UConn ranked No. 1 in women's preseason poll

Defending champion UConn picked up wherever it near disconnected arsenic the No. 1 squad successful the state successful The Associated Press Top 25 preseason women's hoops canvass released Tuesday.

The Huskies received 27 first-place votes from a 31-member nationalist media panel. South Carolina, past season's runner-up to UConn, was picked 2nd successful the canvass and garnered the different 4 first-place votes. It's the 5th clip successful the past six years that Dawn Staley's Gamecocks were picked successful the apical 5 of the preseason poll. UCLA and Texas were 3rd and 4th and LSU was fifth.

Oklahoma was sixth, the Sooners' highest preseason ranking since they were 4th successful 2008. Duke, Tennessee, NC State and Maryland rounded retired the apical 10.

Led by sensational sophomore Sarah Strong and ace elder Azzi Fudd, Geno Auriemma's UConn squad is ranked No. 1 successful the preseason for the 13th clip since 1995 and archetypal since 2017.

"Hopefully it's a small spot of a assurance builder and not, 'Oh my god!'" Auriemma said. "I'm blessed for them. We speech a batch astir however we're not retired present to beryllium that we're defending nationalist champions oregon we're preseason fig 1 successful the country, and we person to bushed everybody by 40. We don't privation to get caught successful that trap. You thin to decorativeness the twelvemonth wherever you're predicted. So I similar being successful this position."

Eight of the 12 erstwhile times UConn was picked first, the Huskies won the nationalist championship. Auriemma thinks his squad has a bully changeable this year.

"It's got to travel with large enactment and it's got to travel with a small spot of luck and radical rising to the occasion," helium said. "Those 4 times that we didn't win, we didn't get fortunate oregon we didn't enactment healthy."

The apical 4 teams were picked successful the aforesaid bid arsenic past season's last poll. It's the archetypal clip successful the 50-year past of the women's canvass that the apical 4 teams successful the last canvass were the aforesaid successful the preseason Top 25 the adjacent year; past twelvemonth was lone the 2nd play that the AP released a Top 25 aft the title game. For much than 4 decades, the last canvass was released earlier the commencement of the NCAA Tournament.

Conference supremacy

The Southeastern Conference has 8 teams successful the Top 25, including 5 successful the apical 10. The Big Ten is adjacent with six schools successful the poll. The ACC has 5 and Big 12 four. The Atlantic-10 and Big East each person one.

High expectations successful Ann Arbor

Michigan is ranked No. 13 successful the preseason poll, its highest ranking successful the inaugural canvass since 2021 (No. 11). The Wolverines started 3 freshmen past twelvemonth and went 23-11, winning an NCAA Tournament game. Big things are expected from that trio of Syla Swords, Read Entire Article