February 18, 2022

Daily Briefing — Feb. 18, 2022: Guess Hoos back — Virginia wins first conference game in two years

Hokie smoke, Bullwinkle!

Members of the Virginia team celebrate at halfcourt after the game

Virginia won its first conference game in nearly two calendar years Thursday night. (Photo credit: Virginia Athletics)

Happy Friday! Welcome to The Next’s Daily Briefing, featuring the W Roundup, daily Watch List, and Yesterday’s Recap! Day 101 of college basketball is here, following a whole bunch of stuff that we’re not going to recap in full because I’m really busy! But we are going to note that the Chicago Sky brought back the second-best backcourt in the league (behind Skylar Diggins-Smith and Diana Taurasi in Phoenix, of course) for another year.

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Good lord are the Sky scary.

W Roundup

Free agency

MeMe Jackson: Signed a training-camp deal with Washington.
Allie Quigley: Her one-year deal with Chicago is for $135,000, per Rachel Galligan.
Courtney Vandersloot: Her one-year contract with Chicago is worth $195,000, per Galligan.

Klutch Sports has made its way to the women’s side, adding Las Vegas big A’ja Wilson and point guard Chelsea Gray, Dallas wing Allisha Gray, and South Carolina center Aliyah Boston. The agency, headed by LeBron James confidant Rich Paul, is most famous for featuring eight of its clients on the Lakers in a two-year span and orchestrating the dramatic trade of Anthony Davis from New Orleans to Los Angeles.

Visit our offseason trackers page to see all the other free agent moves, how they affect team’s caps, and more — in neat, colorful fashion!

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(All times in Eastern)

Watch List, Friday, Feb. 18

Must-watch

None

Good games

Harvard @ Columbia, 7 p.m., ESPN+

#2 Stanford @ Oregon State, 10 p.m., Pac-12

Also watchable

Yale @ Penn, 6 p.m., ESPN+

Thursday, Feb. 17 recap

#1 South Carolina: 75-38 win over Auburn.

#3 Louisville, #24 North Carolina: The Tar Heels beat the Cardinals 66-65.

#4 N.C. State: 92-61 win over Wake Forest.

#5 Indiana: 69-58 win over Northwestern.

#11 LSU: 71-59 win over Mississippi State.

#12 Tennessee: 74-64 loss to Alabama. Since being ranked No. 4 in the polls for the first time since Nov. 2015, per Across The Timeline, the Vols have lost to two of the bottom three teams in the SEC, got blown out by Florida and the ghost of UConn, and were taken to overtime by an Arkansas team that lost its second-best player in the second quarter.

#13 Maryland, #18 Ohio State: The Terps beat the Buckeyes, 77-72.

#16 Georgia Tech, #19 Notre Dame: The Irish beat the Yellow Jackets, 72-66 in overtime.

#17 Florida: 76-67 win over Arkansas. Razorback point guard/aforementioned “second-best player” Makayla Daniels was still out.

#21 Georgia: 74-49 win over Mizzou.

#23 Virginia Tech: 102-53 win over Syracuse, just the 20th 100-burger in ACC play in the HHS era, and the second-largest margin in such games.

#25 FGCU: 64-48 win over Kennesaw State.

RV Nebraska: 83-76 loss to Penn State.

Virginia: 67-54 win over Duke, its first conference win in nearly two calendar years.

Cancellations

None

*Receiving Votes

Written by Em Adler

Em Adler (she/they) covers the WNBA at large and college basketball for The Next, with a focus on player development and the game behind the game.