NEW YORK – Dawn Staley has already achieved a lot in South Carolina. Now she can add the No. 1 ranking of the first preseason in the school’s history to the list of achievements.
Gamecocks received 29 of the 30 first-place votes in The Associated Press’s pre-season women’s Top 25, released on Tuesday.
“It’s really cool to be the first to do things in a place where you can feel the love for our team in this city,” said Staley. “They were on this journey with us and allowed us to do things like this. ”
Gamecocks, who had taken second place twice in the pre-season survey in 2014 and 2015, finished last season in first place for the first time. Staley hopes that this year’s team will have a chance to compete for a national championship after last season’s NCAA tournament was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
After Gamecocks in second place came Stanford, who received the other first place vote from the national media panel. It is the cardinal’s highest rating in the preseason since the 2009 season, when the team also came in second.
“I am proud of our team and they are coming to the gym and getting better, ” said Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer.” We have a long way to go, no doubt, but I am very excited. ”
UConn, Baylor and Louisville complete the top five. It is the 14th consecutive year that the Huskies rank in the top five in the pre-season.
Mississippi was the sixth state. Arizona ranked seventh, the first time since 2004 that the Wildcats were ranked in the pre-season vote. North Carolina, UCLA and Oregon states complete the top 10.
RESPECTING CATS
Northwestern qualified in the pre-season poll for the first time since 2015, reaching No. 17. Joe McKeown’s team was in the AP Top 25 for the last nine weeks of last season, rising to 11th in the final vote. There is a lot of excitement about the program because of veteran Lindsey Pulliam, who was the first team at the conference last year, and junior Veronica Burton, the Ten Greatest Defensive Player of the Year.
CONFERENCE SUPREMACY
The Southeast Conference, Big Ten and Pac-12 each have five teams in the pre-season vote. ACC has four, with Big East and Big 12 each having two. The Missouri Valley Conference and the West Coast Conference each have a Top 25 program. It is the first time since 2015 that two major middle teams have been classified in the pre-season vote. It is also the second time that Gonzaga is in the Top 25 of the preseason. The Zags were in 25th place in the first vote in 2013.
KNOCKING ON THE DOOR
Texas, under new coach Vic Schaefer, was the first team out of the Top 25, followed by South Dakota, Florida, North Carolina and Arizona. All of these teams, except Tar Heels, were in the final vote last season.