I was reading sage sports scribe Mickey Furfari today when at the end of his preview for tonight’s game he did something that caught my eye.

Joe “The Hammer” Alexander, 6-8 junior forward, now is leading WVU in both scoring (14.80) and rebounding (5.80). Alex Ruoff, 6-6 junior, is next at 14.5 and 3.5 followed 6-7 sophomore Da’Sean Butler at 12.7 and 5.7.

The Hammer? Turns out Mickey is forwarding an agenda that perhaps needs to be forwarded — Alexander has somehow defied a nickname for two-plus years now.

Andy Hernandez of Morgantown is a friend who’s among those who walk inside the WVU Coliseum each day for exercise.

In doing that, he frequently bumps into Joe Alexander, the 6-8 forward on the Mountaineer men’s basketball team. One day the two got talking briefly.

“I told him I think ‘The Hammer’ would be a good nickname for him,” Hernandez said. “And Joe replied, ‘I kinda like that. I’d like to be called ‘The Hammer.'”

If it sticks, give Mr. Hernandez the credit.

Maybe there’s a reason he’s defied a nickname — he needs a good one. I think hopeknow we can do better than The Hammer. I’ve heard Vanilla Sky an awful lot and that one seems to have some legs … maybe like the new White Chocolate. I can remember watching him warmup for a home game last year and that day, as he frequently did, he put on a show in the warmup. I was talking with someone about Joe’s ability when he did some silly dunk that stopped me mid-sentence: “Well, the thing about Joe … My goodness!” As in, Oh, My goodness! We laughed. We cried. We agreed to never speak about it again.

So let’s get this done, once and for all. What is Joe Alexander’s nickname?