South Carolina won the SEC Women's Tournament title game with a victory over LSU and remains the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 Poll. Meanwhile, Iowa returned to No. 2 after surviving an upset scare against Nebraska to win the Big Ten Women's Tournament final.
USC is the new No. 3 team in the nation, marking its best ranking since 1986. The Trojans earned the spot after pulling off a 74-61 victory over Stanford in the Pac-12 Women's Tournament title game. Once again, the Pac-12 has six teams ranked in this week's poll: No. 3 USC, No. 4 Stanford, No. 6 UCLA, No. 12 Oregon State, No. 18 Colorado and No. 20 Utah.
Notre Dame had the biggest jump in the poll this week, improving five spot to No. 9 after winning the ACC Women's Tournament with a 55-51 victory over NC State in Sunday's final. Freshman star Hannah Hidalgo led all scorers in the game with 22 points to go along with six rebounds and six assists.
Fairfield was ranked for the first time in program history last Monday, and the Stags are still in the rankings this week. They are riding a 26-game winning streak, the second-longest streak in the country.
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:
| Rank | Team | Record | Points | Prev. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Carolina | 32-0 | 875 | 1 |
| 2 | Iowa | 29-4 | 821 | 3 |
| 3 | USC | 36-5 | 809 | 5 |
| 4 | Stanford | 28-5 | 750 | 2 |
| 5 | Texas | 28-4 | 740 | 6 |
| 6 | UCLA | 25-6 | 646 | 7 |
| 7 | Ohio State | 25-5 | 642 | 4 |
| 8 | LSU | 28-5 | 627 | 8 |
| 9 | Notre Dame | 26-6 | 613 | 14 |
| 10 | UConn | 28-5 | 612 | 9 |
| 11 | NC State | 27-6 | 513 | 10 |
| 12 | Oregon State | 24-7 | 465 | 13 |
| 13 | Virginia Tech | 24-7 | 437 | 11 |
| 14 | Gonzaga | 29-2 | 412 | 15 |
| 15 | Indiana | 24-5 | 399 | 12 |
| 16 | Kansas State | 25-6 | 365 | 16 |
| 17 | Oklahoma | 22-8 | 302 | 19 |
| 18 | Colorado | 22-9 | 262 | 18 |
| 19 | Baylor | 24-7 | 234 | 17 |
| 20 | Utah | 22-10 | 170 | 22 |
| 21 | UNLV | 27-2 | 156 | 23 |
| 22 | Syracuse | 23-7 | 129 | 20 |
| 23 | Creighton | 25-5 | 91 | 21 |
| 24 | Louisville | 24-9 | 90 | 24 |
| 25 | Fairfield | 28-1 | 88 | 25 |
Others receiving votes: Princeton 36, Nebraska 21, Ole Miss 20, West Virginia 16, Iowa State 10, Columbia 6, Tennessee 4, Toledo 4, Florida State 3, Duke 2, Richmond 2, Kansas 2, Jackson State 1