Good Morning, Stumpers!

In the NBA, shoes are often ways for players to express their fashion sense, taste, brand, or whatever they may want to promote. But for Austin Reaves last night, his shoes carried a special message for his brother Spencer: The gender of Spencer’s baby. We’re gonna dig into that, but so much more. Today’s a big day in the sports world. We have the NCAA Tournament back, MLB Opening Day, another PGA Tourney teeing off, and a massive NHL slate. Buckle the heck in.

Today’s Rundown

What’s in today’s edition?

• 👶 An NBA Gender Reveal for the Reaves

• 📕 Bookmakers are DOWN on the White Sox

• ⛳️ A tradition unlike any other until 2036

• 📆 Check out today’s schedule, there’s a LOT going today

On This Day

On This Day…

🏀 First NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Crowns a Winner

If you had to guess, in what year do you think the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament first took place? Would it be the 1950’s? 60’s? What if I told you that the first tournament named its champion on this day in 1939? Would you believe me? Well, it’s true!

On this day in 1939, the Oregon Ducks were named the first NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Champion when they defeated Ohio State, 46-33. Despite the loss, Ohio State forward Jimmy Hull is named tournament Most Outstanding Player. I wonder if those guys had any idea how big this tournament would become.

Today’s Trivia

🧠 Test your sports knowledge…

Yesterday’s Trivia Answer: Either A or B! Pitino! One of them is going to win.

Before We Dive In…

👀 Yesterday’s Must See’s

• 💤 How I slept knowing it’s Opening Day

• 🔨 Jaxson Hayes THROW THE HAMMER DOWN

• 💪 Ashton Jeanty looks DIFFERENT at his pro day

• 🤡 Joker is back and he’s flying in for a JAM

🔍️ Stump Spotlight

NBA Baby Reveal

👶 Austin Reaves Helps Out His Brother

If you were just scrolling on Instagram, X, TikTok, or YouTube, you may have seen highlights of the Los Angeles Lakers match-up with the Indiana Pacers. You may have heard about LeBron with only two points in the first half, or maybe even seen Luka draining threes. But it was a different Laker who caught my eye last night, Austin Reaves. Not because of his play on the court, but because of the color of his shoes.

Austin’s brother, Spencer, recently announced that he and his wife are expecting a child. But as for the gender of the child? That, they left up to Austin to announce in style. Apparently, Austin has known for weeks. When he walked out onto the court in white shoes with pink laces and pink accents, his older brother knew he was having a baby girl.

Spencer, who played his college ball at Central Missouri University, currently plays overseas in Germany. He plays for Syntainics MBC, a member of the Basketball Bundesliga, Germany’s top basketball league. His team won the German Cup this past year, with Reaves averaging 14.1 PPG while shooting a touch under 38.5% from three-point range.

When Reaves took the court in his pink, his brother took to X to thank his little bro for making this special: “Appreciate you! We didn’t know Austin would be so pumped to do this. He’s known for weeks. Maybe he got Luka on board as well with his shoes tonight”. The reference to Luka, of course, came because Luka was also sporting some BRIGHT pink shoes on the court last night.

I’m not sure why this one really caught my eye. Shoes are often a fashion statement of sorts, often representing a player’s style, brand, or taste. But this? This is different. This boasted a different type of message. A personal one to the family. Both of the Reaves brothers had to really enjoy this one. As a little brother myself, I’m sure Austin really enjoyed having this information before his brother did.

Now that brother Spencer knows, it’s time for Austin to get ready for life as an uncle. He’s already having the best year of his career, averaging 19 points per game and establishing himself as the best third option in the NBA. Maybe this is just a preview of what Uncle Austin can do in the future.

The Hot Stove

🎙️ Jim Nantz Sets Date for Last Masters Call

If there’s a more poetic relationship in all of sports, I can’t find it anywhere. Jim Nantz and the Masters belong together. They are one. So the thought of the tournament without Nantz hurts my heart a little. But good news for all of us, Nantz announced that he plans to be the voice of the Masters all the way through the historic 100th tournament in 2036. Nantz will announce his 40th career Masters next month. I’m not great at math, but I do know that Nantz will be the announcer for about half of all Masters tournaments when he apparently retires in 2036. His first call came in 1986, that year he coined the term, “a tradition unlike any other”, which the tournament trademarked in 2014.

📕 Bookmakers Do NOT Believe in the Chicago White Sox

If you’re a Chicago White Sox fan, today may be more of a funeral than a celebration. The baseball season officially gets underway today, and with that, bookmakers finalized their season win-total odds, and it doesn’t look good for the White Sox. The good news first, or the bad news? I’ll go good. Well, Vegas thinks Chicago will win MORE games than last year. The bad news? The win total is set at 53.5, the lowest season win total set by sportsbooks in over 35 seasons. Yikes. This number is 6 wins less than the next lowest total in the league, as the Colorado Rockies currently sit at 59.5 wins. For comparison, the highest win total in the league is 103.5 wins for the Los Angeles Dodgers. This comes at the heels of the White Sox’s’ record-breaking 2024 campaign, where the team lost a total of 121 baseball games. Fortunately for Chicago’s south side team, it’s hard to be that bad again. 83% of the money bet on the win total for the White Sox is on their over, so it looks like the public believes in them.

⚾️ Our QUICK Division Winners in the MLB

This one isn’t going to be full of analysis. Actually, it won’t be full of ANY analysis. Yep, I won’t lie to you. I learned during the NCAA Tournament that doing deep analysis doesn’t help, so I’m going to do this based off of FEEL. That’s right, strictly off of the OLD GUT!

AL East: Boston Red Sox

AL Central: Cleveland Guardians

AL West: Texas Rangers

NL East: Atlanta Braves

NL Central: Milwaukee Brewers

NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers

Hold me to it. Hold US to it.

What To Watch

🏀 The NCAA Tournament is SO back:

• Men’s Sweet 16: BYU vs Alabama (7:09 PM on CBS), Maryland vs Florida (7:39 PM on TBS), Arizona vs Duke (9:39 PM on CBS), Arkansas vs Texas Tech (10:09 PM on TBS)

🏀 NBA Basketball - One televised game!

• NBAtv: Mavericks @ Magic (7:00 PM)

• More to watch: Spurs @ Cavs (7:00 PM), Hawks @ Heat (7:30 PM), Grizzlies @ Thunder (8:00 PM)

⚾️ BASEBALL IS LIVE. OPENING DAY

• National Television Games: Braves @ Yankees (3:00 PM on ESPN), Tigers @ Dodgers (7:00 PM)

• There are FOURTEEN games today, so check out the schedule to find out when your favorite team plays

🏒 NHL on ESPN Family of Networks

• ESPN: Kings @ Avalanche (10:00 PM)

• ESPN+: Senators @ Red Wings (7:00 PM), Utah @ Tampa (7:00 PM), Capitals @ Wild (7:30 PM), Stars @ Flames (9:00 PM), Oilers @ Kraken (10:00 PM)

🏌️ Texas Children’s Houston Open kicks off today in, you guessed it, Houston, Texas. The Memorial Park Golf Course hosts the event and the defending champion is Stephan Jaegar. Here’s the tee times for Day One

The Moment You’ve Been Waiting For

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