Women’s basketball provides something few other sports can: year-round entertainment.
The WNBA season still has a few days left, but with Tuesday’s release of the AP Top 25 preseason poll, the unofficial start to the 2024-25 college season is already here.
When an undefeated national champion returns all but one key contributor and adds one of the top recruits in the country, it’s bound to be the preseason No. 1 — and that is exactly where South Carolina starts out. Kamilla Cardoso is gone, but Raven Johnson, Te-Hina Paopao, Tessa Johnson, MiLaysia Fulwiley and Chloe Kitts, among others, return, and along with freshman Joyce Edwards make the Gamecocks the favorite again.
The star power at UConn with Paige Bueckers and at USC with JuJu Watkins make the Huskies and Trojans formidable challengers. USC will be trying to win its first title since 1984 — as a member of the Big Ten. That’s a headliner on a season of change, where conference realignment will make the landscape look very different.
Looking for Iowa or Stanford? Neither was in the preseason Top 25. With Caitlin Clark and Lisa Bluder no longer with the Hawkeyes, and Tara VanDerveer and Cameron Brink…
