Brian Scalabrine

The native of Enumclaw, Wash., is an All-Pac 10 center on the USC basketball team, which plays UCLA today at Pauley Pavilion.

Welcome to the Big City: When I first got here, I went to a club over on Sunset, but that was the last of it. It was just too wild. I’m kind of a laid-back guy, and it was just too much for me. It was crazy, you know? There were transsexuals dancing on stage. It was just tripping me out. It was my third week here, and I just could not believe what I was seeing.

More His Speed: I kind of just like to go to the mall and the movies with my girlfriend. Stuff like that.

Street Scene: Most of the time, if I have family or friends visiting, a mainstay for me is the Third Street Promenade. We walk around and I show them the [street performers]. I go down there a lot. I really like the acts. They’re very entertaining people. And the people that I take are usually from other parts of the country. I’m from Seattle, and we don’t have anything like that in Seattle.

Macho Man: I like to eat at this place called Las Barcas. It’s a Mexican food place near campus, over on Vermont. It’s great. The burritos are, like, so huge. And to get a burrito that I have trouble finishing--because I’m a big guy [6 feet 9, 250 pounds]--is hard to do. The place is cheap, it’s real good food, and it’s a clean place. It looks like a hole in the wall, but it’s real nice inside. I get the Super Macho, their biggest burrito. It costs $4.50, and it’s huge. I really don’t know how they stay in business.

I’ll Sit This One Out: I take recruits down to Venice, because a lot of basketball guys want to see the courts down there. They’ve heard a lot about them, from movies and things. I like to watch, but I don’t play. It’s a little too argumentative for me. I just like to play basketball. I don’t really like to argue about calls or anything like that. All those guys do is argue down there. It’s part of the culture.