We have some new faces who want their nicknames
Happy Wednesday TOC Nation,
I am taking advantage of the long layoff between basketball games to bring back a tradition we started last year, as if doing something once could be a tradition. Last year, we gave some of our favorite Spartan basketball players their nicknames, settling it through democratic means. You can revisit that here:
To refresh your memories, these were the nicknames we decided on:
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”
We also gave former Spartan Pierre Brooks the nickname “Mel”.
This year we need to decide if we want to change any of the above nicknames and we have some younger players who have not yet gotten their aliases – Carson Cooper, Tre Holloman, Xavier Booker, Coen Carr, and AJ Fears. If we are feeling extra ambitious, we can also dub Davis Smith and Nick Sanders; I am keeping Steven Izzo out of this because I want to continue to refer to him as “Lil’ Izzo” and I don’t want you to ruin that for me. Also, I am going to go ahead and throw out a suggestion for Carson Cooper. I think “Alley Coop” would be suitable.
Step one in this process is for all of you to suggest nicknames, to replace ones voted on last year and/or for the guys still without their pseudonyms. In a couple of days, we will put this all to a vote and then we will have a ceremony to reveal the winning names.
Let’s hear your best ideas.
I just want to give one guideline to this fun little exercise. I do not want to hear any suggestions for AJ Fears’ nickname that have anything to do with him getting shot this past weekend.
On a related note, I want to thank all of you for expressing your concern for young AJ in the aftermath of that incident. There were, sadly, a couple incredibly inappropriate comments. I also appreciate those of you who spoke up about those. One in particular was removed by the moderators after we reported the outrage it caused. I know I was told not to call anyone out by name, so I can’t say who it was. I am sure those of you who saw the comment I am referring to right now remember the name.
So to that person, please know that your comments were disgusting and completely out of line. The conclusions that you drew, some just out of the blue and others in contrast of evidence already reported in news articles, showed a side of yourself that you will not be able to hide around here. I hope you read the replies to your comment and you take those criticisms to heart, and I hope that you are a better person moving forward because of it.
I don’t mean to lecture, but I am still upset about it a few days later. That sort of belief or attitude is not what I want to see in a TOC comment section.