South Carolina returns to top of women's basketball poll

Coach Dawn Staley has South Carolina back where her team started the season: at No. 1 in The Associated Press women's college basketball poll.

The Gamecocks regained the top spot on Monday, receiving 29 of 30 first-place votes from a national media panel.

The Gamecocks were tested right away; they visited No. 2 Connecticut on Monday in the 60th matchup ever between the top two teams in the poll.

South Carolina, which originally fell from the top spot after losing to North Carolina State, was looking to make it two straight wins over UConn after beating the Huskies for the first time in eight tries last season, 70-52.

"It is less pressure but more hunger," Staley said Saturday. "To beat somebody at home is a little easier than beating them on the road. And I just hope we're able to check that off the list and continue what UConn used to do to us: Link those wins together and don't look back."

These same two teams met five years ago to the day in another 1-2 contest. The positions were reversed and the Huskies stayed No. 1 with a 12-point win.

UConn moved up one spot to No. 2 on Monday after then-No. 1 Louisville lost at home to No. 4 North Carolina State last week. The Cardinals fell to third and the Wolfpack remained fourth. They lost to unranked North Carolina on Sunday.

No 5. Stanford, Texas A&M and Baylor each moved up a spot, while UCLA, Maryland and Arizona rounded out the top 10. Arizona visits No. 11 Oregon on Monday night.

Mississippi State dropped out of the poll for the first time since 2014, ending a streak of 125 consecutive weeks in the Top 25. That was the fifth-longest active streak. The Bulldogs, who had been in every poll since Nov. 24, 2014, didn't play last week, when their game against Tennessee was postponed because of COVID-19 issues within the Lady Vols' program. The Bulldogs haven't played since Jan. 28 and have dropped their last three contests.

Missouri State entered the rankings at No. 25.

Here are other tidbits from the poll:

MILESTONE

Monday marked the 800th women's college basketball poll in the AP's history. No team has been in it more than Tennessee, with 745 appearances. The late Pat Summitt had 618 of those when she was in charge of the Lady Vols. The team was unranked only 14 weeks while she was coaching. UConn is second on the list with 554, all under Geno Auriemma.

According to poll historian Mel Greenberg, who started the poll in 1976, Kim Mulkey is the active leader with 663 poll appearances from her time as a player at Louisiana Tech, an assistant coach there and head coach of Baylor. Mulkey trails only former Tennessee player and coach Holly Warlick for most all-time appearances. Warlick had 693 appearances in the poll.

GAME OF THE WEEK

Oregon at UCLA, Friday: a huge Pac-12 matchup with the Ducks visiting the Bruins. UCLA suffered a tough loss at Washington State on Friday night.

AP TOP 25

1. South Carolina (29) 15-1 748 2

2. UConn 13-1 703 3

3. Louisville 18-1 667 1

4. NC State (1) 12-2 642 4

5. Stanford 17-2 634 6

6. Texas A&M 18-1 631 7

7. Baylor 14-2 561 8

8. UCLA 11-3 532 5

9. Maryland 13-2 506 10

10. Arizona 11-2 503 9

11. Oregon 12-3 419 12

12. Michigan 10-1 393 13

12. Ohio St. 12-2 393 11

14. South Florida 10-1 339 14

15. Indiana 11-4 267 17

16. Tennessee 12-3 239 18

17. Gonzaga 16-2 232 19

18. Arkansas 14-7 230 16

19. West Virginia 15-2 229 21

20. Kentucky 13-5 207 15

21. Northwestern 11-3 197 22

22. DePaul 10-4 155 20

23. South Dakota St. 15-2 98 23

24. Georgia 14-4 89 25

25. Missouri St. 11-2 56 -

Others receiving votes: Mississippi St. 45, Syracuse 9, Oklahoma St. 8, Georgia Tech 8, Stephen F Austin 6, Rice 2, Iowa St. 1, Virginia Tech 1.