Good Morning, Stumpers!

Exciting back half of the week on the horizon! We’ve got basketball on its way back after the All-Star break, and then we’re going to have a USA-CANADA rematch for the 4 Nations Championship tomorrow, as well. If that wasn’t enough, we’ve got Champions League soccer on today’s slate! FULL BARN of sports to go over today as well. Some big things to cover in the world of College Hoops! Let’s Stump!

Today’s Rundown

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

• 🤒 Disaster for Kansas on the road in Provo

• 🏈 An old NFL nightmare resurfaces

• ❓️ Did UConn save their season last night?

• 🙏 The NBA is BACK! One game on the slate.

On This Day

On This Day…

🏁 Daytona 500 Comeback Victory

Let’s go back a bit and talk some wheels! On this day in 1978, it was the 20th Daytona 500, and when it comes to this race, you don’t often see come-from-behind victories from the back of the pack.

Bobby Allison started the race in the 33rd position, he took the lead with 11 laps to go and ended up winning the whole damn thing. This was the lowest starting position to win the race up until 2007.

🧠 Test your sports knowledge…

Yesterday’s Trivia Answer: (A) Zion Williamson. Yup, it was a fellow Blue Devil who was the last freshman to win AP National Player of the Year. That freshman-led Duke team was special. Zion, RJ Barrett, and Cam Reddish! We’ll see if Cooper Flagg can do the same!

Before We Dive In…

👀 Here’s Yesterday’s MUST-See’s

• 🧊 Free kick STRIKE in freezing cold Colorado

• 🪄 OZ the Mentalist NEVER disappoints

• ⛳️ Tom Kim getting HYPEEEE! There may be some juice here…

• 🚨 GRANNY STYLE FREE THROW ALERT

The Hot Stove

College Basketball

🏀 Kansas Embarrassed on the Road

What to know: Going into the 2024-2025 Men’s College Basketball season, the Kansas Jayhawks were the undisputed No. 1 team in the country. They had more first-place votes than every other school combined in the first AP Top 25 poll. They returned their stars Hunter Dickinson, KJ Adams, Dajuan Harris Jr., AJ Storr, and even brought in a transfer portal STUD in Zeke Mayo to be one of their main scorers this season.

Seems like the perfect recipe for a successful season, right? Right?

Unfortunately for everyone who likes to Rock Chalk Jayhawk, it’s been a little bit of a trainwreck. Especially as of late. Kansas has lost 3 out of their last 4, all of which were against unranked Big 12 opponents. They sit in 6th place in the Big 12 with a record of 8-7. But last night on the road in Provo, Utah, against BYU, things hit an all-time low of the Bill Self era.

Kansas was historic in their loss. Here are some records they reached in their 91-57 loss:

— Worst loss in program history as a ranked team vs an unranked opponent

— BYU is the only team in the last 7 seasons to lead Kansas by more than 35

— Kansas’ second Big 12 loss by 30+ in the Bill Self era

— Equals the largest margin of loss of the Bill Self era

For note, Bill Self has been the head coach at Kansas since 2003, making this his 22nd season. Self entered the season thinking the team was going to break records, just not these kinds of records.

Where does Kansas go next? Well, they have the chance to respond. They play three more games against ranked opponents to end the season: home against Texas Tech, on the road in Houston, and home against Arizona. If Kansas wants to make a statement, they have the opportunity. They just need to go out and prove it.

Past Gets Revistied

🏈 Richie Incognito Bullygate Revisited

What to know: 11 years after the ‘bullying’ incident took place with the Dolphins between Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin, that changed both of their careers. Now Martin has come out and said nothing ever really felt like bullying?

Not going to get too much into the weeds of this one here, but I think there’s a thing or two to bring up regarding this whole situation. Does anybody else remember this more than a decade ago? For almost an entire season, there was the bullygate situation happening in Miami where reports came out that offensive lineman Richie Incognito was bullying teammate Jonathan Martin.

After 12 years and many reports, Martin has now made comments to ESPN saying that he never truly felt bullied during it all. What the heck is going on? I’m not the guy to say whether anything happened or not, but all of a sudden, my X feed has been flooded with all of these new developments regarding the situation.

The only thing I do know for certain is this: 12 years ago, when those initial reports came out, both of the players’ lives changed forever. Incognito was a good player, and he was basically shunned to the Raiders. Martin, on the other hand, was looked at differently as well.

All this is to say that in today’s age, just make sure you get all the facts before formulating an opinion because sometimes it a snowball effect all teaming against one person. Again, not sure what actually went down, but it just gets the alarm bells ringing a little bit.

College Basketball

🏀 Did UConn Save Their Season Last Night?

What to know: After a really ugly loss on the road to Seton Hall this past weekend, the two-time defending champion went into last night’s game with something to prove. Many thought that this team would come out like a pack of hungry dogs, high intensity, zoned in, and ready to roll at home in Hartford.

Just the opposite happened. The Huskies came out flat, missing shot after shot, and getting beat off the ball on the defensive side of the court. Their star Junior, Alex Karaban, continued to struggle, while the rest of the team followed suit. UConn went into the half down 8.

The second half didn’t start much better. At the under-12 timeout in the second half, UConn was down 53-39. For those of us who hate math, that’s 14 points with 11 and some change minutes to go. Slim odds for Husky fans.

To be a fly on the wall of that Dan Hurley huddle. From that point on, it was ALL the Huskies. Not just on the offensive end, but the defensive end as well. UConn finally found a lineup that worked with Hassan Diarra, Solo Ball, Liam McNeeley, Alex Karaban, and Taris Reed Jr., and the Huskies feasted. They finished the game on a 27-6 run. Since that timeout at the under 12, Nova went dry, scoring just 6 points for the remainder of the ball game.

Did UConn save their season? Yes. I truly believe that’s not an exaggeration. After the Seton Hall loss, the Huskies fell even further out of the Top 25, and a home loss to an average Nova team would be the final nail in the coffin for the hopes of an at-large bid. Even heading into last night’s game, some bracket geniuses had the Huskies either in the bubble or in the tournament as an 8 or 9 side. This guarantees nothing for UConn, but it keeps them alive. Breathing, and alive.

With their backs firmly against the wall, the Huskies responded.

Quick Hitters

• 🦘 Kyrie wants to play for team Australia in the Olympics

• 😦 LAFC star Olivier Giroud lost $500,000 in home robbery

• ⚾️ MLB commish backs Dodgers and their big contracts

• 💸 Andy Dalton signs two-year extension with Carolina

What We’re Watching

🏀 We’ve got one game in the NBA, and it’s the DENIED TRADEGATE game…

• Hornets @ Lakers (10:00 PM ET)

🏒 4 Nations Finals are set for Thursday!

🏀 College Basketball ranked action:

• Men’s: Vanderbilt @ (17) Kentucky (7:00 PM ET), Arkansas @ (1) Auburn (9:00 PM ET), (4) Alabama @ (15) Missouri (9:00 PM ET)

• Women’s: (5) UConn @ Seton Hall (7:00 PM ET), (22) Michigan State @ (4) USC (9:30 PM ET)

⚽️ International Futbol!

• Champions League: Borussia Dortmund vs Sports CP (12:45 PM ET - DOR leads 3-0), PSV vs Juventus (3:00 PM ET - JUV leads 2-1), PSG vs Brest (3:00 PM ET - PSG leads 3-0), Real Madrid vs Man City (3:00 PM ET - RMD leads 3-2)

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 🌴