Last year, the NCAA extended its deal with Wilson through 2020-21 to provide basketballs for the Division I, II and III men's and women's postseason tournaments. The school's basketball team played so fiercely that they were said to have "vandalized" their opponents, and soon the vandal moniker stuck. Sometimes it takes a couple of practices to make that adjustment. For years the sports handicappers at Maddux Sports Connecticut Huskies Rhode Island . Most of you know its recent success in football, but did you know that TCU won two national championships, in 1935 and 1938? Mastodons couldn't survive as a species, which is fitting this year, because the Indiana Purdue University at Fort Wayne basketball squad is having trouble surviving in the Summit League. The North Carolina Tar Heels have one of the most successful programs in all of college basketball, and the state of North Carolina itself is nicknamed the "Tar Heel State.". I College. Located in Clinton, South Carolina, Presbyterian is one of several schools on this list that competes in theBig South Conference. Canisius College's fantasy creature seems like it would be the ultimate predator, but the basketball team hasn't been so threatening; it's 1-15 in the MAAC. "I just remember walking into the store, going from aisle to aisle and hoping to find all the different basketballs," said Smart, now the head coach at Texas. However, there are some out there that are just outright strange. She portrayed her Billiken as a short, pudgy, smiling creature with pointed ears and a small knot of hair on the top of his otherwise bald head. Naming the team after a storm is certainly scary enough, but it's difficult to figure out what makes a hurricane a "golden" hurricane. They used to be called the Fighting Sioux, but they are no longer allowed to use the name nor can any student-athletes, cheerleaders, mascots, etc. A-League teams in Australia and New Zealand. If you're a true nerd, the name of the Stetson University Hatters will immediately make you think of Lewis Carroll's Mad Hatter in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. For them to remove the logos would be very costly as a result. Whatever it is, you'll probably agree that the Seawolf is certainly a much better moniker than Alaska's previous name of the Sourdoughs. Yet that's exactly what the nickname is. But football is not the only thing this university has been successful at. Instead, their official mascot is the Boilermaker Special, a Victorian-era locomotive that was inspired by the trains that transported teams and fans to other cities for games. But we've got to buy all these balls and buy about six of them. Some NCAA conferences are so obscure that the only time we hear about them each year is when the winner of the conference loses to a number one seed by 40. . Basketball Gambling, College It's a replica nineteenth-century steam locomotive that, quite frankly, could easily squash the mascots of most of the schools on this list. Which school calls itself the "Anteaters"? By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Still, you'll find that your computer puts red squiggles under the word seawolf, and even the teams that have the mascot don't agree on what it is. Theyaverage more than 20,000 people at their home games. The Canterbury Tales. Originally the "Wheatshockers," the Wichita State Shockers have a name and mascot that are representative of wheat harvesting in Kansas. Anyway, as for its athletic department, it's been decent over the past decade. "But it seemingly was dismissed because of all the contracts and sponsorships in place. Anyone who has taken a course on Chaucer will understand why the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers deserve a place on this list of unusual team names, but if you haven't, here's the deal. 3. Why? Stony Brook, like Alaska, defines the seawolf as a mythical sea creature. It's basically cadets but with a southern drawl to it. He surpassed the 1,000-point mark during his four seasons with the Wildcats in the Big Ten, and led the team last season in scoring (14.6 points per game), rebounding (6.5 boards per game), 3 . UC Santa Barbara's moniker is the Gauchos, which are more or less old South American cowboys. This is an online quiz called Obscure College Basketball Mascots. Erie, Pennsylvania, has a Minor League baseball team named the Seawolves, and at the Division II level, The University of Alaska at Anchorage athletic teams are also the Seawolves (UAA's gymnastics and hockey are Division I). use its namesake nor its logo. In the NBA, I believe, there is a standard. I highly doubt that such a creature exists, but Stony Brook did a good job of picking a cool-sounding name that triggered my imagination. At Kansas, the flagship school of Adidas, Bill Self uses a Wilson basketball, the official ball of both the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments. The Horned Frog has actually been part of TCU as far back as 1897, when it appeared in the university's yearbook. The NCAA rulebook (Section 16. College Sports Trios II. Rodney Paul, a sports economist and sports management professor at Syracuse University, recently conducted a study about the impact different basketballs have on college teams. Browse Sports Teams. The Stetson cowboy hat was originally manufactured by John B. Stetson, the first benefactor of Stetson University. 52. Why is the mighty North Carolina program called the "Tar Heels"? As for athletic performances, Iona has been a top men's cross country team in the nation over the last decade. Let's find out, as we take a look at the 25 wackiest names and mascots in college basketball. "See, I do think it makes a difference," Self said. North Carolina's nickname and mascot don't match at all, but there's special meaning behind them. When researching all Division I colleges and universities for other articles using afair, balanced, highly scientific, and entirely empirical system of evaluationstudying their retention rates, graduation rates, selectivity, and financial aidwe came up with an in-depth analysis containing lovely data, but that wasn't useful for this list. After all, the other 19 members of this list at least named their teams after something that can move. "We just went out in the backyard, got a rock and tried to shoot with it.". The name Wichita State Shockers seems to suggest electrocution and an intimidating ability to strike down opponents with a bolt of lightning. Stull won a spirit yell contest with the chant "Hoki" in it. and our Privacy Policy. We've got different balls from different teams we could play.". How about when you see the school's mascot, Brutus Buckeye, whose head is, of course, an over-sized nut? Since it's founding in 1869, the university has educated students with working-class backgrounds for utilitarian careers, a practice the school continues today with its many strengths in engineering and other professional fields. UNH and Maine have the longest running rivalry in all of college basketball (excluding Ivy League schools). Trying to draw meaning from looking back at a basketball game . A "buckeye" is the seed or nut from an aesculus plant, the official state tree of Ohio. Fun Fact: Legendary NFL coach Bill Parcells was a linebacker and later a graduate assistant at Wichita State in the early 1960s. "I remember that.". After shutting out rival Wabash College 44-0, the local paper headline the game, "Slaughter of Innocents: Wabash Snowed Completely Under by the Burly Boiler Makers from Purdue.". In fact, in men's basketball, during their 2007-2008 season, they played in 25 away games, including game against Ohio State, Clemson and Wake Forest. Strength of schedule tells you how they have been challenged n the past and whether the game in question is a small or large step up in class. With the college basketball world full of basic bulldogs and every kind of wolf, it's refreshing to see a mysterious foreign canine as the mascot of Southern Illinois. There is data to suggest it does, though many coaches and players ESPN asked about the topic were split on it. Iowa's Fran McCaffery said Nike has the best ball. I check ESPN box scores, and these universities/colleges/whatever they are, they don't even have a logo. When an obscure non board team is playing a known one, then, its important to be able to quickly get a sense of how good the team is. Spherical shall be defined as a round body whose surface at all points is equidistant from the center except at the approved black rubber ribs (channels and/or seams).". However, their most consistent sport is women's cross-country; they've won the last five regular-season and conference tournament championships. There are, after all, 76 U.S. college teams known as the Eagles. If you know, for example, how well one of their previous opponents plays how they stack up against good teams, their style of play, their betting performance, and so on then by looking at how the obscure NCAAteam performed against them can teach you a lot. "I think there should be some standard. Kansas, for example, keeps a rack of 15 basketballs representing the five or six basketball brands the team will use throughout the season. English. Even some of Beilein's former players didn't care for The Rock, though Michigan evolved into a national title contender that finished in the top 50 in field goal percentage inside the arc in seven of Beilein's last nine years with the program. "I was lukewarm on The Rock," Novak said. You might assume that when it comes to Stony Brook, with its location near the Long Island Sound, that the Seawolf would be based on the ugly Atlantic Wolffish which may or may not be also known as a seawolf. As for Stephen F. Austin, in football, they won the Southland conference championship in 2010, their first since 1989. The university dubbed its sports teams the Salukis in 1951 because the region of southern Illinois had been referred to as "Little Egypt" for years. The Coastal Carolina website describes our heroic rooster in modern English, but you probably prefer to read the description in the original Middle English: The passage should make clear Coastal Carolina's reasons for adopting this poultry for its athletic moniker. Go 'Roos! Then again, neither does the color purple Also, that mascot kind of freaks me out. In fact, the Ohio State Buckeyes basketball team and its Brutus the Buckeye mascot are a pretty big deal. The consensus: Coaches and players dislike it. As with many elements of college basketball, the lack of a standard ball for the regular season -- or a coherent rule around it -- is a conversation that begins with coaches and revolves around business. My university, Quinnipiac, used to face these guys often, as Stony Brook used to be a member of the Northeast Conference, but now they play in the Big South in football and in the America East for the other sports. Sports. It is up to you to decide whether you agree or disagree with these rankings. So I don't think it's going to change. 2. The latest in the sports world, emailed daily. A senior, who may or may not have been sober at the time, won a contest with this: The beauty of this composition assured its immortality. Purdue's engineering and agriculture history is captured by the university's official mascot, the Boilermaker Special. Another possibility is that people in the Ivy League really don't care all that much about athletics. The sports world, emailed daily opponents with a southern drawl to it. `` on. Wackiest names and Mascots in college basketball opponents with a bolt of lightning it a..., I believe, there are, they do n't even have a name and mascot do n't even a! All these balls and buy about six of them theyaverage more than 20,000 people at their games... Fact, the official State tree of Ohio Buckeye mascot are a pretty big deal out there are! 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