Michigan basketball has nicknames from Dominican LeBron to Big Red
· Yahoo Sports
BUFFALO − If there were a NCAA Tournament bracket for nicknames, Saint Louis would be a 1-seed and the runaway favorite to win the national championship.
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Star big man Robbie Avila has gone viral in part for his style of infectious style play and his "rec specs," but also for the hilarious and outrageous nicknames he's been given – be it from teammates, coaches or the internet community at large.
LeBron Frames. Milk Chamberlain. Cream Abdul-Jabbar. College Jokic. Larry Nerd (we ranked the best ones here).
The list goes on, giving him a seemingly unmatched list of nicknames.
Michigan basketball has its own nicknames for teammates, most of which are shortened versions of their name: Rez (Morez Johnson Jr.), Yax (Yaxel Lendeborg), E.C. (Elliot Cadeau).
But there appears to be a list of monikers more that the Wolverines have kept in-house. In the spirit of competition, they were more willing to divulge. Harrison Hochberg, Charlie May and Will Tschetter came up with a good one for their roommate, Oscar Goodman.
"Big Red," Hochberg laughed of Goodman and his fiery red hair. "Everyone in the house just calls Oscar 'Big Red' at this point."
In Johnson's opinion, the best nickname belongs to Lendeborg, though Cadeau believes it belongs to Morez aka 'The Rezolution. As far as Lendeborg, the Big Ten player of the year laughed when asked about his, saying he didn't know where it came from, but a teammate remembered.
Lendeborg had a chase-down block in transition during one of the Wolverines' practices in the fall and instantly guard L.J. Cason made the connection to an NBA great known for that type of block.
"That's Dominican LeBron," Johnson said.
The one that's come up most frequently this week is "March Roddy," in reference to Roddy Gayle Jr., which has since been shortened to "Moddy."
Lendeborg said there's another nickname for Gayle, but he was not at liberty to disclose it because it "has curse words" in it.
As for coach Dusty May, his favorite is the one for Aday Mara. It stems from "Reno 911!," a mockumentary-style comedy series that parodies law enforcement reality shows, and Lt. Jim Dangle, who has a catchphrase "New Boot Goofin."
One day in practice, Mara was messing around a bit and was simply "out there goofin," which is when general manager and assistant coach Kyle Church chimed in with a take that has since stuck.
"I like "Big Goof," for Aday," May said. "Off the floor, he's just goofing around and a big gentle giant. So he developed the nickname ... I like that one a lot."
Not bad, but Avila seems to still have the clear edge.
Michigan hopes that's not the case on the court, when the 1-seed Wolverines face the 9-seed Billikens in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, March 21 (12:10 p.m., CBS).
Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan has its nicknames too, from Dominican LeBron to Big Red