There’s not an excessive amount of disgrace in a botched March Madness bracket. The NCAA Event is compressed chaos in single elimination, upsets are a part of the sport, and just one entrant can truly win all of it.
What we will’t forgive is a lazy, uninspired bracket identify.
The lads’s and ladies’s tournaments give us a wealth of punnable faculty, participant and coach names to select from — even an enviornment or two. Listed below are this correspondent’s favourite puns and frivolities for 2025 bracket names. Give us yours within the feedback under.
Males’s
Okay, Broomer — For many who see Auburn as an inevitability, go along with their star, Johni Broome. These aren’t your postwar Tigers.
Inexperienced Flaggs — Lots of of us will swipe proper on the Blue Devils if their megastar Cooper Flagg is wholesome.
Lipsey’s Hustle — The marathon continues for Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State and the Fightin’ Otzelbergers.
Knuck If You Buzz — Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams has the sheer depth and righteous ardour of prime Lil Scrappy.
Let’s Get Oweh From It All — To Kentucky’s Otega Oweh: “Let’s take a boat to Bermuda, let’s take a airplane to Lexington.”
Sure, UConn — For the Huskies believers.
No, UConn’t — For individuals who truly watched UConn this season.
Creighton for a Star to Fall — The name whispered on the wind was, actually, “Ryan Kalkbrenner.”
Caleb Love and Basketball — For what? Our hearts, in fact. And an Arizona run.
Caleb Grillz — Missouri bucket-getter Caleb Grill has his whole top diamond and the bottom row gold … we predict.
Littlejohn and the Eastside Boyz — Chase Hunter and Clemson have pressured their tourney seeding to Get Low. Trying to convey some {hardware} again to Littlejohn Coliseum.
Frankie Fidler on the Roof — To life, to life, to Sparty. Tevye would’ve trusted Michigan State’s Tom Izzo in March.
Love (Ma)shack — It’s a lil’ previous place the place we will get collectively … and make Alabama really upset. Tennessee’s Jahmai Mashack had one of many coolest moments of this school season.
LJ Cryer and the Infinite Unhappiness — A [Houston] Cougar with Butterfly Wings. Underestimate no matter that’s at your personal peril.
Queen’s Gambit — Maryland’s freshman middle Derik Queen is the tallest, fleetest turtle we’ve ever seen.
Kameron Presents…the (Golden) Diplomats — Based mostly on Marquette’s guard Kameron Jones. Does that make David Joplin Juelz Santana?
Silkk Da Shaka — One other nice Marquette play.
Toppin My Collar — For these each appreciating Texas Tech’s resurgence (and star JT Toppin) and wishing it was 2005 again.
“What Are You Doing in My Swamp?!”— The Florida Gators would win and canopy against Lord Farquaad.
Rick Pitino’s Bodega Nook — The Johnnies have taken New York by (pink) storm.
Throw it Down, Huge Man —For these eager to honor the late Invoice Walton.
One Shining Second — For these eager to honor the late Greg Gumbel.
Grant Nelson’s Mustache — In celebration of the game’s trendy canon.
The Parentheses Preferers — Who wants brackets? Correct punctuation prevents poor efficiency.
Tar Heels and Glass Slippers — Perhaps, simply possibly, there’s somebody on the market who has UNC making a Cinderella flip.
The Ground Slappers Federation — Yup, it’s about that time.
Ladies’s
Elementary, My Pricey Watkins — For many who trend JuJu Watkins and the Trojans as “A Study in Scarlet.”
JuJu Fruit — We’re candy on JuJu and USC.
For Bueckers or Worse — Paige Bueckers is the celebrity, however Sarah Robust and Azzi Fudd additionally balled out this yr.
For Auriemma, Endlessly In the past — Do we predict UConn’s iconic coach, Geno Auriemma, is aware of who or what Bon Iver is?
Place Your Betts — UCLA and Lauren Betts may actually money out after their impressed Huge Ten tourney efficiency.
Daybreak and On — South Carolina and Daybreak Staley pursue their fourth nationwide title of this period. We’ll take each alternative to listen to extra Erykah Badu.
Growth Growth Paopao — The WNBA-bound Gamecock Te-Hina Paopao is so 3008.
The Van, The Lith, The Legend — TCU’s celebrity Hailey Van Lith simply put in work because the MVP of the Huge 12 Event.
Hidalgo To Mattress — Don’t sleep on Notre Dame (or Hannah Hidalgo) regardless of the late-season hunch.
Got here Out a Beast — Flau’jae Johnson is good on the boards and in the booth.
Taylor Jones’ Block Get together — Everybody’s invited. Texas is hard within the frontcourt.
Wes is Moore — A guiding mantra. NC State’s sideline strategist Wes Moore is the ACC’s Coach of the Yr.
Lawson’s Creek — For these switching over to Duke (coached by Kara Lawson) after their convention event title. Casting suggestion: Michelle Williams as Toby Fournier.
O.Okay., Sooner — We introduced it again one time for these rolling with Raegan Beers and Oklahoma.
(Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; Harry How / Getty Photographs, Grant Halverson / Getty Photographs, Kevin C. Cox / Getty Photographs)
