February 21, 2022

Daily Briefing — Feb. 21, 2022: Michigan moves closer to Big Ten title

And Washington gets its first conference win

Andra Espinoza-Hunter rises in midair towards the hoop, raising her left hand to lay up the ball

Seton Hall wing Andra Espinoza-Hunter (4) led all scorers Sunday with a career-high 35 points on 72.0% true shooting. (Source: @bigeastwbb)

It’s Monday, I’m sorry. Welcome to The Next’s Daily Briefing, featuring the W Roundup, the daily Watch List and Yesterday’s Recap! Day 104 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 for now: Michigan notched a convincing win over Maryland, leaving the Wolverines alone atop the Big Ten. Unless Iowa, Indiana or the Terps win out against tough schedules — all of which are mutually exclusive, for what it’s worth — Michigan just needs to finish its remaining two games no worse than Ohio State finishes its. Both play Michigan State, but whereas the Wolverines close with top-25 Iowa, the Buckeyes play 11th-in-the-conference Penn State.

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Also, Washington got its first conference win of the year, giving head coach Tina Langley her first career Pac-12 win. Now no Power 5 schools are winless in conference. We’re all just sharing the wins out here.

Watch List, Monday, Feb. 21

(All times in Eastern)

Must-watch

#5 Indiana @ #22 Iowa, 8 p.m., BTN

Good games

None

Also watchable

None

Pac-12 or Big Ten on national television (or national streaming)

Penn State @ Michigan State, 6 p.m., BTN

Sunday, Feb. 20 recap

#1 South Carolina, #12 Tennessee: The Gamecocks beat the Vols 67-53.

#2 Stanford, RV* Oregon: The Cardinal beat the Ducks 66-62.

#3 Louisville, #23 Virginia Tech: The Cardinals beat the Hokies 70-56.

#4 N.C. State: 95-53 win over Syracuse.

#8 Arizona: 72-67 loss to Wazzu.

#9 Michigan, #13 Maryland: The Wolverines beat the Terps 71-59.

#10 UConn: 90-49 win over Georgetown.

#11 LSU, #17 Florida: The Tigers beat the Gators 66-61.

#14 Texas: 67-58 win over West Virginia.

#16 Georgia Tech: 51-39 loss to Miami.

#18 Ohio State: 59-42 win over Wisconsin.

#21 Georgia: 65-60 loss to Auburn. The 2-12-in-the-SEC Tigers’ lone conference wins have come over the then-No. 4 Vols and now over the No. 21 Bulldogs. Sure.

#24 North Carolina: 64-49 win over Florida State.

RV Nebraska: 93-70 win over Minnesota. Perhaps they were playing with some extra, uh, motivation.

RV DePaul: 73-64 loss to Villanova.

Washington: 74-69 win over Arizona State.

Seton Hall: 97-91 double-overtime loss to Creighton. Wing Andra Espinoza-Hunter led all scorers Sunday with a career-high 35 points on 13-for-23 shooting from the field and 6-for-8 from three, plus five rebounds and two assists while fouling out in 49 minutes.

Blown leads

Alabama: 81-79 double-overtime win over Texas A&M. The Aggies led by 12 just before the half (TA&M 92.5% win expectancy), before a Crimson Tide 19-4 run (Alabama 93.2% win expectancy), to which Texas A&M responded with eight straight points (TA&M 58.6%). Alabama took a four-point lead in the waning seconds (Alabama 97.0%), but the Aggies responded with a 6-2 run to force overtime. Texas A&M opened overtime on a 7-2 run (TA&M 96.4%), but the Tide scored the last five points to force another period. They then took a four-point lead (Alabama 85.5%) and then somehow trailed again (TA&M 69.8%) before regaining the lead for good.

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.