February 28, 2022
Daily Briefing — Feb. 28, 2022: NO BLUE — Iowa, Caitlin Clark snatch Big Ten title hopes from Michigan
By Emily Adler
Louisville did what to Notre Dame?!?
It’s Monday, I’m sorry. Welcome to The Next’s Daily Briefing, featuring the daily Watch List and Yesterday’s Recap! Day 111 of college basketball is here, following a crazy day in which Iowa — more specifically, Caitlin Clark — shot Michigan’s regular-season-championship dreams out of the gym. That wasn’t even the biggest personal or team performance of the day: Aneesah Morrow had 41 points to cap her historic freshman regular season campaign, while Louisville crushed Notre Dame, leading 45-4 after 13 minutes.
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Remember when I said yesterday was the last full day of regular-season college ball? I said “full” for a reason: The Big 12 and other smaller mid-majors keep playing this week. That’ll get sprinkled in to the Watch List throughout the week.
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Note: TDB is compiled before the weekly AP Poll. All rankings herein are as of Feb. 27.
Watch List, Monday, Feb. 28
(All times in Eastern)
Must-watch
#5 Baylor @ #9 Iowa State, 7 p.m., ESPN2
Good games
None
Also watchable
None
Sunday, Feb. 27 recap
#1 South Carolina: 71-57 win over Ole Miss. (The Gamecocks won the SEC, obviously. I don’t know when exactly that happened, but my guess is it happened sometime back in November.)
#3 N.C. State, #23 Virginia Tech: The Wolfpack beat the Hokies 68-66, clinching a full regular-season ACC title, their first since 1990.
#4 Louisville, #14 Notre Dame: The Cardinals beat the Irish 86-64, but only after taking their foot off the gas after leading 45-4 (FORTY-FIVE-TO-FOUR). Against a top-15 team!
#6 Michigan, #21 Iowa: The Hawkeyes beat the Wolverines 104-80, clinching a share of their first regular-season championship since 2008 — although Ohio State has the tiebreaker, making the Buckeyes the tournament’s No. 1 seed. Michigan is denied its first-ever title thanks to not being able to reschedule a game against last-place Illinois that was canceled because of weather.
Iowa point guard Caitlin Clark had 38 points on 11-for-18 from the field, 8-for-11 from three, and 8-for-8 from the line with six rebounds, 11 assists, and three steals against two turnovers — which is pretty good, I think.
#7 UConn: 88-31 win over Providence. Led 51-10 at halftime. Paige Bueckers started — which is good — and she played 13 minutes — not traditional starter minutes, but a number that reflects her stamina ramping up. She had two points on 0-for-1 FG, three rebounds, and five assists.
#8 LSU, #16 Tennessee: The Tigers beat the Vols 57-54. Tennessee badly misses point wing Jordan Horston. Badly.
#15 Florida: 78-73 loss to Mizzou.
#17 Ohio State: 61-55 win over Michigan State, which combined with Michigan’s loss gives the Buckeyes a share of the regular-season championship, though they take the one-seed with their head-to-head win over co-champion Iowa.
#18 North Carolina: 74-46 win over Duke, the Heels’ first season-series sweep of the Blue Devils since 2014 and their second since 2008.
Remember when Duke was ranked in the top-15 and had challenged South Carolina and beat Iowa and Notre Dame? What a time.
#22 Georgia Tech: 64-56 win over Wake Forest.
#25 Georgia: 67-58 win over Texas A&M, who goes from the 2021 regular-season champs to the 2022 second-worst team in the SEC.
Kentucky: 90-62 win over Auburn. Wing Rhyne Howard, the likely No. 1 pick in the coming draft, closed her Memorial Coliseum career with 32 points on 11-for-20 from the field and 8-for-13 from three with two assists and two steals in only 28 minutes.
DePaul: 90-84 win over Creighton. Big Aneesah Morrow, the presumptive National Freshman of the Year, had her 23rd-straight double-double with 41 points on 16-for-26 from the field and 9-for-12 from the line and 18 rebounds (eight offensive), plus two steals against four turnovers.
Cancellations
- RV* Princeton @ Harvard
*Receiving Votes
Written by Emily Adler
Emily Adler (she/her) covers the WNBA at large and college basketball for The Next, with a focus on player development and the game behind the game.