South Carolina jumps to No. 1 in AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll

Following a chaotic opening week where nine of the top 14 teams in the preseason poll lost, South Carolina surged to the top spot in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll. This switch-up included defending champion and preseason No. 1 LSU.

The Gamecocks, previously sixth in the preseason poll, were granted 23 first-place votes from the 36-member national media panel. Iowa secured the second spot with the remaining 13 first-place ballots. Following were UCLA, Utah, and Colorado, rounding out the top five.

LSU, on the other hand, tumbled to seventh place after losing their opening game to then-No. 20 Colorado. The Buffaloes now enjoy their best ranking since concluding the 1995 season at No. 2. UConn slipped from second to eighth following their loss to NC State, who leaped into the poll at No. 14.

In spite of the loss, the Huskies have now been ranked for 566 consecutive weeks, surpassing Tennessee for the longest streak ever.

“The consistency we’ve had over those 30 years despite how much the game has changed is quite remarkable,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “The magnitude of it doesn’t hit me until someone points it out.”

This marks only the second time in the history of the poll, which dates back to 1977, that the preseason 1-2 teams did not maintain the top two spots in the first regular-season poll.

The Gamecocks secured their move to the top spot through impressive wins in their opening games, triumphing over no. 10 Notre Dame and no. 14 Maryland by scoring over 100 points in each game. The 114-76 victory over the Terrapins marked the Gamecocks’ biggest win over a Top 25 opponent in school history. This ended their remarkable run of 38 straight weeks at No. 1 end in the preseason poll, the second-longest streak behind UConn’s 51-week run (2008-10).

Stanford rose to sixth place, Virginia Tech secured the ninth spot, and USC landed in the 10th spot. This is Southern Cal’s best ranking since the final poll of the 1994 season when the team was in seventh place. The Pac-12 now has five teams in the top 10, the first time a conference has achieved this since the SEC accomplished the feat in 1997.

Ole Miss showed the most significant drop in the poll this week, plunging from 12th to 23rd after their loss to Oklahoma. The Sooners seized the No. 25 spot. Mississippi State and Illinois have dropped out of the rankings.

CONFERENCE SUPREMACY

The Pac-12 has had a 28-0 start to the season. This has been the most wins without a loss by a Division I conference to begin the year in the last 25 seasons, according to ESPN. The conference was also the last to put three teams in the top five in the same week, doing so on Jan. 6, 2020.