The Final Four is still a few days away. To update our Stump Bracket Challenge: After a magical run, Zara who was once 23rd in the world no longer sits atop our challenge! With 3 games left, we still aren’t ready to crown a winner yet, it’s anyone’s game!

And if you feel like you’re looking at a brand-new Stump? It’s because YOU ARE. Stump v2. NEVER. SAY. DIE!

LETS. GET. INTO. IT.

THE DAILY STUMPED🔮 

WHAT’D YOU MISS⁉️📰 

• 🏈 Buffalo Bills trade Stefon Diggs to Houston Texans for a lowly 2025 Second-round pick! (wow.)

• 🏒 MEGA BRAWL in Devils-Rangers, 8 players ejected (Check Stump 7 for video!)

• 🏀 Hornets head coach Steve Clifford to step down at the end of the season and move into a front office role

  • Gonna to be an interesting last 7 games

• 🏀 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announces newest class: Vince Carter, Chauncey Billups, Jerry West (for the third time)

• 🏀 LSU’s Angel Reese declares for WNBA draft

• ⚾️ Astros ace (and Kate Upton’s husband🔥) Justin Verlander set to make his first rehab start on his road to recovery

• 🤑 New York Metro Transportation Authority is asking the New York Road Runners, the company that organizes the New York Marathon, to pay $750,000 for lost revenue during the race due to the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge and it’s tolls having to be closed

• 🏈 Former Giants Head Coach Joe Judge set to join Ole Miss staff

• 🏀 UConn Men’s Basketball plane delayed more than 5-hours after mechanical issues

STORY OF THE DAY✍️ 

Eastern Conference Update!

We’ve got just a few games left in the regular season in the NBA, and despite that, I don’t have a clue what’s going to happen on either side of the NBA. The West is worth a full essay so today we’ll just focus on the East. The Boston Celtics are 60-16 and an unbelievable 13 games ahead of the 2-seeded Milwaukee Bucks. (For comparison, on the West the 1-seeded Nuggets are only 11.5 games ahead of the 10-seeded Warriors! How crazy is that!)

With this massive lead, you would think the Celtics should be the surefire team to come out of the East, however, it’s not that simple. So who are their biggest competitors? It must be the Bucks at 2 or the Cavs at 3, right? Wrong.

Without a doubt, it has to be two teams that are barely in the playoff picture. The Miami Heat at 6 and the Philadelphia 76ers at 8. Joel Embiid is back from injury just in time to get ready for postseason ball, and it’s only a matter of a few days until we see the official “flip of the switch” in Miami and they start rattling off postseason wins.

Despite having a phenomenal regular season and one of the best starting fives in the NBA, it isn’t a clear picture of the Celtics in the Finals. One thing is their bench, or more specifically lack of a bench. The holy trinity of Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard, and Luke Kornet (who are all good ball players) unfortunately might not cut it in the postseason.

Lucky for us the postseason just gave me a call and said this year is going to be a wild one. Who knows maybe it’s the year of the Magic or Knicks….just kidding. Or maybe…?

🎙️ SONG OF THE DAY

I Want it That Way - Backstreet Boys

A classic, these guys went on an absolute HEATER in the early 2000’s. It felt like they couldn’t miss, everything was a banger. These guys DOMINATED my MP3 player.