Inability To Pronounce Iowa Hoops Standout's Last Name Leads To Hilarious Compilation Of Reactions From Monika Czinano, Caitlin Clark

Although Caitlin Clark has grabbed most of the headlines for Iowa women's basketball, and rightfully so, fifth-year senior Monika Czinano also deserves her flowers. The 6-foot-3 forward was the Hawkeyes' second-leading scorer in 2022/23 with an average of 17.1 points per game.

She is also extremely patient.

As good as Czinano was throughout the regular season and during the postseason, nobody could pronounce her name during the NCAA Tournament. "Czinano" can be tricky to the untrained eye, but the media relations team should have figured out the proper way to say her last name before introducing her at the podium.

That's what pronunciation guides are for! A quick Google search can help in a jam, but the powers that be neglected that resource.

Czinano is pronounced sih-NON-oh. The Z is silent. It's not Siz-nano.

Despite all of the resources out there, the Women's March Madness media relations team chose to wing it all week. And they rarely, if ever, got it correct.

The repeated mispronunciations led to a hilarious compilation of Czinano reactions. All week, as Iowa made its run, she waited for her name to be said correctly. It was rarely done so.

When it wasn't said correctly, Czinano shrugged it off with a smirk. Even after Iowa lost the national title game to LSU, she was appreciative of a valiant attempt at her last name.

The biggest success, though, came after the Elite Eight. They got it right.

Iowa must have been in on the joke, because Clark looked to her right and smiled at Czinano in celebration of the proper pronunciation. Here is how everything went down throughout the month of March, backed by the most famous song in college sports:

Czinano has exhausted her eligibility. She will not have a chance to run it back.

At least she went out on a semi-high note, right?