Women's college basketball rankings: LSU, UConn make big leaps; Iowa drops outside top five after blowout loss

A pair of familiar faces have reentered the top 10 of the AP Top 25 Poll after another exhilarating week in women's college basketball. Kim Mulkey's LSU Tigers and Geno Auriemma's UConn Huskies made sizable leaps to Nos. 9 and 10, respectively, thanks largely to losses from NC State and Kansas State. 

LSU's season hit a major roadblock in late January, as the defending national champion lost two straight games with Mulkey publicly criticizing her team's defense. However, it's since been smooth sailing for the Tigers, who've won their last six games and avenged their Jan. 14 loss to Auburn last Thursday behind a 25-point, 20-rebound performance from Angel Reese. 

Like LSU, UConn earlier this month failed to hand No. 1 South Carolina its first loss of the season, continuing a concerning trend as the Huskies are 0-4 against top-15 competition. All four of those defeats came by double digits, so Auriemma's squad will need to begin playing up to its elite standard if it hopes to compete in March. Still, the Huskies are handling the rest of their schedule with ease, as just last week they beat then-No. 21 Creighton 73-53 in a game where Paige Bueckers scored 30 points while missing only one of her nine shots from inside the arc. 

Another big mover this week was UCLA, which beat then-No. 8 Utah by 30 points Thursday to go from 12th to No. 8. The Bruins are now one spot below their crosstown rival USC. Iowa, meanwhile, is heading in the wrong direction after Thursday's 86-69 blowout loss to Indiana. 

AP Women's Basketball Top 25

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press' women's college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Sunday, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week's ranking:

Others receiving votes: Fairfield 49, Duke 33, Princeton 7, North Carolina 5, Florida State 3, Columbia 2, Ole Miss 1