The past two national champions are atop the Associated Press Top 25 preseason women’s basketball poll, which was released on Tuesday.
Defending champion UConn, which beat South Carolina in last season’s national title game, sit No. 1 just ahead of the Gamecocks, who will be without senior forward Chloe Kitts after she tore her ACL. The Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd-led Huskies were given 27 first-place votes to South Carolina’s four from the 31-member national media voting panel.
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This is the 13th time that Geno Auriemma’s team has grabbed the No. 1 spot in the preseason poll since 1995 and first time since 2017.
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The preseason honor has been a good-luck charm for the Huskies as eight of the past 12 times they began a season No. 1 they went on to win a national championship.
The top 10 is littered with SEC teams with South Carolina, Texas, LSU, Oklahoma, and Tennessee leading the way. The conference features an NCAA-high eight teams in the top 25, ahead of six Big Ten schools and five from the ACC.
The top four of UConn, South Carolina, UCLA and Texas are the same as last season’s final poll, the first time that’s ever happened.
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AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll
The women’s college basketball season officially starts Nov. 3.
1. UConn (27)
2. South Carolina (4)
3. UCLA
4. Texas
5. LSU
6. Oklahoma
7. Duke
8. Tennessee
9. North Carolina State
10. Maryland
11. North Carolina
12. Ole Miss
13. Michigan
14. Iowa State
15. Notre Dame
16. Baylor
17. TCU
18. USC
19. Vanderbilt
20. Louisville
21. Iowa
22. Oklahoma State
23. Michigan State
24 (tie). Kentucky
24 (tie). Richmond
Others receiving votes: Washington (79), Ohio St. (46), West Virginia (17), Princeton (17), Minnesota (15), Kansas St. (15), Kansas (7), Stanford (3), South Dakota St. (3), Illinois (2), Nebraska (2), Columbia (2).
