South Carolina is once again sitting at No. 1 in The Associated Press preseason Top 25 women's basketball poll. Coach Dawn Staley's Gamecocks received 23 first-place votes from a 31-member national media panel. UConn, USC, Duke and Michigan round out the top five. It is the fifth time in the past seven years that Staley's team has been ranked No. 1 in the preseason.
Staley described the ranking as both a gift and a curse. "I tend to not look at the number, but our players do," she said. "They also know that it's pressure packed with the type of non-conference schedule we have, we're going to be challenged." South Carolina will face five ranked teams in its first month, including UConn, USC and Duke. Staley called it "a doozy of a schedule" that she believes is necessary to keep its roster intact.
UConn, which lost to South Carolina in the Final Four last season, received six first-place votes. Southern California picked up the other two. Expectations are high for the Trojans, who have a healthy Ju Ju Watkins back after she missed last season while recovering from a torn ACL. Duke has its highest preseason ranking since 2013, and Michigan has its best preseason ranking ever. Coach Kim Barnes Arico praised her junior class, led by Olivia Olson and Syla Swords.
The Big Ten has nine teams in the Top 25, the most ever for one conference in the preseason poll. The Southeastern Conference has seven, including four in the top 10. The first regular-season poll will be released Nov. 9.
Source: ESPN General · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing