The 30 Best Names of the 2015 NCAA Tournament

With the NCAA Tournament fast-approaching, now’s as good a time as any to scan through the rosters of the teams and rate their players based not on basketball skills, but by how cool their names sound. Whether for alliterative purposes, namesakes, homophones, or completely arbitrary purposes, here’s who made the cut:

Starting Five

Basil Smotherman (Purdue)

Jarryn Skeete (Buffalo)

Lourawls ‘Tum Tum’ Nairn Jr. (Michigan State)

Staats Battle (NC State)

Alexander Aka Gorski (Wyoming)

Reserves

John Octeus (Purdue)

Damonte Dodd (Maryland)

Eric Wagenlander (Wofford)

Sir’Dominic Pointer (St. John’s)

Wanaah Bail (UCLA)

Bogdan Bliznyuk (Eastern Washington)

Tavarius Shine (Oklahoma State)

Honorable Mentions

Bronson Koenig (Wisconsin)
E. Victor Nickerson (Valparaiso)
Kwesi Abakah (Northeastern)
Hunter Mickelson (Kansas)
Tshilidzi Nephawe (New Mexico State)
Steve Moundou-Missi (Harvard)
Martavious Newby (Ole Miss)
Jacob Hazzard (Arizona)
JayVaughn Pinkston (Villanova)
Monty Boykins (Lafayette)
Wes Washpun (Northern Iowa)
Mangok Mathiang (Louisville)
Khadeem Lattin (Oklahoma)
Dallas Ennema (Albany)
Kibret Woldemichael (San Diego State)
D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera (Georgetown)
Clayton Custer (Iowa State)
Silas Melson (Gonzaga)

[Photos via Getty, USA Today Sports, and Google Images]