Without a doubt I’m out here with this discussion, and it’s virtually impossible to be Joe Flacco (i.e. money) with my picks. I’m so out here I’d quickly trade places with President Obama – ESPN’s most famous bracketeer the past four years – in sorting out the looming sequestration debacle. Too easy? Well, during any filibusters I guess I could take a shot at explaining why such a brilliant entrepreneur like Earvin Johnson would wave a million dollars at LeBron in an attempt to coerce him into participating in the listless Slam Dunk contest during the 2014 All Star Weekend. Now that he’s won his first ring he should focus on the NBA’s lower dangling fruit? Magic definitely didn’t become the wealthy man he’s become taking such… long shots. No seriously, his NBA earnings were made in your grandfather’s NBA.

Okay, let me quit just sitting on this pot.

You know it’s a crazy season when you take a look at the national rankings in March and Gonzaga is atop both the AP Top 25 and USA Today Coaches Poll. Despite having just two losses a week before the West Coast Conference tourney and the fact NBA HoF’er John Stockton’s son David may be the only PG in the country to average three passes per game without jumping into mid-air, I’m looking elsewhere. The Bulldogs have great size and have solidified their credibility as a contender in The Dance every year, but since shedding their Cinderella tag several years ago Mark Few and his team still have some glass slipper-ish moments around that Sweet 16 stage.

As we move down to slots #2-#5 in the current rankings we find a bunch of programs I’m most likely to put my Joe Flacco on.

#2. Indiana – I just heard on today’s Around the Horn ep the Hoosiers are 6-0 vs ranked teams this season. I’m not a loser! I don’t have a crack research staff and Bill Plaschke is a white guy on TV with facial hair – he’s cool with me. That “sampled” stat aside, I’m rolling with the Hoosiers to go all the way because they have an All American post threat in soph F Cody Zeller so I don’t foresee them having problems scoring early in games and getting hamstrung playing from behind in double-digit deficits for large periods of time. Add in a pair of 1,000 point scorers in 6′ 9″ Sr F Christian Watford (if he can somehow get turnt up) and the emerging 6′ 5″ Jr G Victor Oladipo (Dickie V’s 2013 guy he’s going to vehemently convince us should be drafted highly and will develop into a solid contributor at the next level). I was going to say I see Corey Brewer written all over Oladipo, but my top researcher (aka myself on another tab at ESPN.com) just informed me CB’s averaging almost 12 PPG for the Denver Nuggets… As I was saying, the only negatives for me are Coach Tom Crean’s only made one Final Four appearance while at the helm of Marquette in 2003, and the fact freshmen G Yogi Ferrell runs the show.
My kicker: Look, we witnessed the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame engineer an undefeated regular season to proudly notch its return to the FBS BCS National Championship game this past fall. The 49ers returned to the NFL’s Super Bowl. I believe we continue with the nostalgia of sports’ greatest teams and programs of the ’80s and ’90s and the Hoosiers, clad in their classic candy striped warm-up pants, cut down the nets April 8th.

#3. Duke – Two words: Coach K. The Blue Devils also have a post presence in F Marshall Plumlee. They have the sharp shooting Sr G Seth Curry – the surname Curry has been synonymous with March Madness in recent years. Duke also saw the highly anticipated return of Sr 6′ 11″ F Ryan Kelly culminate in a 36 point eruption (7/9 in 3 pt FGs) in a statement victory over ACC leader University of Miami.
My question: Does Coach K manage Kelly’s return a lot better than the season spanning absence of Kyrie Irving two years ago? Kelly’s return is considerably earlier so Duke could enter the tourney with some true Blue Magic potency in its attack.

#4. Kansas – I like Coach Self because he seems to have built himself. I’ve watched him pay dues along the way in his stops at Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Illinois and now Kansas – where it all started for him under the wing of Larry Brown. Self won a ‘Ship in 2008 and surprisingly made it back to the title game in 2012 in what many experts thought was a reload year. The Jayhawks head for The Dance with a handful of losses, a steadily improving difference maker in the middle, the experience of last year’s run, and collecting a resounding 79-42 win over Texas Tech. (A later point of mine will be Michigan’s late-season loss to Penn St who was 0-14 in conference play.)
The Jayhawk’s chances: Coach Self is obviously a beast so I see them making a run, but I just don’t see a title.

#5. Georgetown Hoyas – Admittedly, I am quite fond of the handful of schools that are prestigious enough to rock the Jumpman symbol on their unis. Even though MJ never shot a single jumper for them! That’s love… or exceptional marketing on behalf of the crew at the Jordan Brand. Second confession: I am an ardent Big “6 Personal Fouls” East fan.
Back to the Hoyas.
I keep waiting for Lil’ John, Coach John Thompson III, to ride the vaunted Princeton offense and its signature back-door cuts to the Final Four. I think coach has had better teams, and the Hoyas fell off my radar after hitting a brief bad patch earlier in the year – a 73-45 loss at home to Pitt and an inexcusable road loss to the Bulls. The USF Bulls. And we wonder why the Big East is being disassembled a la Johnny Five. (A little mid-80s film reference. Short Circuit. Pre-CGI. Bing it.) Remember, nostalgia is my theme?
However, the Hoyas righted the ship and have completed another solid season. I’m interested to see whether soph F Otto Porter, Jr can take the program where Hoya elders Jeff Green or Greg Monroe couldn’t. That said, my lead researcher just pointed out the crucial stat that has bothered me about the last 10 Georgetown teams: currently ranked 228th in Points Per Game.
Final assessment: Some deadly 3 pt shooter at Northern Illinois or Creighton (Doug McDermott 23.4 PPG and .507 beyond the arc) is going to disappoint me by upending these cats in Rd 2.

The others I will keep an eye on…

Miami Hurricanes – The Canes have been a welcomed surprise this year. They hit double digits in ACC wins before their first defeat, split the season series with Duke (maybe not a bad indicator, the Cameron Indoor meeting was Senior Night and the highly anticipated return of Blue Devil big Ryan Kelly), loss to Ga. Tech four days later maybe because… Awww c’mon, this is a football school. Even after a decade of woeful seasons on the gridiron and a LeBron sighting at a home game this winter, Luther Campbell himself probably couldn’t name all five starters. Besides, the last Canes hooper to make it to the league is New Orlean’s standout Jimmy Graham. Not a standout for the fightin’ Pelicans but for the National Football League’s New Orleans Saints.
Louisville, Michigan State and Ohio State – I honestly love all three of these teams to reach the Final Four or win it all. They all simply play solid ball at both ends of the court, and are driven by three of  best coaches in college. Pitino – his signature all-white suit games and his after hour restaurant counter conquests aside – has seemingly devolved from one of the college game’s most beloved coaches to one of Tony Soprano’s most productive earners. Coach Izzo has long been the don of Midwest basketball, and manages to leave his imprint on the brackets every March. Thad Matta has successfully made basketball relevant in football crazed Columbus, OH. I can’t think of a coach whose in-game focus is more acute than Matta. Any grown man that can pick his chewing gum up, mid-tantrum, off of the nasty space that is a basketball game’s bench area and jam it back into his own mouth in front of live cameras and 50,000 fans is focused on the task at hand. After thinking on that for a sec, I can admit that I haven’t ever really just “kept it moving” to the true spirit of that phrase.
While I love the Cards’ frenetic pace, Sparty’s defensive commitment, the Buckeyes’ on-ball defense of its PG and the inside/outside game of its leading scoring Deshaun Thomas (his growing mid-post arsenal results in shots with lower difficulty ratings); something bothers me. The starting Gs for these schools - Peyton Siva, Keith Appling, and Aaron Craft - would combine for a game of horse that would last well beyond the run-time of the complete Roots mini-series without the ratings. I’ll close with the importance of a great PG in March in just a second.
The Final Run
I know I either lost you after Indiana or I’m quickly losing you – time still is money. But this is March Madness bruh, it can’t be summed up in 250 words… we’re just missing the wings and some ice cold tall IPA’s here!

Let me press through this quickly…

Syracuse Orange. This group has simply been in a free fall over the latter part of this season. Senior G Brandon Triche is a 4 yr starter but hasn’t shown signs of being able to single-handedly power the Orange to greatness. I’m going to see what he does in the final Big East match up between G’Town and ‘Cuse that jumps off in about a half hour – see whether I see any pre-cursor to what Triche might be bringing to the Big East tourney. (Boxing has its bell rings in remembrance of its fallen greats, can we get 10 clock buzzers for this moment of history?) No pulp, some pulp, lots of pulp… either way I only see the Orange getting 2 wins. (Obviously this wasn’t posted by the time I was shooting for, but ‘Cuse was beaten from pillar to post in their final Big East showdown with G’Town.)

Michigan Wolverines. In my Deion “Primetime” Sanders voice: this is my ba-by right here!!! I embrace my bias! Trey Burke may be the best player in the country and, as expected, it has worked out well with him coming back for a 2nd campaign in Ann Arbor, rejoining his backcourt mate Tim Hardaway, Jr for a stellar year. However, we are… excuse me, they are a jump shooting team I have watched play from behind all year. More importantly, I’ve seen them in huge first half deficits against most of the game’s top teams this season. Huge deficits in March are rarely survived, and once the crowd gets behind the David(s) in the battle not too many Goliath’s prevail. I see a MAC- or A-10-type squad in the bracket somewhere eager to shock Blue in the 2nd round – Ohio Bobcats, a VCU, or a Memphis. A steady GR III for three weeks could solve a lot of problems for Coach Beilein, and bode well for a Wolverines Final Four run.

Full timeout here for my importance of the college PG take (I noticed they’re only calling them Gs now): Look, I’m specifically talking about textbook point guards who by definition run the show on the offensive end of the court with total autonomy. My question is who is going to – starting with their respective conference tourneys next week – channel their inner Randolph Childress (of all listed failed to get his team a ‘Ship, but his ACC tourney though), Juan Dixon, Mateen Cleaves, Kemba Walker, etc etc etc… and, put their teams on their back for a legendary run? Maybe I should pare that list down to only include Walker in light of his Herculean efforts of 2011 – we’re talking like 10 games of unprecedented HAaM (Human Acting as a Mutant) folks. That said, former Terp PG Juan Dixon’s back-to-back Final Fours in ’01 and ’02 (‘Ship) was the template for my importance of the college PG rant before Walker’s riveting performance. I don’t know if UofM’s Burke is capable of playing dogged enough to pull it off because of his reliance on the trey, and maybe that’s only a flaw in his late game shot selection, but he’s about the only G in whom I’ve seen glimpses of that Dixon-Walker “gene”. Burke, only a sophomore, is likely gone next year so now would be the perfect timing, and it’d make for a memorable tournament. (I need to strongly consider Rumeal Robinson for my list since I’ve included Cleaves.)

As I dribble out the final :12… I’d love to see Arizona’s Coach Sean Miller do something unexpected with his Wildcats. Miller, Crean, Thad, Cincy’s Mick Cronin – all of these guys have moved into some of the game’s loftier head coaching spots, and at some point one has to do like Kansas’ Self and be the next great coach. Billy the Kid Donovan’s Gators had some bite early on and mid-season, and I fully expect them to be roaming the waters of The Dance with a sense of urgency. Butler probably resurfaces and maybe Akron or Creighton shake up some brackets too.

Well, game over. The final buzzer. I’m sticking with the Hoosiers to win it all, and I’m totally confident college hoops fans everywhere are going to have an excellent time regardless of what program is the last team standing. Just remember, the only time it’s acceptable to hold back during the madness is that moment right before tip off!

@EpluribusWood

by Skyyhook January 1st, 2013 @ 6:48pm

un·der·ground
Existing, situated, operating, or taking place beneath the surface of the ground, hidden or secret; not open, published or produced by political or social radicals or nonconformists: avant-garde; experimental.

In other words, unique, different, something special that is not like everything else. The Underground.

In 2012 The Underground Hip Hop scene found itself expanding and transforming into an almost unrecognizable entity from most any other year. As the mainstream industry finds itself in virtual free fall, The Underground is not only thriving but morphing into a place where artists from all realms are finding their own ways to succeed without a major machine behind them. Underground artists have genuinely changed to meet the handful of definitions of what Underground truly means. This is a list of 50 such artists that caught our eye in 2012. They’re not the only ones we checked out, and are not the only one’s we liked! And as with any list, the final choices were formidable! With so much talent out here trying to pick but a few is next to impossible! The Underground list is not based on a popularity contest by any means. If you are dope, it doesn’t matter if you have 600 followers or 6 million. This list is one of the rare places where an artist makes it on talent. We hope to introduce you to some new artists on the verge, showcase some artists you already let us know you were feeling this year and reintroduce you to some of your favorites that made their presence felt with a great impact in 2012 ! The Underground no longer means without merit, or unknown. Each artist here has challenged listeners to take part in their journey whether it be creating their own lanes through a mean stage game, lending a voice through music to social causes or the culture, creating a real movement toward self-amelioration, showcasing an ability to get a grass roots musical revolution started simply by having great music, or just through making music that made the listener bob their head and hit repeat! Please check out AllHipHop.com’s Best Of The Underground for 2012!

With fresh new music on his latest EP, Psalm, a new wife, and a whole new world around him, Brooklyn’s underground phenom Soul Khan is stepping out of the box and giving it another go-round with a new sound and flavor to his already infamous husky voice.

AllHipHop.com caught up with the brainy member of Brown Bag AllStars for a frank discussion on his previous battle days, his philosophy on what keeps him hot in a rap world full of Ratchetry Worship, and what this latest project means to him. Read on: http://ahh.fm/?p=166470

The multi-talented artist Black Thought recently sat down with AllHipHop.com to discuss his role in the new movie,Yelling To The Sky, starring Zoe Kravitz. This particular interview was an AllHipHop.com first, as we are certain it’s the only time a rapper has ever done an entire interview with us while running on a treadmill! Artists, take note – that’s how you work on breath control for your music!

The always impressive Black Thought talked about the filming of Yelling To The Sky, his secret girlfriend since the ’80s, the upcoming Grammy Awards, and some exclusive details about his other recent projects. See The Rest Here => http://ahh.fm/?p=166754

Katt Williams is from my hometown. He has been held up on a high pedestal for being one of the few that have made it out of our small Ohio city and gone on to have actually, really done something amazing for themselves. The current roster contains his name, along with John Legend and Dave Chappelle – and, as you can see, that totals only three guys out there doing it. So to all of us on the home team, that is saying a lot!

Katt took a city’s hopes and dreams and lived them out. It saddens the community that he has spiraled down a murky path as of late, and many hope that he will decide to return home so he can find insulation and protection from those who apparently are preying on his sickness. To many, he is just a comedian with problems, or maybe even one of the funniest guys they know of, but where he’s from, he is a part of a legacy. This is worth remembering, because the fear is that people will be saying these words at his funeral if he doesn’t get some major help soon.

Read The Rest Here ==> http://ahh.fm/?p=165431

One week ago, something happened in the world of Hip-Hop that shouldn’t have happened. It flat out, categorically should not have happened. However, it did happen, and it was rewarded with tons of press and with bloggers and major media writers alike reporting on it – but for reasons that lend more toward click counts and link shares than for actually speaking on the significance of the event itself.

So what was this event, and what happened? Slick Rick got booed at a recent halftime show at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn. See the rest of the editorial here: http://ahh.fm/?p=163307

by Skyyhook (@SkyyhookRadio) October 31st, 2012 @ 9:14am

While currently in the thick of his U.S. “The Heist Tour” with Macklemore and his brand new project, The Focus Tape, which is making waves among the Hip-Hop faithful, Dee-1 has his hands full.

AllHipHop.com sat down with the New Orleans phenom to find out what the spitter has to say about the single “Stupid Fools”, as well as how his faith and inspiring others through his commitment to walk the talk, guides him throughout the industry. Check out our conversation with former teacher-turned-rapper, Dee-1:

http://ahh.fm/?p=156916

He’s created a name for himself thus far for his phenomenal production skills and his eclectic voice within the conglomerate of spitters known as the Brown Bag AllStars. And, with his recent EP titled I Think That…, The Audible Doctor has demonstrated yet again that he is ready, willing, and able to step up to most any rap challenge.

His readiness is even more apparent now that his new solo project has dropped, and in a recent meeting with AllHipHop.com, The Audible Doctor spoke on I Think That…and his feelings about stepping to the front of the stage on his own. He also promised he isn’t going to be “shutting up anytime soon!” Check out AllHipHop.com’s interview with Brown Bag Allstars member, Audible Doctor: 

Read The Rest Here ==> ahh.fm/?p=155830

Throughout the Hip-Hop realm, there are a growing number of artists trying to purposely remain independent. This phenomenon of the last five to 10 years has increased the need for independent labels to exist solely to accommodate these artists. However, there are a lot of misunderstandings about how easy it is to start and successfully run such a label.

AllHipHop.com sat down with a brand new label put together by a guy who is anything but brand new to the underground/independent Hip-Hop scene. Whether it’s through his own blog – run with writing partner OC Supreme – or the writing and reviews he has done with various music publications, or his efforts with releasing mixtapes for several independent acts, Throat Chop U has proven that his ability for discerning what’s pleasing to the eardrums is not just a fluke, it’s a talent. Check out AllHipHop.com’s interview with The Mad Blogger’s and Throat Chop Music’s own Throat Chop U: Please see Full Article Here => http://ahh.fm/?p=155141