Iowa State has reached its best ranking in 20 years in The Associated Press women’s basketball poll while South Carolina remained the unanimous choice at No. 1.
Iowa State (21-3) moved up three spots to sixth on Monday — its highest mark since the 2002 season — and has a huge week ahead with games against No. 14 Texas and No. 15 Oklahoma. The Cyclones, who were sixth on Jan. 7, 2002, hold a one-game lead over Oklahoma and Baylor in the Big 12 standings. Iowa State has only won the conference’s regular season crown once, in 2000.
The Gamecocks received all 30 votes from a national media panel after beating Kentucky and Georgia on the road last week. Stanford, Louisville, N.C. State and Indiana round out the top five.
No. 7 Baylor and No. 8 Arizona follow Iowa State while Michigan fell from fourth to ninth after losing at Michigan State and Northwestern. UConn dropped two spots to No. 10.
Virginia Tech is back in the Top 25 at No. 23 after beating then-No. 11 Georgia Tech and former No. 23 North Carolina last week.
Conference rankings
Louisville and N.C. State are two of six Atlantic Coast Conference teams ranked this week. The SEC and Big Ten each have five teams in the poll. The Big 12 has four and the Pac-12 two among Power Five conferences.
Snapped
UConn’s nine-year undefeated run of conference wins ended against Villanova last week; the Huskies hadn’t lost a regular season or postseason conference game in either the Big East or American Athletic Conference since 2013, when they fell to Notre Dame. UConn rebounded with wins over DePaul and Marquette and still has not had back-to-back losses since 1993.
Game of the week
No. 12 Tennessee at No. 1 South Carolina, Sunday. The top two teams in the SEC will square off with the Gamecocks hoping to put some space between themselves and the rest of the conference. ESPN will be on hand for the third “College GameDay” at a women’s basketball game.
