Kansas State has its best ranking in 21 years after the Wildcats moved up to fourth in The Associated Press women’s basketball poll on Monday.
The Wildcats, who climbed three spots, were last ranked this high in 2003. They have a key Big 12 Conference showdown Monday night at No. 13 Baylor. Kansas State is missing star center Ayoka Lee, who is out for a few weeks with an ankle injury.
South Carolina remained the unanimous choice at No. 1 in the poll, receiving all 35 votes from a national media panel. The Gamecocks cruised to easy wins over Kentucky and Texas A&M. Coach Dawn Staley’s team has a showdown at No. 9 LSU on Thursday night.
There was some shifting in the top 10 this week, with UCLA moving back up to No. 2 after beating Colorado on the road. The Bruins play at No. 16 Utah on Monday night.
The Buffaloes remained in the third spot, thanks to a win over then-No. 6 USC, which fell to 11th after also losing to Utah.
Iowa dropped to fifth after falling in overtime to Ohio State. Hawkeyes star guard Caitlin Clark had a scary moment after the game when she accidently was run into by a fan who was storming the court to celebrate. Clark said she was OK.
The Buckeyes jumped six spots to No. 12.
No. 6 Stanford, North Carolina State and UConn followed the Hawkeyes.
HELLO AND GOODBYE
Syracuse (22), West Virginia (24) and Oregon State (25) entered the rankings this week while Iowa State, Marquette and UNLV dropped out.
1,203 AND COUNTING
Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer became the all-time winningest coach in major college basketball, moving past former Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski on Sunday when the Cardinal beat Oregon State.
CLOSE ACC RACE
Six teams are within a loss of each other at the top of the ACC standings, with Syracuse and North Carolina at 6-1. Louisville is 5-1. Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and N.C. State all have two losses.
Florida State, which dropped eight spots to No. 23 in the poll, had one loss coming into last week before losing to Syracuse and Virginia.
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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball
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