South Carolina Gamecocks still No. 1 in women's basketball Top 25 poll; Oklahoma Sooners jump into top 15

Associated Press

Jan 17, 2022, 06:27 PM

South Carolina remained the No. 1 team in the Associated Press women's college basketball poll released Monday.

The Gamecocks received 28 of the 30 first-place votes from a national media panel after beating Texas A&M and Arkansas last week. South Carolina is off until it hosts Vanderbilt next Monday.

There was no movement near the top of the poll as Stanford, Louisville, North Carolina State, Tennessee and Indiana followed the Gamecocks again. Louisville received the other two first-place votes.

AP Top 25 Women's Basketball Poll

First-place votes in parentheses.

Team	Record
1. South Carolina (28)	17-1
2. Stanford	13-3
3. Louisville	15-1
4. North Carolina State	16-2
5. Tennessee	17-1
6. Indiana	14-2
7. Iowa State	16-1
8. Michigan	15-2
9. Connecticut	9-3
10. Arizona	12-2
11. LSU	17-2
12. Maryland	12-5
13. Georgia	13-3
14. Oklahoma	15-2
15. Baylor	11-4
15. Texas	12-3
17. BYU	14-1
18. Georgia Tech	13-4
19. Notre Dame	13-3
20. North Carolina	14-2
21. Duke	11-4
22. Colorado	13-1
23. Kentucky	8-5
24. Florida Gulf Coast	15-1
25. Iowa	10-4

Iowa State moved up two spots to No. 7 with Michigan, UConn and Arizona rounding out the top 10. The Wolverines won at Maryland for the first time. The Terrapins fell from No. 8 to No. 12 after being routed 69-49.

Oklahoma made the biggest jump, climbing nine spots to 14th. The Sooners beat then-No. 14 Baylor and TCU last week and now have their best ranking since they were 12th in 2016.

Florida Gulf Coast and Iowa returned to the poll at Nos. 24 and 25 while Kansas State and South Florida dropped out.

Here are a few other tidbits from the women's AP Top 25:

WELCOME BACK

Florida Gulf Coast fell out of the poll in early December after suffering its only loss of the season, to Princeton. The Eagles were ranked for two weeks in late November. A huge reason for the team's success this year and last season has been the play of junior guard Kierstan Bell. She is averaging 24.6 points and 7.9 rebounds for the team, which beat ASUN Conference rival Liberty on Saturday. Bell had 25 points in that win.

NO. 1 STATS

Since moving to No. 1 for the first time in school history in 2014, South Carolina has spent 36 weeks as the top team, including the last 11. Only UConn has more appearances at No. 1 in that timeframe, with 71 weeks. Notre Dame is third with 11.

GAME OF THE WEEK

Louisville at NC State, Thursday. The two top teams in the ACC meet for the only time this season with the No. 1 spot in the conference at stake. Louisville coach Jeff Walz got his 400th career win on Sunday in a victory over Boston College. NC State is coming off a 24-point victory over Duke.