College basketball team nickname bracket: Day 2 of Sweet 16 voting

By Zack Pierce
Published

We've reached the Sweet 16 in the college basketball team nickname bracket, and it's time for voting on the right half of the field. While the left side stayed mostly to form, there were more shenanigans here. Both the No. 1 seeds made it through, but both 2s and 3s are out, and the 15th-seeded Thunderbirds continued their improbable run. (Click here for a full-size version of the updated bracket.)

Here were the results from the Strong & Virtuous Region:






























































And from the Formidable & Scary Region:






























































Voting is now open for the second half of the Sweet 16. Elite Eight voting has already begun for the left side of the bracket. The right-side Sweet 16 voting ends Thursday morning, with the Elite Eight beginning that afternoon.




 

No. 1 Leathernecks vs. No. 4 Demon Deacons


The Summit League might have the best nickname game of any conference, boasting two No. 1 seeds and a No. 4 in this tournament. The Leathernecks is the proud moniker of Western Illinois. It's the only non-military school in the country with a military-inspired nickname — "leathernecks" is a slang term for a U.S. Marine.

Look out for a deep run here from the Demon Deacons. Wake Forest's popular, alliterative nickname was first coined — as many of these were — by a sportswriter, way back in 1922. Previously just the Deacons, Wake pulled off a big win over the rival Duke Blue Devils, prompting the new nickname. It stuck.









No. 6 Gauchos vs. No. 7 Rainbow Warriors



UC Santa Barbara used to be another school that used "Roadrunners" as a nickname before changing to the Gauchos in 1936. The origin story is interesting. The change was brought on by female students, who were "inspired by Douglas Fairbanks’s performance in the 1927 film The Gaucho." Fair. He was a pretty good-looking dude.

The story goes that a rainbow appeared over the Hawai'i football field during a big upset win in 1923, prompting the adoption of the name "Rainbows." Warriors started sneaking into usage later. Some teams went by one or the other, some used "Rainbow Warriors." In 2013, athletic director Ben Jay decided to unify all men's teams under Rainbow Warriors and women's teams under Rainbow Wahine. A wise choice. This is a definite sleeper pick.














 

No. 1 Mastodons vs. No. 5 Thundering Herd


In 1968, a geologist at IPFW in Fort Wayne was called to examine a bone found nearby. It was from the leg of a mastodon, evolutionary precursors to the elephant. Two years later, the school adopted it as one of the most unique and catchy nicknames in college sports. It's the No. 2 overall seed in the tournament.

We recommend reading the entire history of the Thundering Herd name at Marshall. It's a trip. A 1930s sportswriter thought it sounded too pastoral and suggested a new name that he thought would provide better optics — Boogercats. Shockingly, that was a controversial idea. The name debate raged for over 30 years before a student vote finally settled on one of college sports' most evocative nicknames being sufficient.









No. 6 Golden Griffins vs. No. 15 Thunderbirds



Canisius pays homage to the mythical Griffin, a creature that combines all the best parts of an eagle with all the best parts of a lion. That's not even fair.

What is a Thunderbird? In this case, it's not the car. Southern Utah explains its mascot as "a mythical mascot capable of producing thunder, lightning and rain — the one, the only Thunderbird." Dang ... OK. Can the 15 seed continue its remarkable string of upsets?