South Carolina leads the Women’s AP Top 25; Ohio State is collapsing

It was a tough week for Ohio State, which lost all three games and dropped into the AP Top 25.

The previously undefeated Buckeyes jumped from second to 10th place in the Associated Press women’s basketball poll released Monday after losing to Iowa and Indiana, two of the top 10 teams, as well as Purdue. . Ohio State fell two games in the Big Ten Conference standings.

South Carolina remained No. 1 for the 32nd straight week. The Gamecocks, who were once again a unanimous pick from the 28-member national media panel, have the fourth-longest streak ever at the top of the poll. Only UConn (51 and 34 weeks) and Louisiana Tech (36) have had longer runs at No. 1.

Stanford returned to second in the poll and the Cardinal was followed by LSU, Indiana and UConn in the top five. LSU is the only other undefeated women’s basketball team besides South Carolina, which visits UConn for a top-five showdown on Sunday.

Iowa jumped four spots to sixth with Utah, Maryland and Notre Dame ahead of Ohio State. The Hawkeyes started the season No. 4 in the poll.

The Fighting Irish split a pair of games last week against ranked opponents, routing Florida State before falling to NC State.

“There’s a lot of parity right now which is great, great for the game,” Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said. “The game is growing, that’s what you want. But yeah, I mean, every night, especially the ACC, the ACC is the strongest league and, you know, we just have a tough time every night.

A week after losing the standings, Texas reentered the ballot at No. 24. The Longhorns then routed No. 24. 14 Oklahoma and Oklahoma State last week. South Florida also came in at 25th. Colorado and Illinois were eliminated from the ballot.

RISING BULLS

The South Florida No. 25 has continued his ranking streak for at least a week every season since the Bulls first entered the poll in 2015.

“For us not to be in a so-called five-a-side football conference is a huge accomplishment,” South Florida coach Jose Fernandez said. His team has won 10 consecutive games and has 20 wins this season. The team’s four losses have all come against ranked opponents (Michigan, Villanova, Ohio State and NC State).

“This group has been fun to coach. We’re still playing a great non-conference schedule,” Fernandez said. “We won on the road in Texas, beat Alabama, beat Arkansas. We challenged each other in November and December.

RECORD PERFORMANCE

Cameron Brink lifted Stanford to a win over Oregon with a triple-double that included 10 blocks. It was NCAA Division I women’s basketball’s first triple-double with double-digit blocks since Tamari Key did it for Tennessee in an overtime win over Texas on Nov. 21, 2021. .

Oklahoma’s No. 20 Taylor Robertson set the NCAA women’s all-time career high for 3 points when she hit her 498th in a loss to Iowa State on Saturday. Robertson has 503 entries this week. The NCAA’s all-time record, men’s or women’s, is held by Detroit Mercy’s Antoine Davis, who has 534 and is still counting.

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AP Women’s College Basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll