It is time to revive an annual tradition, one that goes back many generations, and decide on nicknames for our Michigan State Spartans Basketball Team. I know we are coming off an upsetting loss last night, but let’s not let that cloud our thought process and remember this is still a very good team.
Okay, maybe I fibbed on that whole “goes back many generations” thing; this is actually the fourth time we are doing this. I went back and researched how it all started. Back in February 2023, MSU defeated
Indiana at home and in the post-game comments section, Dersh tried sliding a nickname in for Kohler in his Four Factors post, and a couple replies later, Donaldo brought up “Kohler Bear” which has stuck, and then the conversation descended into typical TOC absurdity. Enjoy the look back…
That little bit inspired me to make a whole thing of giving out nicknames to everyone, and within a week, we had used the democratic process to slap an alias on many of the guys on that team. That first year, we had:
AJ Hoggard – “Boss Hogg”
Tyson Walker – “Ty Fighter”
Jaden Akins – “Shakin’ Bakin’”
Malik Hall – “Malicious”
Mady Sissoko – “The Mali Mauler”
Jaxon Kohler – “The Kohler Bear”
The following season, 2023-24, I brought the conversation back and the list grew longer:
Jaden “Shakin’ Bakin’” Akins (two-time winner)
Jaxon “The Kohler Bear” Kohler (two-time winner)
Tre “Trey” Holloman
Coen “Carr-pe De-rim” Carr
Carson “Coop Deville” Cooper
Jeremy “Nightmare” Fears
Xavier “Stretch” Booker
Nick “Colonel” Sanders
Gehrig “Stormin’” Normand
And last year, we had twelve nicknames given out, though many were holdovers from the previous season:
Jaden “Shakin’ Bakin’” Akins (3X)
Jaxon “The Kohler Bear” Kohler (3X)
Tre “Trey” Holloman (2X)
Carson “Coop Deville” Cooper (2X)
Jeremy “Nightmare” Fears (2X)
Xavier “Stretch” Booker (2X)
Gehrig “Stormin’” Normand (2X)
Nick “The Colonel” Sanders (2X)
Coen “Flight 55” Carr (changed from “Carr-pe De-rim”)
Jase “J-Rich” Richardson
Szymon “Zapala-palooza” Zapala
Frankie “Five Fingers” Fidler
So now we begin the nominating process for the 2025-26 season. I am going to stipulate that our 3 returning seniors who have had their nicknames for multiple years – Kohler, Cooper, and Sanders – will not be up for election. Those nicknames have earned the right to stick around.
If anyone wants to suggest something new for “Nightmare” Fears or “Flight 55” Carr, you are welcome to do so.
And we have a bunch of players who are either new to the team or did not receive a nickname last season. Please comment with your suggestions for:
Kur Teng
Jesse McCulloch
Divine Ugochukwu
Trey Fort
Denham Wojcik
Cam Ward
Jordan Scott
Colin Walton
Brennan Walton
(We will not include Kaleb Glenn in this year’s voting)
We will give a few days for nominations to come in, then we will have voting open up on Friday and we will share the results after next weekend. Looking forward to seeing everyone’s nickname nominations.
