Iowa Player Has one Of the “Best Names” in the NCAA Tourney

This might be the funniest story to come out of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, also known as March Madness, which gets underway today.

A new survey was done by a website called BroBible. As you might assume by the name of the site, the person who compiled it had no specific criteria, other than looking for a way to waste time finding the players having the most "awesome names".

To paraphrase the writer, Grayson Wier, in the 68-team field this year there are "household names" and there are 25 players, according to him, who could be "remembered for different reasons." He went to the work of looking up all 1,020 rostered players in the tournament and came up with his 25 favorites.

One of the names on the list plays with the Iowa Hawkeyes, who tip off at 5:25 p.m. this Saturday night against Grand Canyon. Austin Ash is #24 on the list of "Best Names in the 2021 March Madness Tournament". More importantly, his jersey is #13 so we hope that brings luck to the team in addition to his totally awesome play on the court and ranking on this list.

Other "best names" include Aidan McQuade of Colorado, Mitch Lightfoot of Kansas, Blake Seacat of Oklahoma, and more names for fans of alliteration, including Kofi Cockburn (Co-burn) of Illinois, David Didenko of Georgia Tech, Colin Castleton of Florida, and Kuba Karwowski of Utah State.

#1 was Michigan State's Rocket Watts, by the way. It is definitely a cool name. They play tonight against UCLA in probably the most high-profile "play-in" game for the chance to make the field of 64 since those games were added to the format. One of those games features another Iowa school, continuing their sensational season, when Drake takes on Wichita State tonight at 5:30.

So, enjoy the games and listen for the announcers to recite the names of Austin Ash, Rocket Watts, and more while marveling at their talent and the excitement of March Madness even more.