South Carolina remained the No. 1 team in The Associated Press women’s basketball poll on Monday.
The Gamecocks received all 36 votes from a national media panel, marking the seventh consecutive week that they’ve been No. 1. South Carolina had a run of 38 straight weeks as the top team over the previous two seasons before LSU was the preseason No. 1 this year.
With most teams having a light schedule last week ahead of the holidays, the top 10 were unchanged. UCLA, North Carolina State, Iowa and Texas, followed the Gamecocks.
USC, LSU, Colorado, Stanford and Baylor were next.
Ohio State dropped four spots to No. 17 after losing to UCLA by six points.
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West Virginia gave the Big 12 Conference a fifth team in the poll as the Mountaineers entered at No. 25 and Washington fell out. It’s the first appearance since 2021 for WVU. The Big 12 now has Texas, Baylor, No. 11 Kansas State, No. 23 TCU and West Virginia ranked, marking the first time since the 2021-22 season that’s happened. The Big 12, Pac 12 and SEC are the only three conferences to have every school still with a winning record.
Conference play begins this week for most schools, with a trio of stellar games set for Saturday. UCLA plays USC, Colorado faces Utah and Baylor meets Texas. The next day has a key Big East matchup with Marquette visiting UConn.
This is the seventh time the poll has been released on Christmas, with the previous one coming in 2017. That year was a notable as Stanford dropped out of the rankings for the first time in 17 years. The other years were 1979, 1983, 1995, 2000 and 2006.
Here’s the full top 25:
1. South Carolina
2. UCLA
3. North Carolina State
4. Iowa
5. Texas
6. USC
7. LSU
8. Colorado
9. Stanford
10. Baylor
11. Kansas State
12. Utah
13. Notre Dame
14. Virginia Tech
15. UConn
16. Indiana
17. Ohio State
18. Marquette
19. Louisville
20. Gonzaga
21. Creighton
22. Florida State
23. TCU
24. North Carolina
25. West Virginia
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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