South Carolina tops AP preseasonwomen’s rankings
Dawn Staley NEW YORK — already has accomplished so much at South Carolina. Now she can add the first preseason No. 1 ranking in school history to the list of achievements.
The Gamecocks received 29 of the 30 first-place votes in The Associated Press preseason women’s Top 25 released Tuesday.
“It’s pretty cool to be the first to do things at a place, where you can feel the love for our team in this town,” said Staley, who has won a national championship and five SEC Tournament titles since coming to the school in 2008. “They’ve been along this journey with us and allowed us to do things like this.”
The Gamecocks, who had been second twice in the preseason poll, in 2014 and 2015, finished last season at No. 1 for the first time. Staley hopes this year’s team will get a chance to compete for a national championship after last season’s
NCAATournamentwas canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Following the Gamecocks atNo. 2 was Stanford, which received the other first-place vote fromthe national media panel. It’s the Cardinal’s highest ranking in the preseason since the 2009 seasonwhen the team also was second.
UConn, Baylor and Louisville round out the top five. It is the 14th consecutive year that the Huskies were ranked in the top five in the preseason.
Mississippi State was sixth.
Arizonawas seventh, thefirst timesince2004thattheWildcats have been ranked in the preseason poll. North Carolina State, UCLA and Oregon roundedout the top 10.
The SEC, Big Ten and Pac12 each have five teamsin the preseason poll. TheACC has four, with the Big East and Big 12 each having two.
Texas was the first team outside the Top 25, followed by South Dakota, Florida State, North Carolina and Arizona State.
Ohio State is No. 21, Michigan No. 25.