Breaking down the top mascots in the NCAA Tournament

Last month, I brought up the hypothetical question of which Big East mascot would win in a fight. Sure, it was a silly question, but it was one that I thought needed to be addressed. After going through all the mascots, the choice was clear: Jonathan the Husky was the mascot who could win any fight.

In a breaking news e-mail sent to the Daily Campus sports department Monday, it was determined that Jonathan the Husky was ranked as the fifth best mascot in the 2009 NCAA Tournament, according to petside.com.

I guess it wasn't such a silly question after all.

If you go to their Web site, petside.com, and type in mascots in the search bar, the first article will be the list of the top 10 mascots in the NCAA Tournament.

Now, while claiming the No. 5 spot out of 65 teams may sound like a big deal, there's something about the list that just doesn't sit well in my stomach.

Claiming the fourth through second spots are Louisville's Cardinal Bird, Gonzaga's Spike the Bulldog, Villanova's Will D. Cat, respectively. Let me break this down for a second.

The Cardinal Bird is a pretty cool mascot, but he's known to Louisville students simply as "bird." What kind of lame name is that?

At least Spike the Bulldog and Will D. Cat have decent names.

But yet with Spike, he has nothing else to show for himself besides a cool name. He's a bulldog from Gonzaga. I'm pretty sure half the people in Sports Nation don't even know where Gonzaga is.

I have to give props to Villanova for dishing out the best name of a mascot in college basketball. Sorry Jonathan, but Will D. Cat has a first, middle and last name. I would easily give Villanova the best mascot in the Tournament, except I did a little research to the meaning behind the mascot, and what I found wasn't pretty.

In the 1930s and '40s, Villanova kept live, wild cats on campus in cages.

In addition to that, the cats started having behavioral problems from being kept in cages and from constantly being around large crowds. And as a final zinger, the cats were kept outside all year long, including the cold weather months. Luckily for Villanova, PETA still had 40 years to go before they became an official organization.

In 1950, Villanova finally replaced the live, wild cats with Will D. Cat.

Now that I'm through bashing the fourth, third and second ranked mascots, let's move on to the No. 1 ranked mascot - the University of Washington Husky, cleverly named Dubs the Husky.

The Husky? Really, petside.com? That kind of sounds a lot like … our mascot.

Something just doesn't make sense here. How is it that Jonathan the Husky is four spots behind Dubs?

Sure, if you look at the picture posted on petside.com, Dubs is adorable and he's sitting in a lawn chair wearing purple and gold Mardi Gras beads, but he's still a mascot. And while Dubs is a real, live dog, I don't see why petside.com didn't take into fact that we, too, have our own real, live husky.

Dubs got his name from an online vote.

Jonathan was named after Jonathan Trumbull, the governor of Connecticut during the Revolutionary War.

When you play the name game, Jonathan takes the cake.

But there is one thing that even I have to admit makes Dubs one of the coolest mascots around: he has his own blog named "A Dawg's Life."

On his blog at huskymascot.blogspot.com, Dubs has posted pictures of him enjoying some snowy weather, playing in an igloo and attending dog school. There are even videos of him barking at nothing and celebrating March Madness. At least UConn is still celebrating March Madness.

I really do hate to admit it, but Dubs the Husky has a slight edge over Jonathan. What Dubs lacks in physical prowess, he makes up for in romantic heroism. The dog is in a class of his own.

With all that being said, I still contend that Jonathan is deserving of a No. 1-A ranking, or at least the No. 2 spot.

But hey, Dubs might dominate the Pac-10, but over in the Big East, Jonathan can still beat up any mascot in the land.