Josh Q. Public:  Attitude, when I’m on fire.  Juice on the loose, electric wire.  Simple and plain, give me the lane.  I’ll throw it down your throat like Barkley.  See the car keys, you’ll never get these.  They belong to the Ohio State posse.  -Public Enemy

Public Service Announcement:  OK, here we go!  Another day, another dolla, for the top dogg with the gold flea colla.  Holla!  Holla at your boy.  Holla at Greg Oden.  Goodness gracious me oh my-oh!  Look what’s cookin’ in Ohio!  Greg Oden.  Man Child.  Man-child, he will make you cry.  Man-child, man-child, man-child.  He’s the apple of your eye.  Greg  Oden.  The Gigantic-O.  Greg Oden.  Making the Buckeyes go.  Greg Oden.  Now you know.  You know I love this guy.  You know I think he is going to win NBA Championship after NBA Championship.  First thing’s first though.  First he’s gotta win the NCAA Championship.  He will.  Simon says… championship.  This is it.  Make no mistake where you are.  This is it.  Your back’s to the corner.  This is it.  The waiting is over.  No room to run, no way to hide.  No time for wondering why.  It’s here.  The moment is now.  About to decide.  Kenny Loggins style.  Greg Oden is going to decide.  Decide the outcome of this game.  Greg Oden is the key to Ohio State’s National Championship hopes.  Sure Fast Mike Conley has been playing great.  Sure Ron Lewis has been the pride of the Buckeye state.  But it’s Greg Oden who has to carry that weight.  Carry that wait a long time.  He’ll never give you his pillow.  What he will give you, is a chance to win.  A very good chance.  A chance to dance.  Dance like Jack Palance.  Don’t look at the stat sheet.  That’s not the Gigantic-O’s game.  Not what makes you say his name.  Not what puts everyone else to shame.  No, he doesn’t dominate the stat sheet, but his imprint is all over Ohio State’s success.  If you saw the second half of the Georgetown game, you know what I mean.  You saw the machine.  Saw him on your hi-def screen.  Thirteen gigantic points.  Nine gigantic boards.  One gigantic block.  Hibbert who?  He gives you a chance to win because he plays defense.  Extraordinary defense.  Superior interior defense.  He is a presence down low.  A presence to be reckoned with.  He totally alters what the other team tries to do.  Not in my hizzy.  Get that weak schnit outta here.  Striking fear into the hearts of men.  The boy that you loved is the man that you fear.  Yes, they fear him.  They headlight deer him.  Folks do not want bring the ball anywhere near him.  Not Roy Hibbert.  Not Jeff Green.  Not Joakim Noah.  Not Al Hortford.  Not nobody.  Why would they.  How could they.  Why should they.  You know what they say.  Defense wins championships and all that.  But Oden can fill it up if has to.  You saw that little run against the Hoyas.  You know the one.  The one that made you get up on your feet.  The one that brought the heat.  The one that was tough as concrete.  The finest cut of meat.  Scoring eight of OSU’s fifteen to start the second half.  Sparked a 10-2 run to start the second half.  Blew the Hoyas straight out of the Georgia Dome to start the second half.  Baby hook.  Baby hook.  Two handed phi slamma bamma jamma!  Dunk you very much.  Goodness.  The missed tomahawk.  Gracious!  The jumper from the baseline with the kissss.  If that spurt didn’t move you.  If it didn’t groove you.  If it didn’t J-Schmoove you.  You got no heart.  Fight the team across the field, show them Ohio’s here.  Set the earth reverberating with a mighty cheer.  Rah! Rah! Rah!  Hit them hard and see how they fall.  Never let that team get the ball.  Hail!  Hail!  Hail!  The Gigantic-O is here! 

Peace out homies. Six Two and Even!

Josh Q. Public:  It’s a town full of losers, and I’m pulling out of here to win.  -Bruce Springsteen

Public Service Announcement:  OK, here we go!  Bracketology, huh?  If that’s the case, then I’m dropping science like Newton dropped the apple.  Flying high like my main man Ben Franklin’s kite.  I got a theorem that makes Pythagoras‘ look silly.  Wanna hear it?  Want to endear it?  Getting ready to stand up and cheer it?  Ok then, here we go, put your good ear up to it.  The Ohio State University Buckeyes.  That’s it.  That’s right.  It’s Buckeye time.  Why bother with the other brackets?  This is the only one that matters.  Goodness gracious me-oh-my-oh!  Can you smell what they got cookin’ in Ohio?  Meatloaf always says:  “Now don’t be sad, ’cause two out of three ain’t bad.”  I say, sad?  Are you out of your cotton pickin’ minds?  The Buckeyes just smashed On Wisconsin, On Wisconsin, for the second straight time.  Smashed ‘em real good like.  Yesterday was floor general, Mike Conley’s day.  Fast Mike Conley.  Real fast Mike Conley.  Quick too.  Fast Mike Conley scored eighteen points.  Fast Mike Conley had eight dimes.  Fast Mike Conley had six boards.  He ran.  And ran.  And ran some more.  Ran the the Badgers right into the floor.  Wisconsin’s Kammron Taylor:  “They have a lot of athletes on that team, and they like to get up and down.  I think the first two times that we played them, we kind of controlled that, and we let it get away from us. Today, we allowed them to get out and get on a break, and it caught up with us.”  It certainly did, Kammron, it certainly did.  You know what else caught up with Wisconsin?  That’s right.  The Big Man.  Double-double.  Get the papers, get the papers.  Double-double after only playing just six minutes in the first half.  But don’t look at the numbers.  His game is not a numbers game.   Not Suduku.  Believe me you.  His game needs a more analytical review.  Oden is just a presence inside.  A huge presence inside.  He takes the other team out of their games.  So much so, they can’t remember their names.  Makes them feel a world of shame.  But if you need numbers.  If that’s what floats your boat.  Just look to the Conference Semis.  Look to the OSU/Purdue game.  Look to his seventeen points.  Better yet, look to his nineteen boards.  His Big Ten Tournament record, nineteen boards.  A behemoth on the boards.   Big Daddy Don Bodine Behemoth.  As behemoth as his rim rockin’, Boilermaker shockin’, stop the clockin’ dunk.  You saw the dunk.  You saw the funk.  You saw the Gigantic-O sky over Carl Landry and David Teague.  Sky over them and slam home the missed shot.  Yowza!  Greg Oden.  The Man Child.  The Beast.  The Gigantic-O.  There is nobody in the NBA right now I wouldn’t trade to land this guy.  Nobody.  He is going to win NBA Championship after NBA championship.  There is nobody in the college game who can come near him.  Nobody.  No, not even Kevin Durant.  And no rational argument can convince me otherwise.  He completely alters the other team’s game.  Not in my hizzy.  Striking fear into the hearts of men.  Winning the NCAA Tourney.  One more year!  One more year!  Settle down everybody.  My Celtics need him worse than you do.

Peace out homies.  Six two and Even!

Josh Q. Public:  I’m goin back to Indiana, back to wear I started from.  Goin’ back to Indiana, Indiana here I come!  -Jackson Five

Public Service Announcement:  OK, here we go!  Just a short one today.  I got stuff to do today.  Important stuff to do today.  To do do do today.  Is there a cooler award?  The aura.  The mystique.  The humanity.  Like my main man Coach Norman Dale always says: ”Welcome to Indiana basketball.”  Mr. Basketball.  Indiana Mr. Basketball.  Since 1939, the Indianapolis Star has picked one.  Since 1939, the Indianapolis star has made it fun.  More fun than a Gil Hodges homerun.  Indiana’s number one.  Today, I give you my all time Indiana Mr. Basketball team.  Five players on the floor functioning as one single unit: team, team, team, no one more important than the other. 

PG:  Do I even have to say it?  Don’t you already know?  That cat from so long ago.  The Cat that goes by the name of the Big-O.  That cat that always put on a show.  Put on a show at Crispus Attucks High School.  Put on a show at the University of Cincinnati.  Put on a show in the 1960 Olympics.  Put on a show in the NBA.  Averaged a triple-double in the NBA.  Averaged more than thirty points per game in six of his first seven seasons in the NBA.  Became the first player to  average more than ten dimes per game in the NBA.  Led the league in both scoring and assists in the same season in the NBA.  The only guard in NBA history to ever average more than ten boards per game.  And he did it three times!  Goodness!  Oscar Robertson.  All-World Mr. Basketball.  He just seemed to know everything there is to know about the greatest game ever invented.

SG:  Bobby Knight’s boy.  The current head coach of the University of Iowa Hawkeye men’s basketball squad.  Played for his own father at  New Castle Chrysler High School.  Played for the General at Indiana University.  Played for the Hoosiers.  Jimmy Chitwood style.  He left Indiana as the university’s all time leading scorer with 2,438 points.  He left Indiana as the first player to be named the team’s MVP four straight years.  He left Indiana as Big Ten MVP.  He left Indiana a champion.  He left Indiana never getting caught watchin’ the paint dry. 

SF:  Jared Jefferies.  Bloomington High School North.  He can do it all.  He rebounds the rock.  He handles the rock.  He puts the rock in the hole.  I’ve seen him, shoot but there’s more to the game than shooting.  There’s fundamentals and defense.  Jared defends the rock.  That’s what he does.  He’s the stopper.  Thr traffic copper.  The judo, you know, chop chop chopper.  He’s the guy who defends the guy.  The LeBrons.  The Kobes.  Those guys.  Those are his assignments.   Those are his missions.  And he chooses to accept them.  He doesn’t sel####estruct. 

PF:  Leave the ball, will you, George?  George McGinnis.  Washington High School.  Undefeated Washington High School.  State Champion Washington High School.  University of Indiana.  The first sophomore to lead the Big Ten in scoring and rebounding at the University of Indiana.  ABA.  Indiana Pacers.  An Indiana guy through and through.  Tastier than chicken cordon bleu.  Making sure Hoosiers everywhere had a courtside view.  Member of the 1972 and 1973 Indiana Pacers ABA Championship teams.  Three-time All-ABA First Team.  Second Team All-ABA selection.  Three-time ABA All-Star.  ABA scoring title .  Selected as ABA Co-MVP, with Julius Erving.  NBA.  76ers.  Get along 76ers, Charles Barkley dissed Larry Bird.  G-Love style.  First Team All-NBA selection.  Second Team All-NBA.  Three-time NBA All-Star.   George McGinnis.  ‘Nuff said.

C:  Greg Oden.  This may be a little premature, but I don’t care.  I’m on the bandwagon, and I ain’t getting off.  He’s a real special kid and, and I have high hopes for him.  Premature?  Maybe.  But I’m going to my media assassin, Harry Allen, I gotta ask him.  Yo Harry, you’re a writer, is he that type?  You best believe the hype!  Flavor Flav style.   Bill Russell blocks.  Blocks his own team takes control of.  This kid plays very, very smart.  A regular Einstein.  The one eyed wonder, Dickie V thinks so.  He says this diaper dandy is the best big man in college basketball in the last thirty years.  I tend to agree.   The Colossal-O swats one back.  Not in my hizzy.  The Colossal-O hustles down the floor.  The Colossal-O gets it back for two.  The Colossal-O gets a standing-O.   You don’t think this kid’s the real deal?  Think again tough guy.  Know this.  Know that from here on in, everybody else is playing for second. Saddle your ponies, you bet!

Honorable Mentions:  Tom and #### VanArsdale- Manuel HS;  Ron Bonham- Muncie Central HS;  Kent Benson- New Castle HS; Kyle Macy- Peru HS;  Damon Bailey- Bedford North Lawrence HS; Glenn Robinson- Gary Roosevelt HS;  Bryce Drew- Valparaiso HS; Sean May-  Bloomington North HS

Peace out homies.  Six Two and Even!

Josh Q. Public:  Man-child, he will make you cry.  Man-child, man-child, man-child.  He’s the apple of your eye.  -Neneh Cherry

Public Service Announcement:  Ok, here we go!  Every time I think about these guys, I feel I have to write about them.  I feel it’s my duty.  Hah ha ha, doody.  The Ohio State University.  The Ohio State University Buckeyes.  The Ohio State University Buckeyes basketball.  Nobody’s doing it better.  Nobody does it half as good.  Baby, they're the best.  Like my main man Larry Legend always says:  “I want all of you to know I am winning this thing.  Who’s playing for second?”  You can UCLA me, you can Florida me, you can try to Butler Bulldog  me, heck, you can even Tarheel and feather me, nobody’s beating The Ohio State University Buckeyes for the NCAA Basketball Championship.  And I mean nobody.  I’d be amazed if they even lose another game.  They're putting folks to shame.   Say my name.  They’ve moved up the polls to number three but they remain number one in my heart.  The main reason?  You know by now.  How many different ways can I say it?  Greg Oden.  The Man Child.  The Beast.  The Gigantic-O.  There is nobody in the NBA right now I wouldn’t trade to land this guy.  Nobody.  He is going to win NBA Championship after NBA championship.  There is nobody in the college game who can come near him.  Nobody.  You can Kevin Durant me, I'm still not biting.  He completely alters the other team’s game.  Not in my hizzy.  Striking fear into the hearts of men.  Over and over again.   Knocking balls into orbit like my main man John Glenn.  He is not alone.  He does not play in a vacuum.  He plays alongside his old high school teammate.  Mike Conley Jr.  A tough kid who like the Gigantic-O, has grown accustomed to winning.  This kid runs the show and can make shots with both hands.   He’s got wheels.  His father was an Olympian in track.   Mike Jr. plays an unselfish game but can fill it up if he has to.  This cat is one of the best floor generals to come around in a while.  He makes you smile.   A Triple threat.  Triple trouble.  Get the papers, get the papers, get the papers.  Then there’s Dunbar’s own Daequan Cook.  Good Look Daequan Cook.  Put that in your rhyming book.  This kid can shoot.  His jump shot is pure and he’s got range.  He’s athletic and can finish at and above the rim.  These three kids along with Ivan Harris, Ron Lewis and Othello Hunter are going to be tough to beat.   Tough to unseat.  They're a tough cut of meat.  Tough as concrete.  Can you feel the heat?  This team, coached by Thad Matta, Thad Matta, who has coached all of his teams to at least 20 victories, is going to be tough to beat.  Impossible to beat.  They will tear those meeces to pieces.  Make mincemeat out of ‘em.  Everybody else is playing for second.

Peace out homies.  Six two and even!