Good Morning, Stumpers!

If you love sports (and you love us), today is a GREAT day to send this to your friends and family. It’s a great day to have a great day, how many times can I use the word “great” in this? It was great to get some brand new stumpers yesterday, let’s get some more!

Today’s Rundown

Everything you’ll get from today’s edition, and more:

• 🔥 So. Much. Basketball.

• 🎤 Luka answers questions at his introductory press conference

• 👼 RIP to Kultida Woods

• 🚀 A great quote from a guy out of this world

On This Day

On This Day…

🏈 The Biggest Comeback in Super Bowl History! 28-3!

Super Bowl 51! It was on this day in 2017 when the Patriots did the unthinkable. They were down 28-3 against the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl with about a quarter and a half to go. We all know the rest!

In the moment, if you weren’t a Patriots fan, you were probably thinking “How the heck do they keep doing this?” Seems like we might be in a similar situation now!

Highlights from this game!

Trivia Time

🧠 Test your sports knowledge…

Yesterday’s Trivia Answer: (D): Jerry Rice! It was the 1989 Super Bowl, where the 49ers defeated the Bengals, 20-14! In this game, Rice had a record 215 yards and 1 TD! Wild!

Before We Dive In…

👀 Here’s Yesterday’s MUST-See’s

• 🤣 West Virginia football just banned TikTok

• 🤯 Don Mitchell THROWS THE HAMMER DOWN

• 🔥 Embiid first game back? GAME WINNER

• ‼️ HALF COURT SHOT IN CLEVELAND

The Hot Stove

Basketball

🏀 College and NBA 2-for-1 Special

What to know: There was just so much good basketball last night we figured that we’d treat you to a little buy-one, get-one free special here! Here’s the action you may have missed last night:

(25) Ole Miss upsets (14) Kentucky: The Wildcats came into this one looking to bounce back after their loss in John Calipari’s homecoming, but they’d have to do it against a very feisty and motivated Ole Miss team. Unfortunately for Mark Pope and his Kentucky squad, it was not their night. Ole Miss got out to a 2-0 lead and never gave it up the whole night, it was pretty much a 10-point lead from start to finish for the Rebels. Matthew Murrell, Ole Miss’s senior guard, led the way with 24 points.

(11) Marquette loses on the road to (12) St. Johns: There’s a new leader in the Big East, and that’s the St. John’s Red Storm. Rick Pitino’s guys are 15-1 in their last 16, and have won nine straight games. Their star offseason addition, Kadary Richmond, showed up big last night with 18 points for the Johnnies. The Red Storm moved to 20-3 on the season and took firm control of the top spot in the Big East. As for Marquette, they have lost two in a row to ranked opponents. They go to play Creighton in Omaha on Saturday. The Johnnies go to Gampel Pavilion to take on the UConn Huskies this Friday on Fox.

Celtics @ Cavs: The NBA featured a potential Eastern Conference Finals preview last night as the teams with the top two records in the East faced off in Cleveland. Both teams got off to a slow start, but it was the Celtics who caught fire late in the first quarter. The Celtics extended their lead to 20 with a three-point onslaught that had the Cavs asking more questions than answers. The Cavs were gritty, despite not playing their best basketball early. The Celtics warded off multiple Cavs runs to cut into the lead, but it wasn’t until late in the fourth quarter that the Cavs finally got the game to 4 points. The Celtics responded after an ugly Cleveland turnover pretty much put the final nail in the coffin. The Celtics have won 4-straight.

Luka is in LA!

🏀 Luka Doncic Introductory Press Conference in LA!

What to know: It’s officially a new era! Not just in LA and Dallas, but in the NBA as a whole It is in fact real, Luka Doncic had is introductory press conference with the Lakers, here are some of the key takeaways!

After the jibber jabber of Lakers GM Rob Pelinka thanking Jeanie Buss, Adam Silver, and Mavericks GM Nico Harrison, we got to hear some questions addressed to Luka that we’ve waiting for for the last 48 hours.

Before we get into his answers, we’ll throw the link to this right HERE. Just hearing his voice and his demeanor throughout, it wasn’t rocket science to tell that he was hurt, and felt betrayed by the Mavericks.

There was speculation that maybe Dallas did this because Luka was not going to extend with them in the offseason. When asked about this, he said “Absolutely not” to those rumors. He was still his normal Luka self, cracking jokes about how slow JJ Redick was when they played together.

He went on to say that he was excited to be part of one of the biggest franchises in professional sports. It is real folks! This just happened! Some reports are saying that he could play his first game in one to two weeks! What a sight that will be!

Golf

🏈 Tiger’s Mother, Kultida, Passes Away

What to know: Tiger Woods described his mother as “the enforcer” throughout his career, often pushing him past his limits, helping guide him along what has become one of the most impressive careers in all of sports history. Kutilda Woods, at the age of 80, passed away yesterday in her home in Florida.

Kultilda and Earl Woods met when Earl was a solider in the US Army Special Forces. Earl was stationed in Thailand, where Kultida was working as a civilian in the US Army Bangkok office. She left for the US in 1968, the two were married in New York and moved to Cypress, California, where Tiger was born in 1975.

She is also the mastermind behind the iconic Tiger Woods Sunday reds. She thought that because Tiger was a Capricorn and his power color was red, he should start wearing it during his junior golf tournaments. So he did, and he started winning. Tiger went to Stanford University and their color is…. red. Once he made it professional he started wearing red on the final day of each tournament. The color and outfit, now synonymous with some of Tiger’s most iconic moments, is the namesake of his clothing line “Sun Day Red”.

Kultida was there for some of the most iconic moments of his career, including the 18th green at Augusta National in 2019 when Tiger won the Masters, which capped arguably the most impressive comeback story in golfing history. In his post to X, Tiger said she was “a force of nature all her own, her spirit was simply undeniable,” rest in peace to Kultida Woods.

Quick Hitters

• 🔎 Lakers GM searching the market for a big man to pair with Luka and LBJ

• 🤝 Mavs make another deal, trade for Sixers Caleb Martin

• 🏀 KD downgraded to “out” last night, trade talks are SWIRLING

• 🏈 Andy Reid says he’ll coach at least another year

What We’re Watching

🏀 A DIESEL 11 Game Slate in the Association…

• ESPN Double-Header: Spurs @ Hawks (7:00 PM ET), Suns @ Thunder (9:30 PM ET)

• More action: Cavs @ Pistons (7:00 PM ET), Heat @ 76ers (7:30 PM ET), Suns @ Thunder (9:30 PM ET)

🏒 A TNT Double Header for your dosage of NHL Action…

• Bruins @ Rangers (7:00 PM ET), Oilers @ Blackhawks (9:30 PM ET)

🏀 College Basketball ranked action:

• Men’s: (2) Duke @ Syracuse (7:00 PM ET), (15) Missouri @ (4) Tennessee (7:00 PM ET)

• Women’s: (7) USC @ Wisconsin (7:30 PM ET), (9) TCU @ (12) Kansas St (7:30 PM ET), (8) Ohio State @ (1) UCLA (9:30 PM ET)

⚽️ Fútbol!

• NEWCASTLE MAGPIES vs Arsenal (3:00 PM ET)

The Moment You’ve Been Waiting For

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 juice in their life, send them this link, it would go a long way. Appreciate the hell out of you all!

Trees may get chopped. Stumps hold strong 🌴