Villanova and Penn State Crack High Ten NCAA Basketball Mascots Checklist

I’ve a confession to make.

I could be a little bit biased. Possibly loads truly.

However as a Pennsylvania resident, if I’m rating faculty basketball’s finest mascots, you higher imagine some PA groups are going to make the lower. Very like a New Yorker is assured to have an enormous fats orangeman land on the listing.

So with Choice Sunday and the NCAA Basketball Match just some weeks away, let’s rank faculty basketball’s finest mascots to get you prepared for March Insanity.

10. The North Carolina Tarheel (Rameses)

Final Match Look: 2021

Present document/AP rating: 22-8, unranked

Professionals: UNC will get bonus factors for having each a life-size Ram mascot and likewise a dwell ram with blue-painted horns at out of doors occasions.

Cons: I’m unsure how a Ram pertains to Tarheels in any respect. Possibly it really works on a street paving crew?

9. St. Joe’s Hawk

Final Match Look: 2016

Present document/AP rating: 10-17, unranked

This mascot makes the listing attributable to its sheer tenacity. At basketball video games, the Hawk should flap its wings continuous.

Professionals: Stamina. And because of all that arm waving, below that costume are definitely some jacked delts that will make the forged of Jersey Shore jealous.

Cons: “The Hawk will By no means Die” brings in regards to the weariness of immortality…and an eternity of watching St. Joe’s basketball.

8. The Kansas Jayhawk

Final Match Look: 2021

Present document/AP rating: 23-5, No. 6

We’d have back-to-back birds right here, however the Jayhawk is simply imaginary, a tradition-rich mix of Blue Jays and Hawks that historical past used to explain settlers in Kansas.

Professionals: Based on Wikipedia, Kansas custom specifies that the mascot be at the least 6-1, giving Massive Jay an opportunity to be a backup 2 guard if the group ever wanted him.

Cons: The St. Joe Hawk would most likely be favored in a fowl battle due to all that arm-flapping.

7. The Stony Brook Seawolves

Final Match Look: 2016

Present document/AP rating: 17-13, unranked

Very like March Insanity, our mascot listing wants at the least one Cinderella. Wolfie is it.

Professionals: Youth. Stony Brook beforehand competed because the Soundmen, Baymen, Warriors and Patriots earlier than adopting the Seawolves mascot in 1994 when the group moved to the Division I stage. That makes its mascot a lot youthful than most others in faculty basketball.

Cons: Precise sea wolves are solely present in Canada, so the geographical tie to New York is a cross-continent stretch.

6. Penn State’s Nittany Lion

Final Match Look: 2011

Present document/AP rating: 12-14, unranked

One other PA group makes the listing primarily based solely on the simplicity of its costume. I’m fairly certain Penn State’s mascot was made in a highschool House Ec class.

Professionals: Vogue versatility. As a result of the Nittany Lion isn’t a cumbersome costume, the mascot can add different layers for efficiency advantages. A good friend that went there remembers a Napolean Dynamite outfit full with dance strikes and a Saturday Night time Fever routine as properly. The ever-present scarf additionally helps the Nittany Lion really feel extra distinguished than another feral mascots.

Cons: There are seemingly footie pajamas in your closet someplace with extra elaborate designs than the Nittany Lion costume.

5. Ohio State’s Buckeyes (Brutus)

Final Match Look: 2021

Present document/AP rating: 18-8, No. 23

I’m awarding bonus factors once more right here for a school that would elevate a plant byproduct to full-blown mascot standing.

Professionals: Bodily health. Brutus Buckeye is thought to do a push up for each level Ohio State scores within the group’s soccer video games. He’d make a formidable arm-wrestling opponent for the St. Joe’s Hawk.

Cons: Precise Buckeyes will be toxic in actual life. We will’t fee a mascot which may truly kill somebody that prime.

4. The Oregon Duck

Final Match Look: 2021

Present document/AP rating: 18-11, unranked

Oregon could have one of many strangest courts in faculty basketball, however the group’s mascot appears unassuming and likable.

Professionals: Oregon has a particular license settlement with Disney that enables its Duck to be primarily based on Donald. Oh boy!

Cons: So far as intimidation goes, the Duck doesn’t encourage any concern in its opponents. Possibly that’s why the varsity experimented with a spandex-suited mascot that college students nicknamed Duck Vader and Roboduck earlier than it disappeared.

3. Villanova’s Wildcat

Final Match Look: 2021

Present document/AP rating: 21-7, No. 11

Nova’s Will D. Cat mascot has eyes which can be so creepy that I’m afraid to not embody him. An omission may result in nightmares and a therapist sofa.

Professionals: Power in numbers. Along with Villanova, basketball blue-blood Kentucky and Kansas State additionally share the Wildcat moniker.

Cons: For some time, Villanova used to make use of precise wildcats as a mascot, however the animals’ habits at sporting occasions turned so erratic that the faculty opted as a substitute for undergrads in costume. Personally, I believe the specter of a wildcat assault would solely add to the in-game pleasure.

2. Duke’s Blue Satan

Final Match Look: 2019

Present document/AP rating: 25-4, No. 4

Possibly this mascot isn’t all that thrilling, but it surely’s exhausting to consider any others which can be extra synonymous with faculty basketball.

Professionals: The Blue Devils mascot truly has a historic hyperlink to expert French troopers from Phrase Conflict I.

Cons: The Satan is precisely what number of different fan bases view Duke and its program.

1.  Oklahoma State’s Cowboys and Pistol Pete

Final Match Look: 2021

Present document/AP rating: 13-15, unranked

Pay attention, if there’s a mascot strutting round that’s openly brandishing a firearm, I’m not voting anybody else No. 1.

Professionals: I believe a 23 and Me check would reveal that Pistol Pete is by some means associated to Yosemite Sam. And he will get bonus factors for having the identical nickname because the highest-scoring faculty participant of all-time.

Cons: Pete may give off “Stranger Hazard” vibes in case you have youngsters round. I’m pondering an unshaven man with steely eyes and a six shooter may frighten your offspring en path to the concession stand.

Lead picture credit score: AP Picture/Derik Hamilton