October baseball! It’s special. If you tuned into that TNF game instead of baseball last night, I’m sorry for that snoozefest. CLEVELAND had ANOTHER all-time postseason moment against the Yankees (WATCH HERE). A wild day of sports that included Tony Bennett stepping down, the Dodgers going up 3-1, and the Denver Broncos winning their 4th out of the last 5 games! Happy Friday!

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🏀 On this day in 1974, NBA legend Nate Thurmond made his debut with the Chicago Bulls in his 12th NBA season. He had spent the previous 11 years with the Warriors organization, where he earned multiple All-Star appearances and All-Defensive Awards.

Thurmond set Chicago on fire that night when he became the first player history to complete a quadruple-double. He recorded 22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists, and 12 blocks in his first game wearing the iconic Bulls jersey.

It’s the time of the year when there’s a crisp in the air in the northern half of the US, the leaves are falling, and winter sports are coming. College basketball programs all over the country are getting ready for a long season, grinding out practices, and building chemistry that hopefully leads to a successful season. Usually, at this point, you’re not looking for a head coach, unless you’re the University of Virginia.

The college basketball world was sent into shock yesterday when the University of Virginia announced that their head coach Tony Bennett was stepping down. Bennett, who took the job as the head man for the Cavaliers in 2009, led the school to a national championship in 2019.

Bennett, 55, is a two-time national coach of the year winner, and led the school to two ACC Tournament Championship. He also signed a two-year contract extension this past season to keep him in Charlottesville until the 2029-30 season. The team was set to have their first game on November 6th.

Bennett was known as a tremendous coach who consistently had by far the best defense in college basketball. His retirement comes as a shock especially because of the recent contract extension and the announcement from UVA saying that his retirement is NOT related to his health.

This situation is very similar to that of Jay Wright, the former Villanova University head men’s basketball coach who shockingly retired two seasons ago in the midst of what seemed to be the peak of his coaching career. Wright was openly opposed to the way college athletics were heading, specifically the transfer portal and NIL. Could Bennett be in a similar spot?

Bennett has been open about his distaste for the current model of college athletics, but he knew all of this before he signed his contract extension in the summer. So, it’s hard for me to believe that it’s related to that. Bennett knew what he was getting himself into. If not that, what could it be?

A couple of weeks ago Bennett talked about his coaching future at the ACC Media Day. There, he discussed his disinterest in continuing his coaching career if he was not operating in the way he wanted, hinting at NIL and the portal not allowing him to coach the way he truly wanted to. He discussed how Jay Wright retired because he saw where this was all going in the modern NCAA, and wanted out. Here’s a piece of the quote from Bennett:

“So I think Jay Wright probably foresaw where this is going. ... It'll be better whenever there's regulations. Is that three to five years away? Who knows? But if it's not -- those are decisions that every man has to make when it's his time."

For Bennett, I just don’t really see where this all adds up. Hopefully, a statement from Bennett or the University in the coming days will clear things up. But for now, we’ll wait and see where UVA goes for head ball coach.

⚾ ALCS: WOWWWW! Guardians defeat Yankees in 10, 7-5! This might have been the game of the postseason! After Judge and Stanton both hit LEGACY Home Runs in the bottom of the 8th, Jhonkensy Noel hit a 2-run shot on the Guardians FINAL OUT! The game ended just one inning later with a David Fry 2-run BOMB! Yankees lead series 2-1!

⚾ NLCS: Mets fans, we’re sorry! Another high-scoring affair in Queens! Dodgers defeat the Mets, 10-2, in Game 4 of the NLCS, they take a 3-1 series lead and are now 1 win away from the World Series!

🏈 TNF: It was not a good night at home for the New Orleans Saints. The Denver Broncos and Bo Nix came into town GUNS ABLAZIN and took the Saints for all they had. A decently close game early got really out of hand in the second half. A superb performance from the Denver defense gave the Saints fits all night long. Sad times in New Orleans.

🏀 OKC Thunder big man Isaiah Hartenstein will be out for 5-6 weeks after fracturing his hand! The big man came over from New York and was set to play a big role in giving last years one seed some extra size.

🏈 The Cleveland Browns announced yesterday that they will be leaving the city of Cleveland again… only this time they’ll be headed to the cities suburbs. The Browns rejected a $1.2 billion plan from the City of Cleveland to renovate the current stadium in downtown Cleveland. Browns ownership plans to build a brand new domed stadium in Brook Park, a suburb of the city.

💯Top Performers:

🏀 MOOKIE MASH!

⚾ WALKOFF IN CLEVELAND! WOW!

⚾ Before FRY…IT WAS BIG CHRISTMAS!

🏀 T-WOLVES got a good one!

🏈 Saints fans… sad!

💯 Full Scoreboards: MLB, Soccer, PGA, NFL, WNBA, NCAAF, NHL

Trivia Answer:

C. Troy Polamalu! The Steelers legend was an elite safety for a long time, but got a lot of attention for his long, flowing, locks of hair. He has been a longstanding partner with Head and Shoulders, which now features Polamalu with Mahomes in mostly all of their commercials!

Can’t thank you enough for sticking to the end of this thing we call The Daily Stump. If you know anybody who might want this bit of daily sports news in their life, send them this link! It would go a long way! Appreciate the hell out of you all!

Trees get chopped. Stumps hold strong!