👀 The Baddest Man on the Planet

Happy Humpday! Streaks ended and stars were born on a Tuesday night in the NBA. The NHL playoff race is heating up and with nine games in action yesterday there’s plenty to chat about. College Hoops has taken center stage of the sports world with the regular season winding down and the Madness starting to rise. European soccer’s biggest tournament, the Champions League, had a moving day with the second leg of the Round of 16. NFL rosters are changing as we speak with free agency quickly approaching. Let’s go shock the world!

WTF Stat: Since 1996 when they began tracking, Shaquille O’Neil is the king of the jump ball going 894-277 (76.3%) on tips with Giannis closing in on him at 76.1%.

🏈 Colts have placed a $21.8M franchise tag on Pro Bowl WR Michael Pittman Jr. - he had career highs with 109 receptions and 1,152 yards this past season

🏈 Seahawks have released a couple three-time Pro Bowlers S Jamal Adams and CB Quandre Diggs in an effort to save cap space

🏈 Texas QB Arch Manning, nephew of Peyton and Eli, has opted out of the NCAA Football EA Sports video game to “focus playing on the field” - something the No. 2 overall 2022 HS recruit hasn’t done much of only attempting five passes last year and will likely be backing up QB Quinn Ewers again in 2024

NBA - Top Games

• Cleveland Cavaliers 105, Boston Celtics 104: A 22-point lead was blown by the Celtics as the Cavs used a 20-point 4th quarter from unlikely star Dean Wade in front of the home crowd to mount a comeback. Jayson Tatum had a foul call with under a second left overturned that took away potential game-winning free throws - largest 4th quarter comeback from any NBA team this season and the loss ends an 11-game win streak for Boston

• Houston Rockets 114, San Antonio Spurs 101: Alperen Sengun (45 PTS, 16 REB, 5 STL) is a name you probably don’t know if you’re just a casual NBA fan but he’s a budding 21-year-old star from Turkey who out-shined rookie Victor Wembanyama (10 PTS, 11 REB, 7 BLK) last night

• Indiana Pacers 137, Dallas Mavericks 120: When these two clubs tip-off you can expect points as Luka Doncic’s (39 PTS, 11 AST, 10 REB) triple-double was not enough to overcome nine Pacers in double-digit scoring led by All-Star Tyrese Haliburton (19 PTS, 11 AST, 6 REB)

See the full NBA scoreboard here and the current standings here.

NHL - Top Games

• Edmonton Oilers 2, Boston Bruins 1 (OT): A potential Stanley Cup preview was shockingly a defensive battle as the first goal was scored from Pavel Zacha 4:26 into the third period, but Leon Draisaitl had the last laugh forcing OT with just 1:20 to play and then scored his second of the game and overtime winner for the win - Boston has lost a whopping 15 games in OT this season, but still have the second most points in the NHL (87)

• Florida Panthers 5, New Jersey Devils 3: The team with the most points in hockey spoiled the head coaching debut of Travis Green for the Devils thanks to two goals from Nick Cousins - Florida has their eyes set on a President’s Trophy with New Jersey on the outside of the playoff picture looking in

• Seattle Kraken 4, Winnipeg Jets 3: A back-and-forth game ended with Andre Burakovsky finding the back of the net on a third period power play for just his second goal of the season to seal the win on the road - Seattle is five points off the Western Conference wild card spot

See the full NHL scoreboard here and the current standings here.

College Basketball - Top Games

• NCAAM | #3 Purdue 77, #12 Illinois 71: The Boilermakers extend their case for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament using big man Zach Edey (28 PTS, 8 REB) to fend off the Fighting Illini claiming a second straight Big Ten regular season title - first team in the Big Ten in 17 years to win consecutive outright conference titles

• NCAAM | Florida 105, #16 Alabama 87: Four scorers of 19+ points helped the Gators take out Mark Spears (33 PTS) and one of the best teams in the SEC - don’t look now but the Gators will be an exciting bracket buster pick come March

• NCAAM | #7 UNC 84, Notre Dame 51: A dominating performance gave the Tar Heels a share of the ACC regular season title as Armando Bacot (14 PTS, 5 REB) played his last home game in Chapel Hill knocking down two three-balls and it impressed his old coach

See the full NCAAM scoreboard here and the current rankings here. See the full NCAAW scoreboard here and the current rankings here.

Champions League - Round of 16 (Leg 2)

• PSG 2, Real Sociedad 1: Mbappe proved why he is one of the best players in the world scoring two goals which was all that was needed to take out the Spanish club and move to the next round with a 4-1 aggregate win

• Bayern Munich 3, Lazio 0: Bayern trailed 1-0 heading into this second leg but a two-goal day from the British star Harry Kane allowed the German club to advance to the quarterfinals

On March 6, 1985, a young man named Mike Tyson made his professional boxing debut in Albany, NY and knocked out Hector Mercedes at 1:47 in round 1. The rest of the Tyson story is history as “The Baddest Man on the Planet” went on to become the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion of the world. He finished his career with an impressive 50-6-2 record that featured 44 knockouts - 45 if you include his knockout on Alan in The Hangover!

NBA

• Los Angeles Clippers @ Houston Rockets 7:30pm ET, ESPN

• Milwaukee Bucks @ Golden State Warriors 10:00pm ET, ESPN

• Full Schedule

NHL

• Buffalo Sabres @ Toronto Maple Leafs 7:00pm ET, TNT

• Detroit Red Wings @ Colorado Avalanche 9:30pm ET, TNT

• Full Schedule

Men’s College Basketball

• #4 Tennessee @ #17 South Carolina 7:00pm ET, ESPN2

• #2 UConn @ #8 Marquette 8:30pm ET, FS1

• #20 BYU @ #6 Iowa State 9:00pm ET, ESPN2

• Full Schedule

Champions League - Round of 16 (Leg 2)

• Manchester City vs. FC Copenhagen 3:00pm ET

• Real Madrid @ RB Leipzig 3:00pm ET

Trivia Time Answer

A. Steph Curry. This one probably felt like a trick question as Steph is having a “down year”, but he’s netted 281 deep balls this season, which beats out Luka by a wide margin, who sits in second place with 209.

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Thanks for learning sports with us! We will see you bright and early tomorrow.