Good Morning, Stumpers!

Friday is HERE! That seemed kind of quick right? We’re ziggin and zaggin in today’s Stump! We’ve got NBA All-Stars, the story of Minnesota’s Danny Striggow, and a Lady Commodore who is lighting the college basketball world on fire! Mikayla Blakes just dropped 53 points in a game! If that wasn’t enough, we’ve got some extra juice for our Quote, Song, and Glue Guy OTD! Stump Time!

Today’s Rundown

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

• 🐶 Danny Striggow gets to the Senior Bowl

• 🏀 Mikayla Blakes is AMAZING for Vanderbilt!

• 🏀 NBA All-Star selections fully revealed! Who got snubbed?

• ⌨️ A Quote OTD that just works!

On This Day

On this day…

🔥 Harden Goes Nuclear

There was a time in NBA history when James Harden was the most feared man to step on the court in the entire league, and on this day in 2018, that was no different.

Harden became the first player in NBA history to log a 60-point triple-double in the Rockets’ 114-107 win over the Orlando Magic. Harden had 60 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, 4 steals, and a block. Talk about a STAT STUFFER!

Trivia Time

🧠 Test your sports knowledge…

Yesterday’s Trivia Answer: (A) Wilt Chamberlin. On November 24th, 1960, Chamberlin snatched 55 rebounds versus the Celtics.

Before We Dive In…

👀 Here’s Yesterday’s MUST-See’s

• 🤣 New Lebron memes just dropped

• 🏀 Inbound off a back ➡️ SLAM

• 💨 KENNY AND CHUCK RACE TO THE BOARD… FOUL????

• 🎂 Birthday boy OT winner for Ottawa

The Hot Stove

Underdog of the Day

🐶 Danny Striggow: When Duty Calls

What to know: For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Reese’s Senior Bowl, let me explain. The Senior Bowl is college football’s premier pre-draft bowl game where the best of the best get invited from all across the college football world to go and compete in front of NFL scouts. The Senior Bowl consists of, like the name states, only players in their senior year. It’s difficult to get an invite, so players often jump at the opportunity to attend and show their skills. In the case of Minnesota defensive end Danny Striggow, he jumped, and jumped quickly when he got the call.

Striggow was not a part of the original invites, like all of us, he was watching the event at home. It wasn’t until late Wednesday night that Striggow had an opportunity to attend. An early week injury opened up a roster spot and at 11 PM at night, Striggow got the call from his agent asking if he was interested. His answer was, obviously, a resounding yes.

He hopped on not one, but two planes, and went from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Mobile, Alabama, in about 12 hours. He headed straight from the airport to practice. He arrived about halfway in and went straight to the field, he limbered up a little, took a quick interview, and jumped right into drills. Insanity!

It goes to show how quickly your situation can change, for the better. The Minnesota graduate racked up 52 tackles, 5 sacks, and 5.5 tackles for loss this past season, and now he gets to show out at the senior bowl.

Women’s College Basketball

🪣 Mikayla Blakes: Bucket

What to know: The Vanderbilt women’s basketball program entered the AP Top 25 poll this week for the first time since February 2014, but that’s not the only thing the lady Commodores are celebrating right now. Their young freshman, Mikayla Blakes, has been one of the best in the country this year. She currently averages 21 points a game and is the only freshman to have multiple performances of 30+ points. Last night, she managed to break a Vanderbilt, NCAA, and SEC record all-in-one in their game against the Florida Gators.

The freshman put up a school record 53 points, which was also enough to break the NCAA and SEC record for single-game scoring by a freshman. In regards to the NCAA and SEC, the previous record was 51. Blakes shot 16-24 from the field, which included a 5-9 performance from behind the arc. Blakes was a five-star recruit in last year’s cycle.

Blakes has been consistently great all year, but has been especially stellar in recent weeks. She hit the game-winning shot four games ago against Tennessee, then put up 24 against Arkansas, 33 against Alabama, and topped it off with 53 points last night.

Watch out for Vandy Women’s Basketball, they are a program on the rise with the right player to lead them…

NBA All-Stars

🏀 All-Star Starters and now Reserves Have All Been Revealed

What to know: The 24 NBA All-Stars have now been revealed! Like every year, there are some first-time all-stars, some snubs, and some classics! Let’s see what we’ve got!

East Starters: Jalen Brunson (NYK), Donovan Mitchell (CLE), Giannis Antetokounmpo (MIL), Jayson Tatum (BOS), Karl-Anthony Towns (NYK)

East Reserves: Darius Garland (CLE), Cade Cunningham (DET), Jalen Brown (BOS), Pascal Siakam (IND), Evan Mobley (CLE), Damian Lillard (MIL), Tyler Herro (MIA)

West Starters: Steph Curry (GSW), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC), Lebron James (LAL), Kevin Durant (PHX), Nikola Jokic (DEN)

West Reserves: Anthony Edwards (MIN), James Harden (LAC), Anthony Davis (LAL), Jaren Jackson Jr. (MEM), Victor Wembanyama (SAS), Alperen Sengun (HOU), Jalen Williams (OKC)

Yes, we’ve got the regular faces like LeBron, Steph, KD, Harden, Giannis, and Joker, but we also have 6 first-time All-Stars as well, 3 from each conference. On the West, we have Wemby, Sengun, and Jalen Williams. Jalen getting respect for being the second-best player on the best team in the West, and Wemby and Sengun have both had great seasons so far as well. On the East, the newcomers are Cade, Tyler Herro, as well Evan Mobley. The Cavs lead the way with 3 All-Stars to go with their league-leading record!

With every All-Star announcement, there are snubs. Leading the way in the All-Snub team is Trae Young, who is leading the league with 11.3 assists per game. He’s been putting together a great season, and he expressed his displeasure with the announcement. Domantas Sabonis and LaMelo Ball were also close to making it as well.

The All-Star game will be on February 16th, and the new 4-team format seems like it could be a fun twist! We’ll be getting into that in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Quick Hitters

• ⚾️ Scherzer to the Blue Jays on a one-year deal

• 🏒 Utah switches team name for fans to vote on after just one game

• 🤐 Justin Tucker accused of inappropriate behavior

• 🥹 Plane catastrophe in DC shakes the world

What We’re Watching

🏀 ESPN Double Header:

• Nuggets @ 76ers (7:30 PM): The Nuggets continue their east coast swing as they make a stop in Philly to play the Tyrese Maxey led Sixers. Just like every game in Philly, no word on who the hell will actually suit up.

• Suns @ Warriors (10:00 PM): Durant goes back to Golden State to take on his old squad, as both teams are fighting for a chance to make the playoffs.

🏒 NHL, live from Buffalo on NHL Network:

• Predators @ Sabres (7:00 PM): Coming off a DOUBLE hate trick from Tage Thompson and JJ Peterka for Buffalo, they welcome a struggling Predators squad and Filip Forsberg.

🏀 College Basketball ranked action:

• Men’s: Indiana @ (10) Purdue (8:00 PM on FOX)

• Women’s: No ranked teams in action…

⚽️ A little international action:

• Werder Bremen vs Mainz (Bundesliga - 2:30 PM), Parma vs Lecce (Serie A - 2:45 PM), Montpellier vs Lens (Ligue 1 - 2:45 PM)

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 🌴