Max-EEM

I'd like to start off this blog with an apology apparently when i posted the video of Tuukka Rask I did not have the rights to and the post was taken out. I'm sorry to the parties involved for posting that I found it on you tube and assumed since it was on the news that it was okay.

Now onto the real post.

Today we highlight nine year pro Maxim Afinogenov (max-EEM, ah-fihn-ah-GEHN-ahf). This is possibly one of the best names EVER!! Maxim which is Latin for "The Greatest". His Parents must have really been thinking ahead on this one. yeah our son is the greatest. Good work mom and pop Afinogenov. I wish my parents had put that much thought into naming me. Adam which is Hebrew for Man. wow good work mom and dad that was hard. oh its a boy well he's gonna grow up to be a man lets call him Adam. I may be adding Maxim to the list of baby names for whenever that time comes to name a baby boy of my own.

Two Thumbs up Mom and Pop Afinogenov.

Juan Gone!

Oklahoma Sooners (#2 Seed)

Juan Pattillo #12
(puh-TILL-o)

Junior (JC Transfer)

Forward

6'6"/ 216lbs.


Juan and his Oklahoma Sooner basketball team were swamped yesterday by the Fightin Michael Jordans. Juan was the only bench player to get any significant minutes. He played 24 minutes and ended up with 9 points and 6 rebounds. He actually was the only bench player with points.

Puh-Till-o is was a highly-touted junior college transfer from Las Vegas Nevada. This year he averaged 5.9 points per game and 3.9 rebounds per game. If Blake Griffin goes pro Juan could have a significant role on next year's Oklahoma team.

But this year Pattillo and his Oklahoma team are Juan Gone from the Tournament!

Lyons, Tigers, No Bears. Oh My!

Missouri Tigers #3 Seed

Leo Lyons #5
(Lee-0 Lie-ons)

Senior

Forward

6'9"/ 244lbs














Leo Lyons. Wow. Great name and a good player. Last night Leo Lyons and his Tigers (no Bears, Oh My) beat Memphis in an up and down offensive showdown. Leo Lyons had an amazing game going for 15 points and 12 rebounds in the win. This is not far off his seson average 14.6 ppg and 6.2 rpg.

Leo is a talented musician that writes and performs his own music. He wants to own a record label after basketball. His favorite video game is NBA Jam 95. CSN blog loves NBA Jam 95 and says that Leo Lyons is "Heating Up."

The Missouri Tigers will take on the Connecticut Huskies on Saturday for a shot at the Final Four in Detroit.

Two For the Price of One

Syracuse Orange &
Arizona State Sun Devils

Syracuse Orange (#3 Seed)
(white uniform)

Arinze Onuaku #21
(A-rinse-a On-ew-ak-ew)

Junior
Forward/Center
6'9"/ 275lbs.

Arizona State Sun Devils
(#6 seed)
(maroon uniform)

Eric Boateng #2
(Bow-Tang)

Junior (Transfer from Duke)
Center
6'10"/ 245 lbs.


What do you know a two-for. This picture was from round 2 of the NCAA tournament with the Winner advancing to the Sweet 16. As the picture shows Arinze Onuaku is dunking the ball by the ill fated Eric Boateng. That's pretty much how the game went as well. The Orange were up by as many as 15 in the second half stretching the Boateng to the point where they broke. Both of these players had minimal impact on that game though. Boateng had just 4 points and Onuaku had a little better game with 12 .

The rarity of crazy names is great but when you can put two together its a goldmine especially when there is visual documentation. CSN Blog loves it. Keep 'em coming!

Bless Big Red

Cornell Big Red (#14 Seed)


Chris Wroblewski #3
(ro-BLESS-key)

Freshman

Guard

6'0" 180lbs



Wroblewski fits in with the Big Red. The hair it seems gives it away too easily but he was also a terrific high school player in Illinois. He was nominated for the McDonald's All-American team. Not only that he was a great player but also a great student. In a showcase of Academic minded basketball prospects (I did not know there was such a thing.) he was the MVP. Ro-Bless-Ski averaged 6.7 ppg and 2.7 apg as a freshman. He scored 7pts in the Big Red loss to Missouri.

I believe that Wroblewski belongs here because the pronunciation of his name makes no sense. I can see Ro-Blue-Ski but no its Ro-Bless-ski. If someone sneezes you can give them the traditional God Bless You or you can go with Wroblewski (Ro-Bless-ski). CSN Blog will go with the latter.

NHL = Names High in Letters

While my colleague will be focusing on the NCAA Tournament I will take the easier road and focus on a Crazy name from the NHL from now until the season is over. Now I must admit that I do not actually watch much hockey not because I don't like it, but because I like basketball more, but unfortunately the NBA is not the gold-mine for crazy names that the NHL is, so the NHL it is. Because there are soooooo many names in the NHL we are going to take a systematic approach to this and simply work our way through alphabetically, and wherever we leave off at the end of the season we will pick up when the NHL Season starts in 2009.

Congratulations to Justin Abdelkader in being the fist hockey name featured on CSN blog.

Player Profile:

Name: Justin Abdelkader (abdehl-KAY-duhr)

Justin was the 42nd overall pick in the 2005 NHL Draft, he lead the Michigan State Spartans to the 2007 NCAA Championship, a game in which he scored the game winning goal with 18.9 seconds remaining. And he was named the 2007 Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player. Perhaps the best piece of information about Justin is that he is from Muskegon MI (mus-KEY-gun) Yet another one of Michigan's stranger named Places.

at only 22 years old we are still waiting to see if Justin can make some magic in the NHL.

"Abracadabra" Justin

Rhyming Crazy First Names of the Tournament

UCLA Bruins

Jrue Holiday #21
(Droo)

Freshman

Guard

6'3" 180lbs.


I don't know why someone would name their kid Jrue (Drew). C'mon I mean really why would you do this to a kid. Elementary School must have been terrible. Spell your name for the class please "Drew." J- R- U- E. "Umm Drew that is not how you spell your name." The arguement that must have followed would have been fun including the call to the parents. Or the typos on the class roster.

Jrue is a freshman with some possibilities of going pro especially when ESPN puts a draft tracker on you for the 2009 draft. This is weird because he only averaged 8.5 pts a game.

This year Jrue and his Bruins fell short of the sweet sixteen with a loss to Villanova in the 2nd Round of the Tournament.


Utah State Aggies
Pooh Williams #5
(Poo)

Sophomore

Guard/Forward

6'3" 200lbs.

Real Full Name:
Earnest Williams



Of Course this photo prompts the great Caption of: "Utah State teammates love Pooh."
Earnest Williams is what is real name is but on all the roster sheets I've researched have shown him as Pooh Williams. Pooh was part of the Utah State Aggie team that barely lost to Marquette in the 1st Round this year. The sophomore will look to improve his numbers next year because 5.9 pts and 1.9 asst. per game is not cutting it for Pooh. #5 Pooh Williams should change his number to #2 next year and he'll problably play better. But the opponent signage possibilities are endless.

So Jrue and Pooh Thanks for making the CSN Blog. We couldn't dooh it without you.

New Contributor to The CSN Blog

We'd like to welcome Adam Deering to the CSN Blog Staff.
He is an avid Deeeetroit Pistons and Michigan Wolverines fan.
He loves his fiance Amanda and basketball.
Adam dislikes Philadelphia Sports teams (- Phillies) and anything with Cheese in it.
Hence the Picture above.

CSN Blog says "welcome" Deer.

Oakland Michigan?????

A Question so eloquently stated in a sign made by a fan for the Summit League Championship. You are correct sir there is In-fact a university located in Michigan called Oakland University. interestingly enough there is not a city in Michigan called the City of Oakland. the School is located in Oakland county/township and therefore aptly named Oakland University. So I'd like to dedicate my first post on CSN Blog to not only some of the crazier names of Oakland University but also to the school whose name is in-fact crazy in its own right.

As the one of the former place of higher learning for this blogger, I feel compelled to highlight Oakland even though they did not make it into the tournament. Formerly of the Mid-Con, conference the Golden Grizzlies in their first year in the Summit league made it to the conference championship before loosing a close one (64-66) to the Bisons of ND State (The Second Post on CSN)

The Golden Grizzlies were lead by Sr Eric Kangas (KANG-us) averaging 35 MPG and over 18 PPG. Kangas scored 1446 points in his career at Oakland.

The only other crazy name on the roster that actually made a impact on the team was Blake Cushingberry. Cushingberry averaged 25.4 Mpg in just his freshman year. Expect sweet play to come from this delicious Berry.

The Final name with any relevance we have Sr Dan Waterstradt (Water-strat) who averaged 21.6 MPG and 5.3 RPG.

In the there game is not as impressive as their name category we have.

FR. Ilija Milutinovic (Ill-ee-ya MILL-uh-TIN-oh-vitch)

SR. Ricky Bieszki (Bee-es-key)

While not all that impressive on their own imagine the names from this team Vs the names on ND State, and you have the makings of a very entertaining game full of great names and mediocre basketball play

Sienna's Saint(s)

Sienna Saints

Edwin Ubiles #23
(You-ba-liss)

Junior

Guard/Forward

6'9" 199lbs.



Owen Wignot #31
(Wig-not)

Freshman

Forward

6'51/2" 201lbs.



The Sienna Saints are now out of the Tournament but they put up a tremendous effort against Ohio State in Victory and took Louisville to the brink of elimination but were defeated on Sunday. Edwin Ubiles was one of the heroes of both games with 20 points in a 20t win over Ohio St. and 24 points in a loss to #1 overall seed Louisville.

Wignot as I saw did not get much playing time in the Ohio State game but did have some time in the loss to Louisville. He played 4 minutes against Ohio State and had zero points and played four minutes against Louisville and had 2 points.

I know that CBS was trying to push Sienna off as this year's Davidson but they came up a bit short. With all three 1-3 seeds advancing to the sweet sixteen, good basketball is soon to follow.

CSN Blog.

Late St. Patty's Day Celebration

Northern Iowa Panthers

Lucas O'Rear

Forward

Sophomore

6'6" 255lbs




Jordan Eglseder
(egg-el-seed-er)
Center

Junior

7'1" 290lbs.



These two smiling faces played valiantly in their first round game against Big Ten Tournament Champions Purdue. Eglseder was the "Chevrolet Player of the Game." But in defeat O'Rear's name shined through. The announcers had some good lines that went something like this. "O'Rear bumps (player) for the foul." or "the pick by O'Rear."

Instead of having the leftover Green Beer in celebration of St. Patty's Day CSN Blog celebrates with Eglseder and the O'Rear!

Happy Watching Day 2!

Fargo Not Just Known for Funny Accents

North Dakota State University Bison

Michael Tveidt #23 So. (TWEET)
(Left)

Sam Sussenguth # 34 Jr. (Soo-sehn-gooth)
(Middle)

Brett Winkelman #22 Sr.
(Right)

These three were part of an outstanding game against Oakland University (MI) last week. They were competing for the Summit League Championship which they eventually won. I found these names to be quite interesting along the course of the game because there were instances where Tveidt would pass to Sussenguth then Sussenguth to Winkelman. The hilarious combination of all three names was great.

The Bison also had Ben Woodside whom was Summit League player of the year. And they also had Caleb Shockman on the roster. The Bison will need to shockmankind with a win over the Kansas Jayhawks in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The game tips at the Tveidt of the whistle at 12:30pm on Friday.

Go Bison!

Longest Name in NCAA Tournament History

Grlenntys Chief Kickingstallionsims, Jr.
#42 Alabama State Hornets

Goes by Chief Kickingstallionsims Jr.

Apparently his last name means "Strength of Fallen Rocks."

After watching the coverage of the "Opening Round" Game. I heard of this ridiculous name and thought i'd start a series on the crazy names in sports. And since the NCAA Tournament is upon us I'll feature a player from the field of 65 each day until the tournament is over.

The Chief is a senior and had very limited luck last night being pulled out of the game at the 7 minute mark in the first half. Although the long name his points and rebounds per game this year were not all that great averaging 8.5ppg and 4rebounds. Even at 7'1" and a tremendous name you would think that he would have a greater impact on the Hornets but alas no he did not. I do not see any future prospects although Mark Cuban has been known to take a chance on big men with no other use that amazing ethnic backgrounds.

So here's to Chief Kickingstallionsims for being the first installment in the Crazy Sports Names blog.