The GIST's Bits & Bites: USA
February 11, 2021
This week from the WNBA and College Basketball
Source: NBAE via Getty Images
🏀WNBA: Here’s a live look at us trying to keep up with yesterday’s league-altering trades. We’ll start here: three-time WNBA champion Natasha Howard was traded from the Seattle Storm to the New York Liberty and will join forces with 2020 No. 1 draft pick Sabrina Ionescu (pronounced YO-NESS-COO), making the Liberty instant playoff contenders.
- Meanwhile, former UConn stars Kia Nurse and Megan Walker were traded from the Liberty to the Phoenix Mercury in exchange for draft picks. With UConn alumni Diana Taurasi returning for her 17th season, watch out.
- And in non-trade news, two-time WNBA champion Renee Montgomery is retiring after 11 seasons. Montgomery opted out of the 2020 season to focus on social justice and will keep up the fight alongside her work in sports media.
🎓🏀College basketball: Hoops fans, rejoice. There had been rumors of a bubble for the women’s March Madness tournament, and the NCAA made things official last Friday, announcing that the entire tournament will be held in San Antonio and the surrounding region. Swish.
- And if the tournament is going to be anything like the No. 2 UConn Huskies’ overtime win over the No. 1 South Carolina, in front of a record-setting 461,000 viewers (a number that well exceeded the men’s hoops game that followed), then we’re in for a treat.
