Yeah, that’s right, you made it to Friday! Hopefully this week’s postseason baseball helped you get through the work week. We’ll talk through the Mets and Brewers matchup, who the WNBA named their Rookie of the Year, Bucs @ Falcons, the San Antonio Spurs, and another NFL Coach who got in trouble with the NCAA!

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(answer at the bottom of the Stump!)

🏈 On this day in 1873, the Toronto Argonauts Football Club (CFL) forms as the Argonaut Rowing Club rugby and football squad.

They are the oldest existing pro sports team in North America, and still use the same name today. The franchise has won a record 18 Grey Cups (CFL Super Bowl) and is the most dominant team in CFL history!

We’re going to talk every team, one a day, until the season starts. We’ll start at the bottom and work up. Today, we’re gonna head to San Antonio and preview the Spurs.

It’s pretty rare that a team with only 22 wins last season was must-watch TV. I guess that’s what happens when you have a unicorn on your team by the name of Victor Wembenyama. They went into this offseason with a star at the center of the franchise, they just needed to fill in the pieces around him.

They went and got veteran talent, with the mindset of growing their young core. They added Chris Paul through free agency and Harrison Barnes in a trade, two guys who have more or less seen it all.

Paul’s task will be to not only help in the transition of Wemby to stardom, it’ll be to groom his successor. With the 4th pick in this past year’s draft, San Antonio picked UConn guard Stephon Castle. Castle is a dynamic guard who can lead the offense and guard with the best of them. Castle will surely have Paul’s ear all season.

Combining young guns Stephon Castle and Wemby and veterans Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes isn’t exactly an NBA Finals level roster, but this team has some sneaky really good NBA players. Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell, and Jeremy Sochan have proven to be above average NBA players who can help a team in multiple ways. Not to mention, this team is coached by the winningest coach in NBA History, Coach Pop, who turns 76 in January. This team is Pops’ legacy after he retires, and I don’t see him leaving behind some scrubs.

After some tough-to-watch Thursday Night Football games these last few weeks, we got an absolute beauty of a game last night. An NFC South showdown between the Bucs and Falcons. Four quarters weren’t enough to decide it!

If you looked at the box score from last night’s game and saw that Captain Kirk Cousins had 509 passing yards and 4 TDs, you’d think that there had to be a mistake. Whether it was your glasses prescription on that stats people at ESPN, something had to be wrong. Nothing wrong to report here.

This game featured everything. Mike Evans putting on a show, Darnell Mooney making a statement, a blocked field goal, some BAD late turnovers followed by a CLASSIC 2-minute drill for Kirk Cousins with no timeouts. He drove the boys down the field and after a play in bounds, was able to spike the ball with 1 second on the clock to set up a game-tying field goal by Younghoe Koo. Obviously that guy was MONEY.

The game goes to OT and after Drake London was sidelined for a play due to injury, of all people the 7th-year reserve wideout KhaDarel Hodge took a slant 45-yards to the house! Unreal!

A game like that really makes you ask the question…

“How can you not be romantic about football?”

The highlights are definitely worth a skim: WATCH HERE

Well, in case things don’t work out in Las Vegas, we know one place where Antonio Pierce WON’T be.

The Las Vegas Raiders hired Antonio Pierce to be their linebackers coach after he left Arizona State following the 2022 season. Pierce was promoted to Interim Head Coach once the Raiders fired former head coach Josh McDaniel’s last season, eventually Pierce was hired as the permanent head coach in January.

During his time at Arizona State, Pierce was the linebackers coach and the Co-Defensive Coordinator, yesterday the NCAA dropped sanctions on Pierce for recruiting violations that took place during his tenure in college.

Pierce was named as the ringleader of a scheme orchestrated to circumvent restrictions put in place on recruiting during the COVID-19 pandemic. This included, but not limited to, impermissible recruiting contact with 35 prospects, containing “tryouts, football facility tours, and entertainment.” He also directed an assistant to tamper with players enrolled in other institutions and traveled out of state to meet with recruits illegally.

He was slapped with an eight year show cause, which means if Pierce is hired by an NCAA school during the show cause order (which runs until Oct. 2, 2032) he would be suspended for an entire year without contact with any of the players or coaches in the program. It’s basically the way the NCAA “suspends” people who no longer work there.

Looks like Pierce won’t be back in the college game anytime soon. Here’s to hoping it works out in Vegas.

A boring pitching battle turned into one of the most electric games of the postseason, something about this Mets team, man…

If you checking into the game in the 6th inning, you would’ve seen a pretty uninteresting game. That is, if you like hitting. The game was a pitchers duel, both starters were dealing. Then all of a sudden, things got real interesting.

The Brewers finally broke through when pinch hitter Jake Bauers hit a MONSTER home run to give the Brewers a one-run lead, the next pitch, Sal Frelick sent one deep too. The game went into the ninth with the Brewers up 2-0. No way the Mets could do it again, right? Right?

If they were going to do it, they needed their guy, Francisco Lindor. Luckily enough, he happened to be leading off in the ninth. He worked a walk and took his base, the next man struck out, and then Brandon Nimmo singled to get Lindor to third.

One out, runners on first and third, and the Polar Bear himself walks up to the plate: Pete Alonso. This guy may have the biggest love-hate relationship of any fanbase I’ve ever seen. These fans are never shy about their frustration with Alonso, and they shouldn’t be. He’s really struggled. One at bat may help ease that pain.

Alonso answered the bell. Deep fly ball, back, back, back, gone. Mets 3, Brewers 2. The Mets added one more in the ninth to make it 4-2 and then went into the ninth needing just three outs to advance.

A leadoff single, followed by a strikeout, followed by a double play, game over. Mets vs Phillies, grab the popcorn.

The former No. 1 overall pick was dynamite all season long for the Indiana Fever, including helping the team make the playoffs, now she’s been awarded for it.

The league announced yesterday that Clark was named the WNBA Rookie of the Year, and she did it with a near unanimous vote. Clark received 66 of the 67 votes. The other vote went to Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese, who was the 7th pick in the draft.

Clark now joins her Fever teammate Aliyah Boston, who won the award last year, as ROY winners. The two helped lead the Fever to a 20-20 record and to their first playoff appearance since 2016.

In her first season out of Iowa Clark averaged 19.2 points, 8.4 assists, and 5.7 rebounds. She led the league and assists and was first in 3-pointers made, as long as second in minutes per game and free throw percentage (90.6%).

Clark is the biggest name the woman’s game has ever seen, and her hype heading into her first season was astronomical. She answered the bell, time and time again. When the Fever got off to a cold start, the whole world was in shock. But the Fever didn’t panic, they just put their heads down and started winning. Led by Clark, they managed to play the best basketball Indiana had seen in multiple years.

Clark will surely now set her sights on much bigger accolades, like league MVP and WNBA Champion.

🏈 HODGE calls GAME! In OT!

🏠Even the Empire State Building is Orange and Blue

🏈FIU Miami Vice jerseys are FIRE

🏈 “YOU LIKE THAT?”

🏈I’ve never seen a WR THIS open… Mike Evans

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

Trivia Answer:

B. Toronto, Canada! The four international showcases this year in the NBA are Abu Dhabi, Montreal, Paris, and Mexico City! Despite already having an NBA team, their is no “NBA Showcase” event this year in Toronto. Sorry for the trick question!

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Trees get chopped. Stumps hold strong!