MON SEVEN

Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland has not pressed the panic button ahead of the No. 13 Red Raiders' Big 12 Conference matchup against West Virginia on Sunday in Morgantown, W.Va.

While every game in the conference offers a stern test, McCasland is confident the Red Raiders (16-6, 6-3 Big 12) will bounce back from two straight losses. The first was an 88-80 setback at UCF on Jan. 31, and the latest a 64-61 home defeat against No. 11 Kansas on Monday.

"We've got the right guys, we just need more experience and time together," McCasland said. "I love this group and I believe in them and I know we can win real games that are meaningful in March. We've got to find ways to collectively get a little more experience, get a little tougher, get a little more fight and grit to the way we compete down the stretch. We are just scratching the surface of what we can be."

Christian Anderson was a last-minute scratch for the loss to Kansas due to a reported illness. The sophomore guard ranks second on the Red Raiders in scoring at 19.6 points per game and leads the Big 12 in assists at 7.5 per contest. He shoots 43.6% from 3-point range and connects on 3.4 shots from beyond the arc per game.

Texas Tech thought there still was a possibility he could get ready to play against the Jayhawks by halftime.

"Before the game we didn't have any idea it was an option (he wouldn't play)," McCasland said. "In warmups we were told he was being held out for now. But I fully anticipated him playing. As he got closer to being out there, I was told we were trying to warm him up during the intros to see if we could get him ready to play."

Even as the teams took the court after halftime, Texas Tech thought it could get Anderson back. Without him in the lineup, the Red Raiders surrendered a 10-point lead in the last eight minutes.

"We don't have time to think about anything other than we need to beat West Virginia on Sunday," McCasland said. "Staying in the Big 12 (race) is about being resilient, and we need to get better. Our guys are tough and care a lot about this team even though they are all hurt."

West Virginia (15-8, 6-4 Big 12) is coming off a 59-54 road win over Cincinnati on Thursday, but it could use a victory over Texas Tech as a resume-builder. The Mountaineers are 2-5 in Quad 1 games and 1-3 in Quad 2 games. That makes Sunday tilt in Morgantown, where they are 13-1, even more important.

"We have a little momentum and need to go back home and take care of business there," said West Virginia's leading scorer, Honor Huff, who puts up 15.8 points per game.

"We don't try to look ahead or hear the outside noise as to what can happen if you win this game or lose that game. We have to take care of every game that comes on our schedule."

Even though the Mountaineers trailed the Bearcats by as many as 14 points in the second half, they rode a familiar formula to victory: Muddy things up on defense and wait for Huff to get hot from beyond the arc. Huff scored 14 straight Mountaineers points to put his team up 42-40, and the West Virginia defense held Cincinnati to 36.4% shooting from the field and 30.4% on 3-point attempts.

"For us it always starts on the defensive end of the floor," West Virginia coach Ross Hodge said. "Can you defend and can you rebound? In the last couple games, we've gotten some good offensive looks and are struggling a bit on that end of the floor. But I tell these guys all the time, let's beat someone 52-48 then if that's what it takes. It takes what it takes."

--Field Level Media

Former NFL linebacker Darron Lee was arrested and charged for the alleged homicide of his girlfriend on Thursday, per the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office.

First responders were dispatched to a residence in the small town of Ooltewah, Tenn, about 30 minutes from Lee's hometown of Chattanooga.

Paramedics arrived on the scene and attempted live-saving measures, however the victim succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead on the scene. Lee was identified as a suspect and taken into custody.

Lee was charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence. Jail records indicate that he is being held without bond, and has a court appearance scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 11.

Lee previously faced legal issues in 2023, when he was charged with two counts of domestic violence and two counts of assault. He also was charged with a felony drug possession charge when he failed to show up for his court date related to that case later in the year. He pleaded guilty to two lesser counts in 2025.

After winning a national championship with the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2014, Lee was drafted 20th overall by the New York Jets in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft. In addition to 40 games with the Jets, Lee made 16 appearances for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2019, as well as two for the Buffalo Bills in 2020. He accumulated 273 tackles, 17 tackles for loss, four sacks and three interceptions over his five-year career, starting 38 of the 58 games he played.

--Field Level Media

It appears Anthony Davis will be waiting until next season to make his Washington Wizards debut.

The All-Star big man is expected to sit out the rest of the season to get fully healthy for 2026-27, according to Prime Video's Chris Haynes. The 32-year-old Davis hasn't played since early January due to a finger injury.

BREAKING: Washington Wizards star Anthony Davis (hand, groin) expected to sit out the remainder of the season to fully get healthy for the 2026-27 season, league sources tell me.pic.twitter.com/HKqEL9mBFC

— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes)February 7, 2026

The Wizards acquired Davis earlier this week ina blockbuster trade with the Dallas Mavericks that saw eight different players get moved. The deal sets up Davis and Trae Young as the franchise's two veteran pillars going forward.

Those two players also happen to both be out with injuries right now, which is highly convenient for Washington from a draft pick standpoint. In addition to Davis potentially being out for the season, Young hasn't played since late December due to MCL and quad injuries in his right leg. He is expected to be out until at least the All-Star break, and it seems quite possible the Wizards will exercise similar "caution" with him.

If Davis indeed doesn't play again, he will finish with a career-low 20 games played this season, all with the Mavericks.

The Wizards currently hold the fifth-worst record in the NBA, and it's a competitive race to the bottom this season due to one of the best draft classes in NBA history. It's hard to think of a season in college basketball with so many impact freshmen, and the trio of Kansas' Darryn Peterson, Duke's Cameron Boozer and BYU's AJ Dybantsa all loom as potential franchise-changers.

Washington is one of five teams with 14 or fewer wins this season, and not playing their two best players certainly increases their chances of sticking at the bottom. Also in the hunt are the Sacramento Kings, Indiana Pacers, Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks, who can take the New Orleans Pelicans' first-round pick this year because the latter fell in love with Derik Queen in last year's draft.

The vision for the Wizards at this point is a pick-and-roll duo of Davis and Young, supplemented by young talents like Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George and whomever they get in the draft this year. Clearly, they are already thinking about the latter.

For 10 hours, a Chinese village sat in the dark – and a pig dangled from the sky.

A farmer, who was using a drone to transport a pig to a slaughterhouse, had accidentally shut down the local power supply after the drone's rope carrying the animal became tangled in an electrical line.

Images shared on social media showed the silhouette of the pig suspended in the air against a grey sky, dangling limply from the drone above, as bemused onlookers gathered below.

The farmer, who has not been identified, said the remote location of his village in Tongjiang county, Sichuan province, makes it difficult to transport pigs by vehicle, prompting him to use drones instead.

On Jan 24, he set out to airlift several pigs from the mountainous area.

The first attempt ended abruptly when the pig became suspended mid-air after the rope attached to the drone caught on a high-voltage power line – turning "when pigs fly" from an expression into a logistical problem.

The farmer blamed poor visibility for the mishap. He had planned to transport more than 10 pigs throughout the day, but had to abandon the project.

An employee from the local power supply authority said the village experienced a 10-hour blackout as a result. "We sent 12 workers to repair the line. The repair costs are about 10,000 yuan (£1,100)," she was quoted as saying.

Local authorities said the farmer is suspected of breaking the law by operating the drone in a no-fly zone.

"We are still collecting evidence. If he is confirmed to have breached the law, he will face an administrative punishment and need to compensate for electricity equipment losses," an officer said.

The use of drones in agriculture is widespread in China's rural areas, although their role does not typically extend to suspending pigs above electricity lines.

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By Nate Raymond

Feb 6 (Reuters) - A divided federal appeals court upheld on Friday the Trump administration's policy of placing people arrested in its immigration crackdown in mandatory detention without ​an opportunity to be released on bond.

The decision by a conservative 2-1 panel of the ‌New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals marked the first time an appeals court had upheld the policy and came ‌despite hundreds of lower-court judges nationally declaring it unlawful.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi hailed the ruling on social media as dealing "a significant blow against activist judges who have been undermining our efforts to make America safe again at every turn."

The ruling is expected to impact thousands of people as the court's jurisdiction covers ⁠Texas and Louisiana, which are dotted ‌with detention centers and house the most immigration detainees.

Other appeals courts are slated in coming weeks to take up the issue, which the U.S. Supreme Court may ‍ultimately need to resolve.

Under federal immigration law, "applicants for admission" to the United States are subject to mandatory detention while their cases proceed in immigration courts and are ineligible for bond hearings.

Bucking a long-standing interpretation of the law, the U.S. ​Department of Homeland Security last year took the position that non-citizens already residing in the United ‌States, and not only those who arrive at a port of entry at the border, qualify as applicants for admission.

The Board of Immigration Appeals, which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice, issued a decision in September that adopted that interpretation, leading to immigration judges nationally employed by the department to mandate detention.

A flood of lawsuits ensued from people arguing they were wrongly detained. Among them were the plaintiffs ⁠in the cases before the 5th Circuit, Mexican nationals Victor ​Buenrostro-Mendez and Jose Padron Covarrubias, both of whom had convinced ​lower-court judges they were wrongly denied bond hearings.

But U.S. Circuit Judge Edith Jones said the administration's re-interpretation of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 ‍was correct.

"The text says what ⁠it says, regardless of the decisions of prior administrations," she wrote for the panel's majority, which included two judges named by Republican presidents.

U.S. Circuit Judge Dana Douglas, who was appointed by ⁠Democratic President Joe Biden, dissented, saying the Congress that passed the 1996 law "would be surprised to learn it had also ‌required the detention without bond of two million people."

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; ‌additional reporting by Kristina Cooke; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)