Pac-12 tournament champion USC women rise to No. 3 in poll
USC rode a Pac-12 tournament championship to its best ranking in 38 years.
The Trojans moved up from fifth to No. 3 in The Associated Press Top 25 women's basketball poll Monday after topping Stanford to win the conference tournament for the first time since 2014, their only other time in the title game. It's the highest ranking for USC since the final poll of the 1986 season, when the team was also third.
South Carolina remained a unanimous No. 1, receiving all 35 first-place votes from the AP national media panel. The Gamecocks head into the NCAA tournament undefeated for the second consecutive season.
Iowa moved back up to No. 2 after winning the Big Ten tournament. Stanford fell two spots to fourth and Texas was fifth. UCLA, Ohio State and LSU followed the Longhorns. Notre Dame climbed five spots to ninth and UConn was 10th.
NO. 10 UCONN 78, GEORGETOWN 42 >> Paige Bueckers scored 27 points and had five blocks to help the Huskies win their 22nd Big East tournament title.
UConn (29-5), which has been in 20 consecutive conference tournament championship games, has won all four titles since rejoining the Big East in 2020-21 after taking seven straight during its run in the AAC.
Georgetown (22-11) was making its first-ever appearance in the title game. NO. 6 TEXAS 71, NO. 16 KANSAS STATE 64 >> Madison Booker scored 17 points and the second-seeded Longhorns (29-4) beat the Wildcats to set up a Big 12 tournament title game rematch against Iowa State.
The Cyclones beat Texas 67-58 in the finale last year.
Ayoka Lee had 25 points and 10 rebounds for thirdseeded Kansas State (25-7). IOWA STATE 85, NO. 19 OKLAHOMA 68 >> Audi Crooks had 25 points and the fourthseeded Cyclones routed the top-seeded Sooners.
Emily Ryan added 12 points and 10 assists for Iowa State (20-10).
Payton Verhulst had 23 points for Oklahoma (22-9). MARSHALL 95, JAMES MADISON 92, OT >> Meredith Maier scored 16 of her 20 points in the second half, Aislynn Hayes had nine of her 19 in overtime and the Thundering Herd (26-6) beat the defending champion Dukes (23-11) in the Sun Belt Conference tournament championship game.
Men
Houston remained atop the AP Top 25 men's college basketball poll for the third consecutive week.
The Cougars received 52 of 62 first-place votes from a national media panel. The three straight weeks
Houston has spent at No. 1 matches the school's longest run since the 1967-68 season.
Defending national champion UConn was second in the poll after picking up six first-place votes, and Purdue remained at No. 3 after getting four first-place votes.
The big movement came in the rest of the top 10, where North Carolina jumped three spots to No. 4 after beating thenNo. 9 Duke and Kentucky vaulted six spots to No. 9 after its win over then-No. 4 and now No.5 Tennessee.
Arizona, the top seed in the Pac-12 tourney, fell one spot to sixth after being upset by USC and was followed by Iowa State and Creighton, which moved up two spots. Marquette dropped two spots and rounded out the top 10. SAMFORD 76, EAST TENNESSEE ST. 69 >> Achor Achor had 25 points and nine rebounds, and the top-seeded Bulldogs (29-5) held off the seventh-seeded Buccaneers (19-16) to win the Southern Conference tournament championship.
JAMES MADISON 91, ARKANSAS ST. 71 >> Xavier Brown had 21 points and 10 rebounds and the No. 2-seeded Dukes (31-3) eased past the fourth-seeded Red Wolves (18-16) to claim the Sun Belt Conference tournament title.