye West's wildly over-played "Stronger" for the intro video and rolling with some lame-ass song I've never heard of. I'm still not sure how, but some how it makes it all less cheesy.
• I love Derrick Low. No homo.
• Kirk Walters checks in at the 12:30 mark of the first half. I take the under on a bet that he plays less than 2 minutes. He comes out at 10:05. Lost by 25 seconds. Dammit.

Saturday's game:
Washington at Arizona

What you need to know:
Arizona shot 70% in the first half and 62% overall to beat Washington State 84-69. Bayless 26, Budinger 25, yeah that'll do it. Each hit 5 threes, Budinger in 10 shots, Bayless in 6! If Bayless didn't have 2 fouls early on, the Cats could've hit 100. Ryan Appleby is a douchebag, yes that is something you need to know. Next week's road games at USC and UCLA should be great games.

What you don't really need to know:

• Even though I had tickets, I chose to watch this game at home solely because I didn't feel like standing up for two hours or moving the mile from my apartment to the McKale Center. I never claimed to be a die-hard Cats fan.
• I almost regretted it as the UNC and Maryland women's hoops game went into double OT causing fans at home to miss most of the first half.
• As I laid on my couch in sweatpants eating frozen pizza, I realized I made the right call.
• Never a close game. If the Cats are able to keep playing at this amazing pace, people will call the Washington State game a turning point.
  

Where's P-Mac Nic Wise Moment of the Game: Honestly, Nic Wise is just too good to have silly moments of the game. No longer do fans clinch when he has the ball, knowing something retarded is just around the corner. Coaches and fans alike are now confident when the rock is in his hands as he's matured into a solid point guard. In other words, he sold the fuck out on the WPMNWOTG.

Sneaker Watch: I think Kamyron Brown was wearing Birthday Lebron Vs against UCLA and Tajuan Porter rocked Seattle-edition Air Jordan XX2s.

Fallin'

Agent Zero is out for the season. Bayless has been hurt. Mike Stoops is still the football head coach. ASU basketball is hot. Life can't get much worse for a UA fan.

A high from an Arrested Development marathon is the only thing keeping me remotely sane right now.

I wasn't expecting UA to win tonight and I had already accepted a loss days before the game started. Then I started watching the game and UA didn't look half-bad. The Cats lead by 12, I was reminded that UA had won 24 of the last 25 games against ASU and ASU's last win against the Cats was Jan. 23, 2002.

There is no way the Cats are going to lose this game. They lead what seemed like the whole fucking game, but to quote the great HOV, "you're tumbling, it's humbling, you're falling, you're mumbling/Under your breath like you knew this day was coming."

A loss to ASU.

Damn, gravity's ill.

I put the loss solely on Chase Budinger's shoulders. He looked good early on doing it all for UA as he hit 9 of UA's first 11 points. Then pulled the greatest disappearing act since Houdini for the rest of the night.

Let me see if I have this right. You're the reigning Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. It's your team. You're gearing up for the NBA next year. Shouldn't you take over the game at some point? Shouldn't you maybe take more than 5 shots in the second half?

Chase's second half stats: 5 points on 1-5 shooting (all from 3), 2 defensive boards. Wow.

I have no formal coaching experience, hell outside of giving the ball to Tracy McGrady every possession in NBA 2k2, I have no coaching experience at all. Still, I think it might have been a good idea for Chase to...hmm...DRIVE THE FUCK INSIDE or find his shot some where. I know ASU plays a solid zone, but UA's second half offense went as follows: four passes around the perimeter then settle for a bad 3 or dump it low to Jordan Hill. Every time.

Chase's overtime performance was equally impressive with his only shot being an off-balance, desperation 3 with 4 seconds on the clock, which clanked off the rim.

Chase second-half performance reminded me of my own play when I'm the worst player on a team at the rec. Stand around the perimeter and as soon as I catch the ball pass it back. But there's a big difference between an out-of-shape blogger and a team leader looking to go to the NBA.

A few quick notes:

• Remember last year when Jawann McClellen would take and hit 3s? What happened to those days?
• Zane Johnson meet the court.
• After Zane's 3 which hit the top of the backboard it might be a good idea to return to the comfort of the bench and shoot the shit with Kirk Walters.
• I can't even get into Bob Elliot tonight, but I hope he catches whatever Dickie V has.
• Solid return by UA after the embarrassing loss to Oregon on Saturday.

Where's P-Mac Nic Wise Moment of the Game: I hope it went something like this post game, "Chase how the fuck does the point guard only take 2 less shots than you? What the fuck were you doing out there?"

Final thoughts: When does softball season start again?

Good 'ol Duck blogging

As I do with all bad news related to my favorite teams, I've been sweeping Oregon's lackluster season under the blog rug. I figured that if I never mentioned the losses to St. Mary's, Nebraska, Oakland and ASU maybe the NCAA will forget about them too.

I also should thank my friends for not murdering me via text message, Facebook wall post or blogger comments after all those ridiculous losses. You're all much better people than me, because the big man up above (Christopher Wallace) knows I would never let that kind of failure go under the rug if my friends' teams were falling.

I really don't even know what to make of Oregon's shitty start to the season. As Bruce Pascoe points out here, all the numbers indicate they're fine, except for the only numbers that count. I haven't been reading The Oregonian as much as I should be, but I'm assuming John Hunt & Co. are pointing to a possible sophomore slump for Tajuan Porter, Joevan's injury or how huge Aaron Brooks really was. That or nobody gives a fuck since the Blazers are red hot.

Anyways here's the notes from today's UO at UA game, one of the games where I say I don't really care who wins, but I freak out every time Oregon hits a big shot and by the end of the game I'm going all-out for the Ducks.

• Nic Wise is starting. Tajuan Porter is not. I'm no doctor, but I am pretty sure at some point Nic might stole some of Tajuan's powers in a technique not seen since the Monstars stole Sir Charles' powers.
• At the 16:10 mark Jawann flew out of no where and blocked the shit out of Maarty Leunen, Jawann then flew into the base of the hoop. I thought for sure the 83-year-old McClellen would be out 6-8 months, but miraculously he got up and continued to play.
• When Chase Budinger's shot is on...Damn it's just beautiful. Regardless of how many buckets he hits I don't need to see his parents' reaction to every UA possession. Thanks FSN.
• I should throw it out there that I would have gone to this game if it were not part of UA's Holiday Package. I know it makes perfect economical sense to the ticketing department and Tucson locals, but it screws broke UA students.
• I would kill to be in a billiards class with Bryce Taylor and Malik Hairston.
• Who is that left-handed guy who just hit a shot for the Cats? Fendi-something...I am pretty sure most people forget he was on the roster.
• How bizarre is it that Warcraft now sponsors in-game stats?
• Yes I am loving every minute of Oregon's first-half 27-8 run.
• No I don't like seeing Tajuan Porter try to do too much with the ball then settling for a bad shot. His whole style of play is based on shots that need to go in or he looks like the dumbest guy on the court.
• Wow the Cats' weakside D, is just wow...Miserable.
• First half Ducks lead 48-37, shooting 60% from the field and 7-12 from deep. First-half pros: Oregon's shooting, transition game and quick shots inside. Cons: I ran out of ice cream and was forced to downgrade to Cheez-Its as an in-game snack.
• Honestly a huge halftime lunch knocked me out for the first 8 minutes of the second half. Where's P-Mac, Coverage you can count on.
• Cats got it close but Malik Hairston and the Ducks were just too much. Nice bounce-back win 84-74, Ducks.

Where's P-Mac Nic Wise Moment of the Game: I haven't done this in a while and in that 'while' Nic has been lighting it up, including his career-high 17 points Thursday against OSU. However today's WPMNWOTG is Nic's side-of-the-backboard clank with 40 seconds left in the game. After being wide open after a pump-fake Nic set himself up for 3 from the corner and hit straight rubber padding. Weights.

Sneaker Watch: Being at home and not having HD hurts. What also hurts is boring-ass team shoes, which almost, ALMOST make me miss Staf and Marcus Williams...Props to Tajuan on his UO Huarache 2k6s...Everyone else step your game up, it's not like you have to pay for them.

Randomness: OK I don't really read as much as I should, but this book based on 'what if's' got me thinking... What if LeBron went college, he would have murdered everyone right? Who the fuck would have stopped him? I don't see how he would have lost. Ever. They probably would have had to take some of John Wooden's 1960s and 70s wins away and gave them to Bron, just as a token of respect. Obviously we'll never know, but a 20-year R.I.P to Pistol Pete who didn't do bad for himself at LSU in his 3-year career there, averaging 44.2 ppg.

Cats at Illini

Arizona at Illinois...well pretty much at Illinois
Mini-recap:

UA came out like shit...Woke up...Actually Chase snoozed through the whole game...Nic Wise continued to be a beast...After I bashed him last week, Jordan Hill played a hell of a game...Cats win in OT 78-72.

Notes:

• What the fuck is up with Jawann McClellen shaving a "5" in the back of his head. First, it looks completely retarded, second do you need same numeral 18 inches from the 5 on the back of your jersey? Don't get me wrong I love some good art on the back of heads, word to Anthony Mason and Ron Artest, but hair art is something where you either go all out or keep the blade down, no in between. Jamelle Horne I see you too.
• Not related to UA hoops in any way, but I need to throw out this excerpt from the LA Times article:
• Ellerbe pointed to Mayweather's crossover potential by relaying a story about Halloween at the boxer's home. After his childhood of scaled-back Halloweens, Mayweather made three trips to the grocery store to stock up on candy bars for kids in his gated Las Vegas neighborhood. He gave away so many that the children who'd seen him on "Cribs" basked in his generosity by urging him to "make it rain" Snickers, a nod to his public cash displays.
• How the hell does Chase Budinger go the entire regulation without a field goal? Find your fucking shot. I still can't figure out, how a team leader can go a game without a field goal.

Where's P-Mac Nic Wise Moment of the Game: The moment of the game goes to ESPN's announcing crew for sucking Nic's dick throughout the game. "He's the spark plug of the entire team!" "He has such incredible quickness." "His defense is like a cobra strike!" "Another beautiful dime dropped by Nic." Plus many more I forgot, in addition to the lame "He's so wise" puns.

Sneaker Watch: Bayless going from the Lebron Vs in the first half to the Air Jordan Concord XIs in the second half, way to pay homage to the building that Mike built.

UMKC at UA

My first real game of the season. A real thriller as the Mid-Con/Summit league's University of Missouri Kansas City paid a visit to McKale to play the Lute-less Cats.

• Watching UMKC warm-up I notice they only have three black players on their team. If you doesn't murder them, this will be an embarrassment.
• No Weezy, but UA now plays a little pre-game Daft Punk. Respect.
  
• It's close all the way throughout the first half UMKC is actually leading at the 7-minute mark, 18-16. Keep in mind only one black dude started.
  
• After a quick run, UA goes into the second half, up 37-29. Although 9 first half turnovers and allowing 7 offensive boards made the first half almost unbearable to watch.
• UA finally wakes up 20 minutes into the game. Hitting 3s, getting boards, and playing with a little energy for a change of pace. All UA in the second half.
• Final 81-62. The Cats are back above .500, 2-1 baby!! Bring on Adams State.

Where's P-Mac Nic Wise Moment of the Game: Up 17 with 2:56 to go in the game, UMKC is taking the ball out of bounds with 8 seconds on the shot clock. Coach O'Neill brings in defensive specialist Nic Wise to make sure the UMKC Kangaroos don't bring this game any closer. As the shotclock expires, UMKC forces an off-balance deep 3-pointer from the top of the arc. Whistle, foul, 1-3, white. 3 at the line. Utterly incredible.

Sneaker Watch: This is where Mustafa and Marcus' departure hurts the team the most. Hate 'em or love 'em they always had nice kicks. Only thing worth mentioning in Monday night's game was Jawann's white/blue Huarache 2K4s. Raja would be proud. (By the way wasn't it always love it or hate before the Game/50 song. I swear to god they changed around the order of that saying. Maybe I'm just crazy)

Louis Nap Sack Where I hold'n all the Work at Moment of the Game: To the security guard who let bring in a nap sack full of Goldfish (that's just how real I keep it) after one of the other guards wanted me to throw them away. "To throw away that many Goldfish would be a crime," he said. I could agree more.

In Virginia, we smirked at that Simpson trial

The first official game notes of the season are going to be short and sweet, mainly because I wasn't at the game, but I caught enough of it to throw these notes down.

• Despite interim/permanent Coach O'Neill's request to deny Virginia any 3s. UVA hit them at will, often with nobody on them, giving them an early lead in the first half. Fast forward to the final minute of the game.
• 45 seconds: Sean Singletary busts Jordan Hills ankles with a crossover, Singletary then pulls up, and they're ain't shit for UA to do but look. Re-up, re-locate, re-off them brooks. 73-69, UVA. Next play Jerryd Bayless gets gully for a freshman and hits a deep 3 in the biggest game in his young career to put UA within 1, 73-72 with 28 seconds on the clock.
• Coach O'Neill's alleged cut-throat defense finally works and UA forces a 5-second violation as UVA tries to inbound the ball.
• What happened to that boy? Bayless gets ungully as freshman and makes a stupid mistake as he tries to catch the deep inbound pass, as he tries to prevent a back-court violation he passes the ball directly to UVA's Adrian Joeseph, who is quickly intentionally fouled.
• Joseph calmly sinks 2 at the line to put UVA up 75-72.
• Zona had a chance but ended up fucking it up horribly with 28 seconds to run a play.
• Virginia wins 75-72. Somewhere Pusha T and Malice are happy.

Where's P-Mac Nic Wise Moment of the Game: With 6:13 left in the second quarter and UA down by 3, Nic pulls a jumper from the top of the key, completely out of any rhythm of the offense. The result? Straight air homey. I guess you could chalk it up to nervous jitters, which makes a lot of sense in the second game of the regular season in your sophomore year.

Sneaker Watch: Coming soon.

That's a lot of Starburys

My most sincere apologies for the 14-day Where's P-Mac drought, not sponsored by The Empire. I was on strike with the writers guild until I realized that I never was getting paid in the first place and I'm not part of any guilds.

I was actually in New York City promoting Where's P-Mac East, and by promoting I mean scribbling Wherespmac.com on the walls of NYU's dorm halls. While I was there I did get to witness what may be Stephon Marbury's last game as a Knick.

I went to the World's Most Famous Arena Sunday night to watch the Knicks play the Heat, who are still waiting for D-Wade to get up for the eighth time. I was pumped to see Stephon Marbury, one of my favorite players ever, in action. Unfortunately Jason Williams owned Steph the whole night, getting steals, hitting game winners and forcing Steph to take a horrible shot as the clock expired. Miami ended up winning their first game of the season 75-72.

Since then Steph has vanished into thin air. Not playing in the Tuesday's loss to the Suns and now threatening to snitch on Freaky Zekey.

"Isiah has to start me," Marbury fumed, according to the source. "I've got so much (stuff) on Isiah and he knows it. He thinks he can (get) me. But I'll (get) him first. You have no idea what I know."

Since two of the leagues craziest people are involved, nobody knows what's going to happen, but Steph has already been fined $180,000 or 12,016 pairs of Starburys.

On to the college game. UA has got off to a stellar start edging out a garbage Northern Arizona by 7 points in their opening game. I missed the game, but according to every report, it was an underwhelming effort by Zona.

Bad news: The Lumberjacks shot 50 percent from the field in the second half and stayed in the game despite shooting 19 fewer free throws. The Cats were only up 3 with 52 seconds left. Jordan Hill fouled out and the other big men got handled by Big-Sky-caliber big men. Jerryd Bayless is not Gilbert Arenas.

Good news: The season is still pretty young and the Cats got the win.

Better news: Brandon Jennings officially signed on. The same Brandon Jennings who appears on the latest SLAM presents PUNKS cover.

Greg Hansen has been brutally honest on UA sports all year and he's not stopping for hoops.

Early contender for Where's P-Mac Nic Wise Moment of the Season: In a feature in Sunday's Daily Star hoops season preview Nic Wise (now a sophomore) listed English 101 as his toughest class this semester. Seriously Nic? English 101 is your toughest class in your sophomore year? The C.A.T.S. program must work miracles with these kids' schedules. Honorable mention goes to senior Jawann McClellen for listing Celtic Spiritualism as his toughest class.

Other items of importance:

A new DJ Khaled video for the "I'm so hood remix" with Busta Rhymes wearing 100 chains.

I don't even watch the shit any more but great quote from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, "It would just be a colossal dick move if they did that," regarding making shows without his writing or voice.

Great example of drugs ruining a rap career.

Great example of drugs ruining a rapper, then the said rapper realizes he's now mentally retarded, rolls with it and makes it work.

Umm...Ok.

Finally I can't make Saturday's UA game versus Virginia. If anybody out there wants to write some notes on the game for the site get at me (jadler1@email.arizona.edu). You won't make a dime, but your e-street cred will go through the roof.

Zzzzzz

Mad short recap for a mad boring game:

Red/Blue game, Tucson's first chance to see the '08 squad since Lute shafted us out of the Midnight Madness. Remember this isn't even exhibition, this is an intrasquad scrimmage.

• I am pretty sure before every Red-Blue game Lute thinks to himself, "This city loves me, let's see how boring of a speech I can give and still get a standing ovation."
• Seeing Bayless in the #0 uni just doesn't look right.
• The UA warm-up long-sleeve shirts are a shiny red, reminiscent of the satin baseball jackets really coked-out players would wear in the '80s.
• Every year I hope a UA freshman is going embrace their inner Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf and refuse to stand during the national anthem in their first collegiate game, just to stir things up a little. Every year I am disappointed.
• I didn't stay for the second half, but according to various WPM correspondents it was "very uneventful and mad boring."
• Jerryd Bayless had 26, mainly in the second half.
  
• Final score: 76-63, Blue. Seriously nothing happened in this game. I would hate to be an actual journalist and have to report on this.
  

Nic Wise Moment of the Game: Nic Wise thrives in the games that don't count. In an exhibition game last year he went 8-8 before burning himself out for the rest of the season. Tonight he dropped 13, including 3 treys, all in the first half, knowing that I wasn't watching the second half, so there really was no point to do anything special.

Random:
Please God.

I may have been wrong, well at least until the end of October.

I'm sure nobody witnessed it, but the women's team got blown out in their Red/Blue game by their male practice players. These aren't players from the men's team, just random dudes who play in the rec and are chosen to help the women practice. They beat a full-strength women's D1 squad 73-41.

New Cam'ron garbage single, saved by the verse:
"I picked up my intern, Andrea/
I keep her low like Bob Perry, so I pay her/
When I fuck her like Marbury, Isiah"

There is no link here, I just wanted to thank Ted Turner for another year of the NBA on TNT.

Where's P-Mac's

Since the college basketball preseason starts a week from today. Here is the WPM heavily-biased Pac-10 Preview. The teams are ranked in order, followed by their overall records and Pac-10 records from last season .

1. UCLA 30-6 (15-3)
Let's be honest, nobody is fucking with UCLA this year. The team is returning four starters from a team that made it to the final four, where they lost to eventual champion Florida. The returning class is highlighted by the Pac-10's best point guard, Darren Collison, who led the Pac-10 in steals and in three-point field goal percentage last year.

The scary part is that the Bruins are gaining two of the best freshman in the nation. Kevin Love won pretty much every top award in the nation, while averaging 33.9 points, 17.0 rebounds, 4.2 blocks and 4.0 assists per game last year at Lake Oswego (Oregon) HS. He was considered by many to be the top of his class, but I will always hate him for not staying local and going to Oregon.

Love is accompanied by fellow-freshman Chace Stanback, a two-time Division I state championship winner from Fairfax (Los Angeles) HS, led the Lions to a 28-5 mark last year. He averaged 25.8 points and 11.9 rebounds per game in his senior season.
On paper, I really don't see how anybody can beat UCLA.

2. Oregon 29-8 (11-7)
It may be wildly WPMish to put Oregon this high, it may not be. It all depends on how well the Ducks do in compensating for Aaron Brooks departure to the NBA. The Ducks, who made it to the Sweet 16 before being bounced by Florida return four starters, four of their top five scorers, four players who shot better than 40 percent from three-point range and four who averaged double figures. That's not a bad start. The big question is can Tajuan Porter play the point? The 5'6" Porter will have to prove he can hit an open man and run the offense as easily as he can hit an off-balance three from 35 feet.

Will Malik Hairston finally reach the hype he had coming out of high school? Will Tajuan Porter continue improving at a retarded rate? Can the rest of the squad please play like they did in the Pac-10 Tourney and blow teams out while shooting above 50 percent? God I hope so.

It's completely irrelevant to the basketball preview, but the fact that Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon is only enrolled in a Billiards class at UO is simply amazing. Why fuck with school, when you can lead a top-five football team?

3. USC 25-12 (11-7)
O.J. Mayo. O.J. Mayo. O.J. Mayo. Hype. Hype. Hype.

At the end of the day it really depends on if O.J. Mayo is the everything the media and himself makes him out to be.

SC lost Nick Young, Gabe Pruitt and Lodrick Stewart — who combined to average 44 points last season — but I guess O.J. can just try and average 44 points himself.

Apparently there are more Dunleavys in the world as the Trojans have freshman walk-on James Dunleavy, a 6-8 guard and the son of Los Angeles Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy on the roster.

4. Arizona 20-11 (11-7)
First things first, I read in the paper this morning that freshman pg Jerryd Bayless will be wearing #0 this season, since his high school #32 is retired for Sean Elliott. Jerryd if you don't lead Arizona to a national championship game while being the biggest bad-ass/goofball UA has ever seen, I will forever hate you for tarnishing Gilbert Arenas' legendary jersey. Jerryd, how about you wear #00 and honor Polkey, just stay the fuck off of #0. This is worse than when whoever it was decided to rock #3 at Georgetown.

Back to the preview, after their second-consecutive shitty (by UA standards) season and getting bounced for the second-straight time in the opening weekend of the Tourney, the Cats theme this season is take it game-by-game. They no longer break huddles with "Atlanta" (the site of last year's championship game), now they break huddles with "Eh, how about we just try and win this one."

I'm most excited to see if Kevin O'Neil can get Chase Budinger to play defense. If that does happen, Chase at the very least, should give O'Neil his first three NBA paychecks. Kevin O'Neil sounds like a fucking madman according to this Daily Star article. Anybody who Jordan Hill describes as a "nut case" is pretty gully in my eyes.

Bayless will be forced to try to redeem the good name of Point Guard U, which Mustafa Shakur treated as a 4-year technical institute for underachieving. It changes according to every new article but it's believed that Bayless will run the 1, while the official player of Where's P-Mac, Nic Wise plays the 2.

Key losses for the Cats: Hmm, I can't think of any.

Key gains: The aforementioned Bayless; bigman Alex Jacobsen, who may or may not red shirt; potential-sleeper and great defender pg Laval Lucas-Perry; bench warmer Zane Johnson.

The Wildcats have lost more weight than Jay in '88 this off-season. Nic Wise went from 195 to 175 and hopes to see a quickness he probably hasn't seen since middle school. Jawann McClellen dropped 10 pounds, down to 204, which will hopefully help his 80-year-old knees.

Interesting off-season note: Mohamed Tangara played three games in the African championships over the summer, then returned to campus because Mali wasn't going to be a factor in the championship, anyway (USA Today).

In a fight for token-goofy white guy, who will never see a minute of PT, newcomer Lucas Spencer knocked out former title holder David Bagga. Spencer won the bout by playing the "I went to a Catholic high school in Yuma, Arizona" card as well as the "I'm 6'5" 187 lbs" card. Lucas, best of luck in the classroom and make sure to keep the team G.P.A. high.

5. Washington State 26-8 (13-5)
Expected to be as shitty as Pullman, the Cougars came out of no where and surprised a lot of people last year, finishing in the top of the Pac-10. Like almost every other team in the Pac-10, they're returning four starters, including seniors Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver. I really don't know a whole lot else about WSU, except that their coach's name is Tony Bennett, but not this Tony Bennett. Also they wear Russell Athletic jerseys, which hurts them dramatically in WPM power rankings.

6. Stanford 18-13 (10-8)
Twin big-men Brook and Robin Lopez are beasts. Unfortunately Brook, who was already academically ineligible for at least the first nine games, is now suspended indefinitely for the ever-ambiguous "breaking team rules." The team will also be hosting in-season try-outs for the point guard slot as Anthony Goods will be moved to the shooting guard. If Stanford can get their shit together, they could be a dangerous team, most likely they wont and they'll get a few upsets, while lingering in Pac-10 mediocrity.

7. California 16-17 (6-12)
What do I know about Cal? Well they've got a couple of big guys, they're a Jordan Brand sponsored team and their head coach frequently played tennis at my former job. They really have no big names. They have no proven point guard. According to other previews, everyone on their team is either hurt or coming back from an injury and this is before the season has even started. This squad is probably going to suck. I'm only ranking them this high because I hate the other teams in the conference.

8. Washington 19-13 (8-10)
Again four starters back. Hardcore-conservative blogger/center Spencer Hawes (R) is gone to the NBA. Among the starters is Pac-10 leading douchebag Ryan Appleby, so I really don't even have to say much more. I hate this team. I wish them the worst.

9. Oregon State 11-21 (3-15)
Don't really care about them. They sucked last year. They will suck this year. Let's just move on to ASU.

10. Arizona State 8-22 (2-16)
I may be the most disloyal Wildcats fan on campus, but I still hate ASU. How much do I hate ASU? I hate Pat Tillman solely because he went to ASU, so I'd say I hate ASU a lot.

They are somewhat of a team on the come-up despite losing their first 14 Pac-10 games, although nine of the games were decided by six points of less. They return five of their top six scorers and they only have two players with more than a year of experience.

Honestly as a UA sports fan, we all need ASU to lose every basketball game, so we have something to say to retarded ASU fans who spew ASU football praise with Dennis Erickson's cum still in their mouth.

Salads and no more madness

So I get a shout-out in SLAM's online newsletter and what I do? Blog more stupidly. Seriously, getting a little love from SLAM online was the crowning moment of my journalism career, unfortunately mad school work and real work (blogging never paid the bills and I can barely remember the days when it filled kegs) have got in the way of any semi-regular posting.

Truth be told I'm not even sure the point of this post. Can I really base a post on Nic Wise falling in love with Caesar salads?

How about making a post about Lute Olson taking away Midnight...err 7-o'clock Madness. I understand how a true midnight practice could hurt the next day's practice, but is a bullshit dunk contest and even more bullshit scrimmage at 7 p.m. really gonna hurt the next morning's practice that bad? Probably not any more than these activities.
I only went to two, but my favorite Midnight Madness moment was when one of the women's players, Suzy Bofia I believe, tried to get in on the dunk contest. She barely got one with one hand and the women's team went nuts. Then she went up for another, missed, fell and crashed on her side. Hard. Quieted the whole crowd, except those who were trying to fight back laughter. For better or worse, she ended up being OK. It is still one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed and I would kill for a YouTube clip of it. One day I'll put up a random list of Suzy Bofia rumors, for being a no-name Cameroon basketball player, the broad has some crazy rumors about her.

While I'm on the note of women's hoops. Props to my Phoenix Mercury for winning it all.

There's no need to blog about the football team as they getting murdered in the papers (Greg Hansen killed them after the New Mexico loss) and on the message boards.

Marcus barely has a chance at the NBA. Hassan isn't doing much better.

There really isn't much more out there. Basketball season needs to start ASAP, it's getting ridiculous to the point where I had a dream that I got a D.U.I., but I was excited because I was with Gabe Pruitt and I'm not even a Gabe Pruitt fan.

No Screw. No lean. No fun.

I don't even know what to make of this. This happened on Sunday, but I held off on writing anything until today because it took that long to sink in. Nic Wise, the man who never saw a three he didn't like, the man who coach Olson accused of being afraid to go inside the perimeter, the man who once went 8-8 in an exhibition game and never came close to that in a real game, the man who became ineligible after failing to turn in a class project, is pretty lame in real life.

Nic's quotes were all underwhelming, which is OK, not everyone can drop gems into a recorder. But the following is completely unacceptable for a WPM Moment of the Game star:

1. Does not have a favorite D.J. Screw Tape

2. He claims to have never abused prescription cough syrup.

What the fuck is that?

Somewhere Screw is rolling over in his purple casket.

Nic how the hell you rep Kingwood/Houston and not have a favorite Screw tape nor a great story you and your boys sitting sideways?

Granted, for what ever reason Nic may have assumed the good H-town questions were on record, despite the fact that the notebook and recorder were tucked away. But still...who doesn't love talking about Screw and Purp.

This is like finding out Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy all don't exist on the same day.

Here is the little article I wrote on Nic and Jerryd Bayless playing together in the backcourt next year.

The best thing about the story was that when I asked Jordan Hill what was the name of the surgery he had on his wrist he replied, "I don't even know, it's a big word, I don't know."

Also Jordan Hill walked into the gym wearing a black brace on his wrist then took it off later to shake hands, apparently Hill was just using it to avoid the shaking hands with people he didn't like.

Here another bullshit article I wrote on c0-founder of the Tucson Summer Pro League Kelvin Eafon.

I never mentioned it, but big props to ol' Ivan and Mustafa for not getting drafted.

On a positive basketball note, Tajuan Porter is doing his thing in the U19 World Championships. No, I don't know why he's not on the U.S. Olympic team either.

Also the new Oregon Arena looks dope as fuck.

Lute's shakey season continues

Believe it or not, the above picture is not Lute Olson's attempt to draw a straight line. It's actually a mock Richter Scale of the earthquake that shook the Haas Pavilion tonight. Early reports indicate the quake was in no way related to Weezy F. Baby.

UA edged-out a win against the DeVon Hardin-less Cal Bears, which means that if the Cats can pick up a win at Standford on Saturday Lute can keep his 19-year streak of 20 wins and his 22-year streak of 11 Pac-10 wins alive.

No game notes, but here's all you really need:

Nic Wise Moment of the Game: All these DNPs are killing the NWMOTG, so we're gonna have to throw it back to a time when he was just a young Houston hard head all about the scrilla. Today we salute the Nic Wise who rocked the black/red XIs while the rest of the team rocked white team-edition kicks. Seriously though Lute, give Nic some burn he can't be any worse than Staf from behind the arc. (Click the picture below to enlarge)

Sneaker Watch: Mustafa Shakur all-black Zoom LeBron IV...Marcus Williams, Patrick Christopher and Jerome Randle white/grey Air Jordan XX2 (I'm thinking about investing in an HD-TV just to see if players are using the interchangeable double stack zoom air or the encapsulated air cushioning system).

UA alum in attendance: ABC's Tom Tolbert, which provoked the following conversation:
My roommate: Is that Fred Durst?
Me: No, but it's one of the few humans in the world on his level of douchiness.

Randomness: Best take on the entire Lute Olson situation...OK, this is the most random art ever...This just sucks...K-Mart has had my respect since he told the Nuggets announcer to introduce him with his JuCo and not Cincy after Cincy dropped Bobby Huggins, dude's a pimp.

Tales from the crib Vol. Fuck the Devils

Jumping straight into it...

• 18:28 Marcus Williams wets a 3, 7-nil, Cats.
• 17:32 Everyone's favorite Serbian misses 2 free throws.
• 16:47 Marcus gets another 3 to put the Cats up 10-2.
• 16:06 Radenovic' redeem himself and hits a pair from the line.
• 14:13 On a break-away Marcus spins to the basket. 14-7, Cat. Marucs has 8 of Zona's 14 points.
• Besides budget issues there is no excuse for ASU to not have their names on the back of their jerseys. This is not a storied basketball program. Right now, four out of the five guys on the court for ASU have lame golden undershirts. Lame.
• If anyone can find me a picture of any college player from the 90's when frayed shooting sleeves were cool, I will send you a 'Where's P-Mac' prize package.
• 12:00 Arizona has eight turnovers in the first eight minutes
• I try to check how many boards Chase Budinger has and this game is hardly acknowledged by CBS and not on ESPN's scoreboard page. Then I realize the Cats are no longer in the top-25. Dammit.
• 10:13 First miss of the night for the Cat as Jawann throws up an air ball from 15 feet.
• 8:36 A Budinger 3 puts the Cats back up 10, 22-12.
• 4:40 Serge Angounou hits another 3, the announcers say he takes the lead for the Devils. No Gary, the Cats are still up 24-20.
• 2:11 No. 11 hits a 3 for ASU. Tie game 28-28.
• 1:31 ASU takes the lead 31-30 and holds it until halftime. I could get into this being the whole reason why I don't love college ball like the NBA, but I don't feel like looking up enough stats to enforce everything.
• Halftime: I couldn't find actual stats to back this up, but I'd assume it looked something like offensive boards: UA: 3 ASU: 92
• 17:50 Nic Wise forgets that he is Nic Wise and clap for Chase after he gets an open dunk
• Much respect to Staf for pulling the most 'g' move you can pull in a basketball game* and switching kicks at halftime.
• * not including anything Nic Wise has ever done
• 16:10 Christian Polk throws up a deep three and catches the bottom of the backboard. Beautiful
• Jeff Pendergraph is a sophomore forward on a very, very weak ASU squad, yet Radenovic' is doing his best to make him look like one of the premier big men in the nation.
• 5:40 Radenovic misses a point-blank put back that could have increased the Cats lead from a pathetic three points, 49-46.
• 4:55 Chase drills a three from the top of the arc, 52-46, Cats.
• 4:10 Serge Angounou hits a 3 as the shot clock sounds to bring the Devils within 3, 49-52.
• 3:39 Marcus Williams lobs the ball to Chase, who goes to the 10th floor (c) Tom Leander, to complete the inbound alley-oop.
• Cats faithful love giving themselves false-hope for the current season by bringing up all the turmoil of the 1997 championship season, such as the 97 squad losing 4 of their last 7 games. This is along the same kind of bullshit lines as coaches telling high-school freshman, "I'm sorry we have to cut you, but did you know Michael Jordan got cut from his freshman high-school basketball team?" That's great and all, but 99.99999999999999999% of freshmen are not Jordan and the 2006 and 2007 Cats are not the 97 Cats.
• 1:36 An ASU three makes it a 1-pt game, 58-57.
• :40 Radenovic who is somehow 88% from the FT line misses the front end of an 1 and 1.
• 2.2 Derek Glasser gets fouled by Marcus on a 3-point attempt as the Devils are down 4, he makes the first two and accidentally makes the third. Nothing can go right for the Devils this season.
• 1.2 Chase goes to the line, hits a pair, that's the ballgame.
• Final 61-58

Nic Wise Moment of the Game: Late in the second half, Chase hits a big three for the Cats, stretching UA's lead back up to over 4. Again no emotion out of Nic. He just sits there, mean muggin' the court. One can only assume it involves Nic thinking knowing he is better than Chase. All I know is that this off-season, Lute and Nic better sit down over a cup of lean and hash things out to a Screw Tape or else Jerryd Bayless better be Jesus fucking Shuttlesworth.
-Anthony Tarnowski contributed to this NWMOTG


Sneaker Watch: Staf 1st half black/red Zoom LeBron IV...Staf 2nd half Air Max Penny I...Nobody else had anything new

Más: I was right last time Aaron Brooks was rocking Jordan B'Loyals...Solid take on this game done in a more professional manner...Did I ever mention I love Oregon...R.I.P. Shaun Livingston.

Thanks for nothing

Today was Senior Day which is basically like when an award show honors Two-and-a-half Men, why the fuck should we honor something that's at best mediocre and usually just sucks. Staf, I won't miss you and Ivan, I'm going to try to make one of those cool Men-in-Black memory eraser devices in an attempt to forget I ever had to watch you. Jerryd Bayless can't put on a Cats uniform soon enough for me. Here are the notes from the final home game of the 2007 season. For the record: the USC notes didn't happen because Antione Cason forced me stop the blogging presses. I apologize.

• 18:35 UCLA jump ahead 6-0 in a contest where both teams are wearing their away jerseys. Lute can't take it and calls a timeout to confirm Radenovic' is a real human and not just a hologram that players can drive through and rebound over.
• Whoever creates the "Zona Screw," the Zona Zoo's flier consisting of analysis and chants for the game, needs to note how I just wrote "their away jerseys." I don't know how you can make it to college and still write, "Arizona looks to swing momentum back to there side on senior day." Come on now.
• 16:48 Radenovic' misses his first lay-up of the game. I underestimated ol' Ivan, I would have taken the under on him missing a lay-up in the first three minutes of the game.
• 12:10 Darren Collison buries his second straight 3-pointer to put the Bruins up 23-11.
• Wilbur who came out in the game with some retarded, cheap UA shorts found his authentic joints and is now proudly cheering on Zona. He's also sporting a new #7 for the second game in a row.
• 10:08 Shakur is not disgracing himself on Senior Day. He wets two 3-pointers in a row to bring the Cats within six, 17-23.
• 8:46 Jordan Hill, who needs a gangsta nickname badly, has an emphatic two-handed dunk to make it 23 all.
• 6:38 Darren Collison finds Lorenzo Mata for an alley-oop to put UCLA back up seven, 30-23.
• Richard Jefferson, Luke Walton and Channing Frye make what I assume to be a little detour to see the Cats play before heading up to Vegas to take part in all the debauchery that is NBA All-Star Weekend. If I were in their shoes, well one, I'd be pissed because Luke wears L.A. Gears, but I'd bring a suitcase full of one million dollars, straight cash homey. Then I would just see how much fun I could have blowing it all in one night. That'd probably make for a sick blog post.
• 5:33 Staf drives to the paint and does...well what Staf does every fucking time. This time Darren Collison is called for the foul, but the point of the story is that Staf re-injures his right ankle, which has been bothering him for two weeks now.
• Enter Nic Wise, who checks into the game sans his cape headband.
• The dude behind me is proudly holding a sign that reads, "Tim Hardaway for President." I have no clue why he made this sign, granted it's funny as hell, but germane to absolutely nothing at the game. I would rather have Tim Hardaway as president, not because of the war in Iraq, knocking down the towers, or anything else college kids/Jadakiss loves to hate Bush for, but simply because Hardaway's "killer cross-over" was that sick.
  
• 2:48 After doing nothing and looking like a complete G while doing it, Nic is taken out of the game for Daniel Dillon.
• 1:42 I have no idea why, but Jawann does not check into the game until this point. What the hell is going on Lute.
• Marcus Williams gets an open lay-up as the buzzer sounds.
  
• Somehow the Cats are only down one at the half, 35-34.
• The greatest halftime event of all time happens when my friend Craig wins a Zona'd-out Vespa. I looked every where on the Internet and couldn't find a picture of it. Picture candy-apple red paint with huge UA logos all over it. And it's a fucking Vespa! I'll get some pictures and post them soon enough.
  
• Things to officially note about Craig:
  
• 1. He is a loyal bears fan.
• 2. He has been to almost every Cats game and has not removed one game-day wristband from his arm. Ever.
• 3. He skipped our 4:30 English class on Thursday to get in line for the 8:30 USC game.
• Feel free to make your own lame caption, that would have still not been funny a few years ago, about this picture of Staf getting his Justin Timberlake on.
• As I walk around the McKale Center in my Steve Kerr Chicago Bulls jersey a man selling Eegees icees tells me that he has the same jersey and jokes that I stole his. I actually saw the three-toothed man laying in a campus park while wearing the jersey. I assumed he was a g'd-up bum, although the line between bum and Eegees vendor is very, very gray.
• 15:16 Josh Shipp sneaks back door and finishes a sick alley-oop from Arron Afflalo. 47-40, UCLA.
• 13:15 I have no real evidence to back this up but I'm pretty sure Marcus Williams never makes his free-throw attempt on and-1s. It's weird that the leading scorer and a man who is deadly from the elbow cannot hit a free throw. The Cats are within four, 46-50.
• 7:03 Darren Collison sinks a 3 with a second on the shot clock. 60-50, UCLA.
• 5:43 With the Cats down 12 Chase hits a three and gets fouled in the act. He hits the free throw, 56-64, UCLA.
• 3:35 Michael Roll hits another 3 for UCLA as the shot clock expires. Lute goes insane as the Bruins continue to pull away, 61-74.
• I hope somebody from Staf's family got a picture of Staf in his final game at McKale as he stood at the line with 2:15 on the clock. It be as godly as Mike's 6.6-second picture, but if I'm from Philly and playing in my last home game, that's a pretty cool pic.
• The Cats lose 81-66 and drop to 17-9, 8-7 on the season.
  
• The seniors are honored post game. My friend and I are the only ones booing Radenovic' who finished the game with a stellar 4 points and 3 boards, the final two boards coming in the last 1:30 of the game.
  
• I will give it up to Staf for having a solid game, 17 points, 6 dimes, 4 boards, and only 2 turnovers.
  
• Props to Darren Collison who dropped 17 and had a career-high 15 dimes to go with it.

Nic Wise Moment of the Game: When Chase Budinger hit a huge 3-pointer and was fouled in front of his own bench, everyone hopped off the bench to pick him up and give him a few high-fives. Everyone except Nic Wise. Why the fuck would Nic get off the bench to congratulate him, Nic could have done that himself. Easily. In fact, I'm sure Nic could have done it much better and probably got at least 5 points out of it.

Sneaker Watch: Mustafa Shakur finished his McKale Center career in the black/red Zoom LeBron IV...Ivan Radenovic' failed miserably in some white/red Air Force 25s...JawannMcClellen white/red Air Force 90...Daniel Dillon black/red Air Force 90...Jordan Hill black/Carolina blue Jordan Melo 5.5...Josh Shipp and Russell Westbrook white/royal blue Adidas Gil Zero Mid...Luc Richard Mbah a Moute royal blue Adidas Pro Model S...Marcus Williams wore some the same all-black Nikes that I may never be able to figure out.

On a random note, why the hell is Britney Spears rocking a Fila hoody?

Cats, snakes, chickens, ducks, elderly people and twerkers I presents to you...Round II

The rematch. No. 13 Oregon hosting No. 24 Arizona in a Coaches vs. Cancer game where both coaches are sporting the Larry David look and wearing sneakers with dress pants. I've decided that before I die I need to sit amongst the Pit Crew in the McArthur Court, it's like the Zona Zoo, except much bigger and with energy. Also random props to Gonzaga's Josh Heytvelt and Theo Davis for being pulled over with marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms. Some notes from the afternoon.

• 17.10 Jordan Hill gets his first block of the game, Chase is starting a cold missing all three of his first 3-ball attempts.
• 15.28 Tajuan "I've never seen a 3 I didn't like" Porter already has two misses from NBA plus five feet 3-point land. It's 9-4, Cats, after a 7-0 UA run.

• 14:25 Marcus Williams does not miss from the elbow. Ever. 11-4 Cats.
• 12:35 Maarty Leunen hits a 3 to put the Ducks up 14-13.
• 11:48 Tajuan buries a stupid-long 3-pointer, 17-15 Ducks. Lute doesn't even wait for the media time out and calls one himself.
• Joey Harrington, Ahmad Rashad aka Bobby Moore and God himself, Phil Knight are all sitting courtside supporting their team.
• 5:20 A Bryce Taylor dunk makes it 25-23, Ducks.
• 4:40 Tajuan jacks up his 237th 3-pointer of the game from about 40 feet out and draws straight air. Bryce Taylor follows up the disaster with a dunk with the foul.28-23 Ducks.
• 4:00 Mitch Platt goes up for a fastbreak lay-up and gets swatted by Shakur. For as much shit as I give Staf, nobody in the Pac-10 can fuck with his transition defense.
• 3:21 Radenovic misses a lay-up and The Pit chants "USA USA USA." I've never been more impressed with a college, I log online and begin to fill out transfer papers.
• :50 Bryce Taylor hits a 3 from dead center to put the Ducks up 10 36-26.
• 2.7 Jordan Hill launches an inbound pass a full 94 feet to nobody. Ducks ball underneath their own hoop.
• 2.7 Aaron Brookes finds Bryce Taylor for an easy lay-up 38-28, Ducks at the half.
• 3-pt FG UA 1-7 ORE 5-12
• Chase leads the Cats with 13 on 6-10 shooting.
• Bryce Taylor has 14, shooting 6-9.
• Maarty Leunen has 10 connecting on 2-3 of his 3's. Also worth noting is that he is not foreign, despite being a big white guy who can hit a 3. One of the brilliant ABC announcers keeps alluding to his European upbringing despite the fact that he was born in Washington, according to Oregon's athletics web site.
• 17.55 After threes from Chase and Marcus the Cats trail by 2, 38-40.
  
• 15.03 Oregon gets up 9, 47-38, after a Leuen 3 and shitty Cats turnovers. Staf gets angry and does what he does best. He drives right side throws up a bullshit shot and eventually draws a foul. He hits one of his two attempts after being bombarded with chants of "Urkel."
• 14.09 Chamberlain Oguchi misses an open lay-up, grabs his own board and steps out of bounds. Well done Champ, well done. 47-42, Ducks.
  
• The Pit begins chants of "Chase is ugly."
  
• 12.15 Joevan Catron should stick to slanging customized Nikes and Tims. Catron turns it over, then has Chase rebound a Jawaan miss over him and put the ball back. Catron gets out-rebounded on the block by Radenovic! and then fouled the ol' Serbian. At the end of it all it's 51-52, Ducks.
• It's noted that Malik Hairston only considered Nike schools when picking colleges. I cry tears of pride for the man I've never met in my life.
  
• 8.22 Tajuan pulls up from 20 to hit a 3-pointer on 2 on none fastbreak. Ruthless. 64-55, Ducks.
  
• 4.44 Jawann gets his first 3 of the game, 64-66, Ducks.
  
• 3.52 Chase hits a jumper to tie it at 66 all.
  
• 3.15 A Marcus Williams hook give the Cats their first lead in a very long time 68-66.
  
• 2.23 Aaron Brookes continues his off-week with an airball. Chase grabs the rebound, throws a gorgeous outlet to Marcus Williams who gets a tough bucket and a foul. He misses the and-1 but steals the ball back to find Chase for a 3 to make it a five point posession.
  
• 1.39 Malik Hairston responds with a three, 69-73, Cats.
  
• 1.00 With a minute left Tajuan jacks up and misses another retardedly long 3 completely out of the sync of any offense. I love it.
  
• :59 Aaron Brookes is now rocking a band-aid on his face á la Nelly. He connects on a purr of free throws to pull the Ducks to within two, 73-71.
• 22.2 Tajuan buries a 3 from the corner to put the Ducks on top 74-73.
  
• Ernie Kent is down for the count after being bull-dozed by a ref. He gets back up because he is as much a soldier as he is an unloyal husband.
• Enter the takeover of the 'Where's P-Mac' anti-heroes.
  
• 6.0 Ivan motherfucking Radenovic actually hits a tough shot to put the Cats up 75-74.
• 2.9 Staf takes a charge on Aaron Brookes to get the ball back to the Cats.
  
• Chase hits both attempts on a one and one.
  
• The ball is inbounded to Tajuan who turns it over before he can jack up a shot. Game over. Cats win 77-74.
  

Nic Wise Moment of the Game: I'm going to have to rely on my mind reading skills for today's NWMOTG. Today's moment is when Nic walked off the court and thought to himself, "Why the fuck am I even going to my classes," after not logging a minute in the second straight game. Nic you gotta do what you gotta do. Even if that means you have to start boycotting classes again to send a message to the team.

Sneaker Watch: The coaches wasted their opportunity and wore running shoes. Come on Coach Kent, you have a great shoe-customizer on your bench, don't let all that potential go to waste....Marcus Williams black/silver Air Jordan Retro V (below)...Nothing else too exciting, at least from what I could tell from my 20'' television.

More tales from the crib

No. 24 Arizona in Oregon's version of Tucson, aka Corvallis, home of Oregon State University. We should have killed this team since, they are just ahead of the still-defeated ASU in the Pac-10 and they have lost their past six games. Unfortunately it was close throughout and we only beat the now 9-16 OSU squad by six. Here's a few brief notes.

• 19:40 20 seconds into the game Staf gets his first turnover. It's a good thing I'm not a betting man because I would have taken the over on whether Staf could record a turnover in 30 seconds.
• 19:14 Chase hits a jumper and the lame announcer says, "Chase with a long deuce." I don't know, maybe I'm just more immature than I think.
• 17.:18 Marcus Williams gets a quick bucket off a Staf assist. I really can't say enough how smooth and effortless Williams' shots are.
• 15:14 OSU's Wesley Washington rips Staf then gets an easy dunk.
• 14:30 "Shakur makes a nifty little move in the air but was a little indecisive," the lame announcer says. If FSN wanted to save some money they could drop one announcer, put this clip on a soundboard and play it every time Staf has the ball.
• 14:03 Marcel Jones give OSU its first lead, 11-9.
• 12:58 Williams strokes a three to put the Cats back up, 14-11, and give Williams his seventh point of the night.
• ????: FSN goes a long stretch of the game with clock and just the words "1st Half." Jawann misses a trey, Wililams grabs a tough board and beasts his way inside for a bucket and the foul. No good on the FT, but still 24-21, Cats.
• ????: Angelo Tsagarakis hits a 3 to make it 26 all.
• ????: Jawann gets a nice two-handed dunk to put the Cats up 28-30.
• I start to get bored with the game so I watch it while surfing ol' web.
• Not so quick on Borat 2.
• I can't wait for this magazine.
• With an 8-point run the Cats close out the first half on top, 36-28.
• Sasa Cuic leads all scorers with 13, Williams is second with 11 points.
  
• Staf has 0 points, 3 dimes, 3 steals, 3 turnovers.
• 19:30 I shout ouf "Fuck you Staf!" after he misses a break-away two-handed dunk. He gets the eventual bucket but still I'm still counting down to the Jerryd Bayless era.
  
• "A conscious n**** that'll mac like Steve Jobs" - The C-O-double-M-O-to-the-N. Just off "A Dream" and "Southside" I am so fucking excited for Finding Forever.
• Fast forward through the Taye Diggs (I think) and Reggie Bush nonsense to start.
  
  
• 18:30 Williams buries another long 3, 41-30 Cats.
  
• 17.45 Radenovic''s (I just realized he technically has the Donte' Stallworth-thing thing on) inability to handle a ball in the paint leads to another turnover and an OSU fastbreak bucket.
  
• 16:37 Cuic hits another 3, 43-37 Cats.
  
• 15.15 Cuic with another 3 to bring OSU within 3, 45-42.
• 14.40 josh Tarver ties it up with a 3 off a Cuic assist.
  
• 14.20 Radenovic' hits a long 2 to put the Cats back up, 47-45.
• 12.09 Jawann finds Jordan Hill underneath for a dunk, 52-49.
• I wake up and it's 2:30 in the morning. Damn intramural basketball for knocking me out in the middle of a Cats game. I turn off the TV, hope the Cats won, rollover and go back to bed.
• Cats won by six, 72-66. Here's the boxscore for those who care.
  
• I actually have to give it up to Radenovic' for hitting 13-16 FT to make himself the second leading scorer, 19, behind Williams, 23.
• Chase only had four points and we still won.

Nic Wise Moment of the Game: Lute didn't even play Daniel Dillon, so Nic Wise didn't have a chance of getting in the game, which goes to show how much Zona sucks that we cannot blow out the second to worst team in the Pac-10. The Nic Wise Moment of the Game is tough when he logs a DNP, but he sure does make sitting on the bench look cool, I may give myself a DNP in my next intramural game to be just like him.

Sneaker Watch: Nothing really new, except that I finally figured out that Jawann has been rocking Nike Air Flight 89s, as seen below.

Mucho Baloncesto

Intramural ball, Washington State at Arizona, Cleveland at Miami, Oregon at UCLA, San Antonio at Phoenix. That's a hell of a lot of basketball, here's the recaps.

Arizona vs. Washington State
There's no 'Where's P-Mac' of tonight's Arizona versus Washington State game. I decided to take a break from Zona ball after dedicating over nine hours to the UNC massacre. Actually, I would have gone to tonight's game if intramural basketball wasn't scheduled for the same time. Turns out I didn't miss much. Just new career lows for the Lute Olson era of Arizona basketball. This makes two consecutive years of fucked up basketball for UA, coincidentally the first two years I've been at UA. At least last year we could put the blame on Chris Rodgers' insanity and Hassan Adams' DUI completely killing the team chemistry. This year was supposed to be much different. Everybody loved each other, no one was afraid to take a shot. Chase was supposed to return UA to being a threat from beyond the arc. Staf was going to finally get his degree from Point Guard U. Where did it all go wrong. Every one's here and healthy, except for Kirk Walters who would have helped but not made that big a difference. Bret Brielmaier missed a few games and his presence was missed inside, but it still isn't enough to explain the current skid. Since the 12-game winning streak was broken in Pullman, UA has lost six of its past eight games. Arizona has dropped to 14-7 and 5-5 in Pac-10 play. I just prey Jerryd Bayless can Carmelo his way to a championship so I can flip over a few cars while rioting on Fourth Avenue.

Fortunately my superficial heart will love the Cats as long as they maintain the best kicks in the Pac-10. Honestly, after playing every team in the Pac-10 I can say we have the most legit collection. Tonight at least we went out in style with Staf and Marcus both bringing out fresh pairs of Jordan Retro Vs, fire-reds and flint greys, respectively. All photographers (UA SID, AZ Daily Star, Cisco, Daily Wildcat) please step your game up and get some full body pics so I can post some pics here. I'm still trying to figure out what Jawann has been wearing and if anybody has any clue please let me know. Thanks to the Arizona Daily Star for the pic.

**Update ESPN.com came through with these pics


I only got to see the second half of the game so I missed Nic Wise's five minutes in the first half and according to the box score his only stat was a missed 3-pointer. I'm sure it was a real gangsta miss though.

Final 66-72


Cleveland vs. Miami
I only caught the final few seconds of this game because it was on the same time as the Cats game. LeBron choked on a few free-throws, accidentally clotheslined Dwayne Wade, got a lucky bounce on a 3, missed the chance to tie the game and lost 89-92.

Oregon vs. UCLA
I didn't see much of this game because dinner got in the way and it was on the same time as the Suns' game. Oregon lost 57-69. Props to Adrian Stelly on another great DNP.

San Antonio vs. Phoenix
I only watched parts of this game for one reason or another. Even though I have to root against him, Manu Ginobli is one of the coolest dudes in the league. I love watching this dude play, even if he knees Amaré in the balls. Suns ended up winning their 18^th first game in a row. Fuck KG. TNT's analysis is best sports analysis on television. Easily the most entertaining as well, I can't wait for the Dick Bavetta vs. Charles Barkely showdown at all-star weekend.