The defending national champion South Carolina women’s basketball team topped preseason rankings in the AP Top 25 poll, followed by Stanford, Texas, Iowa, and Tennessee in the top five.
“This is where we wanted to be and envisioned for our program,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley told the AP. “I got to give it to our players. We constantly get some of the best players in the country. They put us in this position as they work extremely hard. I don’t know if they come in and say I want to be the No. 1 team in the country, but they do say they want to be national champions. This is a step to being a national champion.”
Rounding out the top 10 are Connecticut, Louisville, Iowa State, Notre Dame and North Carolina State. South Carolina, which went 35-2 last season and 15-1 in the SEC, was the unanimous No. 1.
Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Ohio State, Oklahoma, LSU, Maryland, Baylor, Arizona, Oregon, Creighton, Nebraska, South Dakota State, Princeton and Michigan closed out the top 25, in that order.
(Photo: Sean Rayford / AP)
