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10/20 11:00 CDT South Carolina is No. 1 in women's preseason AP Top 25,
followed by UConn and USC
South Carolina is No. 1 in women's preseason AP Top 25, followed by UConn and
USC
By DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Writer
Dawn Staley has South Carolina in a familiar place, sitting at No. 1 in The
Associated Press preseason Top 25 women's basketball poll.
The Gamecocks received 23 first-place votes from a 31-member national media
panel Tuesday. UConn, USC, Duke and Michigan round out the top five.
It is the fifth time in the past seven years that Staley's team has been ranked
No. 1 in the preseason.
"It's a gift and curse," Staley said. "I tend to not look at the number, but
our players do. They look at it and feel like there's a sense of respect to
being No. 1. They also know that it's pressure packed with the type of
non-conference shcedule we have, we're going to be challenged. If we stand
there at No. 1 at the end of our non-conference season that's something to be
truly to be proud of."
South Carolina will face five ranked teams in the first month of the season,
including UConn, USC and Duke.
"It's a doozy of a schedule. something we have to do for us to actually keep
having the roster we have," Staley said. "Some of them are NIL games. some of
them are games we just got to play because they are super competitive and we
want to test ourselves."
UConn, which lost to South Carolina in the Final Four last season, garnered six
first-place votes and has been ranked in the top 10 of every preseason poll
since 1994.
This is the third consecutive year that South Carolina and UConn have been 1-2
in the preseason poll, though the Huskies were on top a year ago. The two play
each other on Nov. 24 in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Southern California picked up the other two first-place ballots. Expectations
are high for the Trojans, who have a healthy JuJu Watkins back after she missed
last season while recovering from a torn ACL suffered in the 2025 NCAA
Tournament. The No. 3 ranking matches the one they had two years ago.
Duke has its highest ranking in the preseason poll since 2013 when the Blue
Devils were second. Michigan has its best ranking ever in the preseason Top 25.
The Wolverines were ranked in the top 10 for the final 18 weeks of the poll
last season.
"They came to Michigan to do things that have never been done before," Michigan
coach Kim Barnes Arico said of her stellar junior class led by Olivia Olson and
Syla Swords. "We're in the position we're in because they came here and made a
difference."
The first regular season poll will be released Nov. 9.
The rest of the rankings Texas, Louisville, Vanderbilt, LSU and Iowa round out the top 10. Defending national champion UCLA is next with North Carolina, Notre Dame, Kentucky and TCU following the Bruins. Washington, Minnesota, Ohio State, Ole Miss and Maryland are 16-20 while the final five in the Top 25 were Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Illinois, West Virginia and N.C. State. It is the first preseason ranking for No. 17 Minnesota since 2019. Coach Dawn Plitzuweit's team is coming off its first NCAA tourney berth since 2018 and first Sweet 16 appearance since 2005, but lost leading scorer Tori McKinney for the season with a knee injury suffered last week in practice.
Conference supremecy The Big Ten has nine teams in the Top 25, the most ever for one conference in the preseason poll. The Southeastern Conference has seven, including four in the top 10. The ACC has five and the Big 12 three. The Big East has one. "When I left the Big East we had eight or nine teams in the Top 25 as well and it was the best league in the country. I couldn't imagine I'd goto a place that would be even greater," said Barnes Arico, who is in her 15th year at Michigan. "With expansion this conference got better and better. The knock has been that the Big Ten hasn't won a championship, but UCLA did that last year and now we have some of the best players in the country returning this year." ___ Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP's full college basketball coverage here
The rest of the rankings Texas, Louisville, Vanderbilt, LSU and Iowa round out the top 10. Defending national champion UCLA is next with North Carolina, Notre Dame, Kentucky and TCU following the Bruins. Washington, Minnesota, Ohio State, Ole Miss and Maryland are 16-20 while the final five in the Top 25 were Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Illinois, West Virginia and N.C. State. It is the first preseason ranking for No. 17 Minnesota since 2019. Coach Dawn Plitzuweit's team is coming off its first NCAA tourney berth since 2018 and first Sweet 16 appearance since 2005, but lost leading scorer Tori McKinney for the season with a knee injury suffered last week in practice.
Conference supremecy The Big Ten has nine teams in the Top 25, the most ever for one conference in the preseason poll. The Southeastern Conference has seven, including four in the top 10. The ACC has five and the Big 12 three. The Big East has one. "When I left the Big East we had eight or nine teams in the Top 25 as well and it was the best league in the country. I couldn't imagine I'd goto a place that would be even greater," said Barnes Arico, who is in her 15th year at Michigan. "With expansion this conference got better and better. The knock has been that the Big Ten hasn't won a championship, but UCLA did that last year and now we have some of the best players in the country returning this year." ___ Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP's full college basketball coverage here
