South Carolina, Iowa, USC, and Texas are the top four teams in the Associated Press Top 25 women's basketball poll. This comes after all four were selected as the No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, which starts later this week.
The unbeaten Gamecocks remained the unanimous choice for No. 1 from the 35-member national media panel on Monday. They had a week off after winning the SEC Tournament, and Iowa and USC also did not play last week after winning the Big Ten and Pac-12 tournaments, respectively.
Texas moved up to fourth place after winning the Big 12 Tournament last Tuesday. The Longhorns earned their first No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament since 2004.
Stanford dropped to fifth place. UCLA, Ohio State, and LSU followed. Notre Dame was ninth, marking the first difference between the poll and NCAA bracket in terms of seeding; LSU received a 3-seed in the NCAAs and Notre Dame a 2-seed.
UConn held onto 10th place after winning its 22nd Big East Tournament last week.
For the first time in the 47-year history of the poll, the Associated Press will conduct a final poll after the NCAA Tournament.
TOUGH REGION
Iowa’s NCAA regional includes five teams that spent time in the top three of the AP Top 25 during the season. The Hawkeyes, UCLA, LSU, Kansas State, and Colorado all took turns being there. No other regionals have more than three teams that have achieved that. South Carolina is the only team in its part of the bracket to accomplish this.
CONFERENCE WATCH
The Pac-12 secured a conference record-tying seven teams in the NCAA Tournament, with six of them being ranked in the poll, including three of the top six.
The ACC follows with five teams in the Top 25, while the Big 12 has four and the Big Ten has three. The SEC, which received eight bids to the NCAAs, only has two teams ranked, matching the Big East. The West Coast and Mountain West, along with the MAAC, each have one team.