UConn ranked No. 5 in final AP poll

Geno Auriemma and UConn finished the 2019-20 season in the same place where they began — top 5 in the country.

UConn was ranked fifth in the final Associated Press women’s basketball poll, released Tuesday. The Huskies went 29-3 and won their seventh straight American Athletic Conference championship before the coronavirus outbreak forced the cancellation of the NCAA tournament.

South Carolina finished No. 1 after receiving 27 firstplace votes from a national media panel. The other four votes went to Oregon, which took second. Baylor and Maryland were ranked third and fourth, respectively.

UConn has now finished in the top 5 of the rankings 14 straight years. Nine times during that span the Huskies closed at No. 1, and in six of those years they won the national title.

The Huskies were also ranked fifth in the preseason poll. They climbed up to No. 1 on Dec. 23 and stayed there for three weeks before dropping to No. 4 following a loss to Baylor on Jan. 9. They fell as low as sixth after losing to Oregon and South Carolina in February, ending a record streak of 253 weeks ranked inside the top 5.

This is the Huskies’ lowest final ranking since 2006, when they were eighth. Still, they’ve now finished inside the top 10 27-straight years.

Louisville, Stanford, NC State, Mississippi State and UCLA were ranked sixth through 10th.

The Gamecocks (32-1) spent the final 10 weeks atop the poll, finishing No. 1 for the first time in program history. (Though South Carolina won the national title in 2017, the AP has always released its final poll prior to the start of the NCAA tournament.)

Elsewhere, Princeton placed 22nd. Coached by UConn alum Carla Berube, the Tigers went 26-1 and won the Ivy League championship.

Stephen Dunn / Associated Press UConn’s Crystal Dangerfield holds up her framed jersey during senior day ceremonies in February.