South Carolina, UConn women ranked 1-2

Dawn Staley and South Carolina are back in a familiar spot: No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll.

It’s the second consecutive season that the Gamecocks are the preseason favorite.

“With who we brought back and who we’ve added, we knew we would start out among the hunted, and it’s something that our program is getting used to,“said Staley, entering her 14th season as South Carolina coach. “Watching practice every day, I can see that we have the pieces and the competitive fire to reach all of our goals. We have a few more weeks to put those pieces together into a cohesive, successful team.”

The Gamecocks received 14 of the 29 first-place votes from a national media panel in Tuesday’s poll. UConn was second, garnering 10 first-place ballots.

It’s the 15th consecutive season that the Huskies were among the top five teams in the preseason.

Defending national champion Stanford was third, getting the other five first-place votes. Maryland and North Carolina State rounded out the top five.

It’s been a busy few days for Staley. The school announced a new, seven-year contract that will pay her $2.9 million this season and grow to $3.5 million in the final season. She also believes the $22.4 million deal should make an impact on her sport and in the equality of what men and women’s coaches and athletes receive from their schools.

Hoosier hysteria

Indiana is No. 8, the school’s highest ranking in women’s basketball. There’s a lot of excitement around Bloomington, with all five starters returning from a team that went to the Elite Eight last year and had its sixth straight 20-win season.

“It’s great recognition for our program and a testament to our team and how they continued to get better throughout one of the most difficult and challenging seasons we had in the history of women’s basketball,” Indiana coach Teri Moren said. “We believe we have much to prove and are looking forward to what we know will be a challenging season in both non-conference as well as what we’ll see in the Big Ten.”

The Big Ten and ACC each have five ranked teams, tops in the nation: Joining No. 4 Maryland, No. 8 Indiana, No. 9 Iowa and No. 11 Michigan is No. 17 Ohio State for the Big Ten.

Vitale has cancer

ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale announced Monday he has been diagnosed with cancer for the second time this year.

The Basketball Hall of Fame announcer said he has undergone tests that show he has lymphoma.

Vitale announced in August that he underwent multiple surgeries to remove melanoma. He was declared cancer-free at the time.

Vitale, 82, said doctors told him the lymphoma diagnosis is unrelated to the previous cancer.

“What’s evident is that the treatment plan for this lymphoma is going to be a lot tougher, and in both cases, early detection played an important role in helping to manage the cancers,” Vitale said in a statement.

Vitale said the treatment plan involves steroids and six months of chemotherapy.

He has also been told by medical experts that there is a 90% cure rate. He plans to manage his work schedule around his chemotherapy schedule.