Canine Nicknames and Mascots Amongst College Basketball Schools

According to a bracketologist for "Slate," the Albany Great Danes, a 16-seed team that lost to the Florida Gators in spite of playing a solid game, would have been the team to win it all based on dog lovers' choices.

But, long before we saw that bracket, we thought of the idea. In fact, we usually post an entry with canine college nicknames every March (we think!).

Here are ten schools with doggie nicknames and doggie mascots:

1) Albany Great Danes.*

2) Univ. of Connecticut Huskies. Jonathan the Husky (pictured top)*

3) Georgetown Hoyas. Jack the Bulldog (former legendary Georgetown coach John Thompson and Patrick Ewing are pictured center)^

4) Boston Univ. Terriers. Rhett the Boston Terrier. (pictured bottom)^

5) Gonzaga Bulldogs. Spike.*

6) Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. ^

7) Wofford Terriers.*

8) Washington U Huskies. Harry the Husky.

9) Southern Illinois Salukis.

10) Yale Bulldogs. Handsome Dan.

http://www.slate.com

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/

More College Nicknames- Dukes, Bluejays and Anteaters

Here is our follow-up from yesterday's entry on college nicknames. Perhaps even long-time ESPN college basketball commentator Dick Vitale doesn't know a few of the more obscure ones:

More Smart Schools:

1. California Golden Bears (Cal; Pac-12)*
2. Brown Bears (R.I.; Ivy)
3. Lafayette Leopards (Pa, Patriot League)
4. JMU Dukes (Va; Colonial- pictured top)*

More Angry Birds:

5. Louisville Cardinals (Ky; Big East)*
6. Creighton Bluejays  (Neb.; Missouri Valley)*
7. Illinois State Redbirds (Ill.; Missouri Valley)
8. Kansas Jayhawks (Kan.; Big-12-pictured center)*

Canines and Foxes

9. The Citadel Bulldogs (SC, Southern Con.)
10. Boston University Terriers (Mass., America East)
11. Georgetown Hoyas (Wash. D.C.; Big East- pictured bottom, that is Patrick Ewings' jersey)
12. Marist Red Foxes (New York, Metro-Atlantic)

Best of the Rest

13. UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos (Calif.; Big West)
14. Campbell Fighting Camels (NC; Big South)
15.DePaul Blue Demons (Ill.; Big East)
16. Mississippi Valley Delta Devils (Ms., SWAC)
17. UC-Irvine Anteaters (Calif.' Big West)

College Nicknames- Birds and Cats

Here we go again (we have done this for three years in a row, I think):

Smart Schools

1.Vanderbilt Commodores (Tenn., SEC)
2. Duke Blue Devils (NC, ACC-pictured)#
3. Northwestern Wildcats (Ill, Big 10)
4. Yale Bulldogs (Conn.; Ivy League) *^
5. Lehigh Mountain Hawks (Pa., Patriot League)

Felines

6. Davidson Wildcats (NC, Southern Con)#
7. Auburn Tigers (Ala.; SEC) *
8. College of Charleston Cougars (SC, Southern Con.)

9. Columbia Lions (NY; Ivy League)
10. Pitt Panthers (Pa; Big East- pictured) #*
11. Southern U Jaguars (La; SWAC)#

Angry Birds

12. Temple Owls (Pa, A-10, pictured)#*
13. Southeast Missouri Red Hawks (Mo; Ohio Valley)@
14. Winthrop Eagles (SC, Big South)

15. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (SC, Big South)
16. Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles (Ms, USA)
17. Monmouth Hawks (NJ. Northeast)


#-Schools which are in NCAA field of 68 schools

*- Schools with College Gymnastics programs

^-Schools with Hockey programs

@-Schools that were members of the now defunct Metro Conference

Kudos to Harvard

The Harvard Crimson men's basketball team won its last two home and regular season games in victories over Columbia University 56-51 and Cornell University 66-56. Prior to Harvard's out-right Ivy League crowns over the last two years, Cornell, located in Ithaca, NY, and nicknamed the Big Red, had won several league titles in a row.

The Crimson edged out Princeton for this year's league title.

Harvard, a 14-seed, will now face New Mexico, the three-seed, at 9:50 p.m., eastern time, in Salt Lake City, Utah (where the local time will be 7:50 p.m.) in the opening round of the West Region for the tourney.

The Crimson have two basketball in the mid-Atlantic region, which is also known as 'ACC Country,' in Michael Hall, a freshman forward/center, and Christian Webster, a senior from Washington, DC. Harvard's coach Tommy Amaker played college basketball at Duke University, an ACC powerhouse. The Blue Devils are a two-seed and they will face the Albany University Great Danes in the first round.

The nation's capital is also home of the most well-known current living Harvard alum in President Barack Obama; he has picked the Indiana University Hoosiers to win it all, which seemingly illustrates that he don't suffer from sour grapes since the state that voted for him in 2008, went red for Mitt Romney, who seems to have disappeared like D.B. Copper, in last year's presidential election.

The mascot for Harvard is John Harvard (pictured above).

http://www.harvard.edu

Colleges Nicknames- Is that Really Tulsa's Nickname?

We conclude our project of showing the nicknames of 96 different NCAA schools (in men's college basketball). We wish we could share them all them all, but there are 334 schools! If it's any consilation, I left out the Radford University Highlanders, my own alma mater.

Today, we look at some of the most distinctive and in some cases outright strange college nicknames.

One that always stands out from the pack is the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes. For those of you residing in Sri Lanka who are perhaps unfamiliar with American geography, Tulsa, Oklahoma, is far, far away from both coasts. Though Oklahoma is quite vulnerable to tornadoes. Nevertheless, it is an absolute impossibility that Oklahoma could ever get hit by a hurricane.

The three schools we have pictured here are the Akron Zips, the Sacramento State Hornets and the Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos.

Of the schools listed here, it is a virtual certainty that both Florida and Georgetown will into the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Florida A & M has a chance if they beat Norfolk State today in the MEAC semi-finals and then win the conference tourney. Akron is also in their conference tournament semi-finals today as they face Kent State.

We believe that we got all 33 or 33 of the conferences, but we did inadvertently snub some states, including West Virginia, Minnesota, New Mexico and New Hampshire. While we did have a huge number of schools of these eight lists from North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and California.


Here are the teams, yes we are not making some of these crazy nicknames up:

1. Akron Zips, Mid-America, Akron, Ohio.

2. Denver Pioneers, Sun Belt, Denver, Colo.

3. East Tennessee State Buccaneers, Atlantic Sun, Johnson City, Tenn.

4. Evansville Purple Aces, Missouri Valley, Evansville, Ind.

5. Florida Gators, SEC, Gainesville, Fla.

6. Florida A & M Rattlers, MEAC, Tallahassee, Fla.

7. Georgetown Hoyas, Big East, Washington, DC.

8. Maine Black Bears, Northeast, Orono, Maine.

9. Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos, Summit, Kansas City, Mo.

10. Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, Big Sky, Flagstaff, Ariz.

11. Sacramento State Hornets, Big Sky, Sacramento, Calif.

12. Tulsa Golden Hurricanes, C-USA, Tulsa, Okl.

Colleges Nicknames: Big Dogs on Campus

Today's list of college team nicknames continues with a list of 12 schools that have dog-related nicknames, including the three pictured here: Albany Great Danes, James Madison University Dukes and the Southern Illionois Salukis.

The Loyola (Md.) Greyhounds out of Baltimore are assured of a NCAA bid as they won the Metro Atlantic Conference tournament earlier this week.

The North Carolina State Wolfpack which won their ACC tournament opener over Boston College (not to be confused with Boston University which is on this list; for those of you in Malta, they are seaprate schools!) while playing in Atlanta today are among the 'bubble teams,' which may or may not make the NCAA field.

Here is our list of schools with dog or dog-related nicknames:

1. Alabama A & M Bulldogs, SWAC, Normal, Ala.

2. Albany Great Danes, America East, Albany, NY

3. Arkansas State Red Wolves, Sun Belt, Jonesboro, Ark.

4. Boston Uniersity Terriers, America East, Boston, Mass.

5. Georgia Bulldogs, SEC, Athens, Ga.

6. JMU Dukes, Colonial Athletic, Harrisonburg, Va.

7. Loyola (Md.) Greyhounds, Metro Atlantic, Baltimore, Md.

8. Marist Red Foxes, Metro Atlantic, Poughkeepsie, NY

9. Nevada Wolf Pack, Western Atletic, Reno, Nev.

10. North Carolina State Wolfpack, ACC, Raleigh, NC

11. Southern Illinois Salukis, Missouri Valley, Carbondale, Ill.

12. Washington Huskies, PAC-12, Seattle, Wash.

Colleges Nicknames List: Smart Schools

Since the Harvard University men's basketball team has been enjoying an exceptional season, thanks in part to Brandyn Curry from Huntersville, NC, we thought we'd dedicate an entire list to smart schools and their nicknames.

I thought about jokingly adding my own alma mater Radford University, located in Radford, Va., but that seemed like a conflict of interests_ not that bloggers actually care about these things. But, one of the schools listed here the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT, and yes, they are in the Great West Conference?!), happens to also have RU's nickname, which is Highlanders.

Here is the list, in addition to Harvard, Duke and Vanderbilt are assured of being in the NCAA tournament while Northwestern is a bubble team:

1. American University Eagles. Patriot League. Washignton, DC.

2. Cal-Poly Mustangs. Big West. Ponoma, Calif.

3. Colorado Buffaloes. Pac-12. Boulder, Colo.

4. Cornell Big Red. Ivy. Ithaca, NY.

5. Duke Bluedevils. ACC. Durham, NC.

6. Harvard Crimson. Ivy. Cambridge, Mass.

7. NJIT Highlanders. Great West. Newark, NJ.

8. Northwestern Wildcats. Big 10. Evanston, Ill.

9. Stanford Cardinal. Pac-12. Palo Alto, Calif.

10. Vanderbilt Commodores. SEC. Nashville, Tenn.

11. Wake Forest Demon Deacons. ACC. Winston-Salem, NC

12. William and Mary Tribe. Colonial Athletic. Williamsburg, Va.

Chicago Teenager Has Perfect NCAA Brackets!

Alex Hermann, 17, has made national headlines by somehow managing to pick every NCAA Tournament game correctly so far. (As we write this, Butler is beating Syracuse 5-0, so one more team from my Final Four could be gone. Georgetown and Villanova have biten the proverbial dust so far!).

Hermann, who is autistic and lives in the Chicago area, picked Northern Iowa to upset Kansas, Ohio to beat Georgetown and Cornell to whack Wisconsin.

The odds of such success is one in 13,460,000! Hermann has said that he was shocked by his success, but as he told various media outlets: "I am very good with math."

My other Final Four team West Virginia is in the Sweet 16, but one of the their star players was injured in practice this week.

We are picturing the Kansas State Wildcats cheerleaders in this entry because that team is set to face Xavier (Ohio) in the Sweet 16, and we think one of them should actually date a smart guy like Hermann.....but, we all know Archie always gets the girl over Jughead!

March Madness with Mapquest (for Friday Games)

As I indicated on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire," this may be one of the craziest things I've done in a long while as I used MapQuest.com to figure out the distances between the teams facing each other in the Sweet 16 NCAA Men's Basketball tournament.

The move is perhaps more zany because all of the teams are playing on neutral sites though Baylor University located in Waco, Tex., is playing the St. Mary's Gaels, located in Moraga, Calif., in Houston which is in Baylor's home state.

For this entry, we are focusing on the Friday night games. The other games and teams were mentioned in the 'Vampire' entry (see links).

The other game that will be played in Houston will feature the Duke Blue Devils (pictured here) against Purdue University from West Laffayette, Ind.

Meanwhile in St.Louis, the cinderella Northern Iowa Panthers will face the Michigan State Spartans from the Big Ten. The other game in Arch City will between Ohio State and Tennessee.

Before this tourney, I was actually not certain which town Northern Iowa University was in. As it turns out, they are located in Cedar Falls, Iowa, which is also the home of Pepper's Grill and Sports Pub. The bar is about 515 miles (an 8 hour, 20 minute drive) from the Michigan State Student Bookstore in East Lansing, Mich.

Since I'm a Turkish-American, I couldn't resist seeing how far Cafe Istanbul, located at 3983 Worth Ave in Columbus, Ohio, which is the home of Ohio State, was from Niro's Gyros, a Greek restaurant located at 711 17th Street SW, in Knoxville, Tenn. It turns out the two restaurants from rival ethnic groups are 369 miles apart, which makes for about a six hour drive. Much to my surprise, I found out that these are the two schools which are closest to each other in mileage in the Sweet 16!

As for the games in Houston, Temple Rodef Sholom in Waco, Tex., which is home to Baylor University, is 1,789 miles (26 hours, 45 minutes by car) from Ristore Amoroma, an Italian Restaurant in Moraga, Calif., where St. Mary's is located. I initially searched for mega-churches in Waco, but I found so many listed on the web I thought it would be easier to try a synagogue instead.

Much to my surprise, there are actually two of them besides Temple Rodef Sholom is the Southern Baptist-stronghold of Waco, which is also where the infamous incident with the David Koresh cult took place in the 1990s.

Lastly, Durham, NC, where Duke University and the Carolina Theatre are located (not to be confused with the other Carolina Theatre in Greensboro) is 723 miles or 11.5 hours away from the Purdue University Bookstore in West Laffayette, Ind. The Carolina Theatre, which screens films on a regular basis, is now showing the delightful French animated film "A Town Called Panic," which caught by chance last week at another theatre in the Raleigh area.

Well, it is lunch time here in Floyd, Va. (not where I'm actually at, but it is a town just as small and isolated), so it's time to get me a gyro........oh, I forgot.....the zip code I'm presently at doesn't have either a Turkish or a Greek restaurant. I envy those of you in Columbus or Knoxville!

The Oklahoma City Miracle

Ali Farokhmanesh may have the hardest name to spell of any basketball player in the country (but, hey my name is Tilly Gokbudak and I am not a girl- see earlier entry), but the University of Northern Iowa's star player hit a game-winning three-point shots with :35 remaining over top-seeded Kansas in Oklahoma City on Saturday afternoon.

The Panthers beat the Jayhawks, who many including President Barack Obama, ESPN basketball analyst Dick Vitale and my cousin Michael from Rock Hill, SC, thought would win the NCAA championship (my choice of Georgetown lost in the very first round!), 69-67.

"The Des-Moines Regsiter" reported that the Panthers landed at the airport in Waterloo, Iowa, which is relatively close to the UNI campus in Cedar Falls at about 2:30 a.m. But, there were around 50 fans to greet them there.

"We thought it might be a little too late or a little too cold," said Ali F., a senior from Iowa City who turns 22 on Apr. 16, "This is awesome."

The same newspaper quoted Panthers player Jordan Egleseder who said he was pleased with the turnout for the team.

"Yeah, it's crazy," Eglesder said. "I wasn't expecting at all. Our fans have been great all year."

"The Kansan," the student newspaper for the University of Kansas had a different headline about the game: "Stellar season ends in heartbreak."

The Jayhawks' coach Bill Self has reportedly said that he will never watch any taped footage of the game.


SIDEBAR: Alas, the Brigham Young Cougars will not be advancing to the Sweet 16 either. The team from Provo, Utah, was impresive in their first-round win over Florida, but they fell to Kansas State in the second round. But, the Cougars' star player Jimmer Fredette left an impression on Oklahoma City Thunder's star player Kevin Durant, who had the following tweet before BYU's game on Saturday: "How many points is Jimmer Fredette gonna score tonight? He is a monster....

Bill Clinton Spotted at the Big East Tournament

Former American president Bill Clinton was spotted at the Big East Tournament on Friday night during part of a two-game double-header. The first game was between Notre Dame (their star player Luke Harangody is pcitured here) and Pitt. Notre Dame won that game, but lost in the semi-finals. The second game was between the eventual conference champs West Virginia and the Cincy Bearcats.

"The Star-Ledger" newspaper in Newark, NJ, said Clinton was noticed sitting besides his long-time friend Terry McAuliffe, who unsuccessfully ran for governor of Virginia, in the waining minutes of Notre Dame's 50-45 win over Pitt. McAuliffe was drinking a Diet Coke.

Clinton told ESPN that he thinks Syracuse, who was announced as one of the four number one seeds on Sunday, will be the eventual NCAA men's basketball champs. Clinton added that he also likes another top seed Knsas' chances.

The former president added that since he is now a New York resident that he roots for Syracuse except when they play his alma mater Georgetown, which happened to knock off the Orange 91-84 earlier that afternoon.

Here is My Final Four

I am picking Michigan State, Missouri, Pitt and Arizona State in the Final Four.

For those reading my other blog "The Daily Vampire," you may have noticed that my Final Four picks there are slightly different.

Here I am going to project that my alma mater Radford University will beat the number one-seeded UNC Tarheels in the first round and put the whole tournament in a tail spin.

I do hate to leave the ACC out of the Final Four. Since I live in North Carolina, this would be considered a cardinal sin, but hey I'm not Catholic! So, why worry about cardinal sins???!!!

Oh, I am actually picking Pitt to win it all, but I prefer the look of the Michigan State mascot.

Time to Put the Tarheels to Bed

I wonder if many people who go to a certain ACC school in Durham, NC, are familiar with Radford University in Radford, Va., about 20 miles from Virginia Tech.

Well, come Thursday, Duke University fans will know about the Highlanders as my alma mater Radford University faces the top-seeded University of North Carolina Tarheels at the Greensboro Coliseum. Tip-off time is 2:50 p.m.

I plan to post entries about the Radford University team and the game until that time.

But, if you are not a sports fan.....don't fret.... we will return to 'our regular programming' come Friday.

No 16-seed has ever beaten a number one seed.

But, high school friend Mike Ferris, who went East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tenn., did see his school take then top-seeded Oklahoma to overtime and just last week the ninth-seeded Baylor Bears beat top-seeded Kansas in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament in Oklahoma City.

So, anything is possible.........perhaps, it's a good thing I don't live in Chapel Hill though if the Highlanders win the game, I may have to go down to Talulla's (a Turkish restaurant/night club in Chapel Hill) and have myself a shot of raki!*

*- that's the Turkish equivalent of ouzo.