No. 2 UCLA picked up first-place votes from top-ranked UConn in The Associated Press women’s basketball Top 25 on Monday and Texas jumped South Carolina to move up to No. 3 after winning their head-to-head showdown in the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship game.
The Bruins picked up three first-place votes after their 51-point win over then-No. 9 Iowa in the Big Ten title game Sunday. UConn had been a unanimous No. 1 from the national media panel for the past eight weeks. The undefeated Huskies received the other 28 first-place votes.
UConn and UCLA are expected to be the top two teams when the women’s NCAA Tournament bracket is revealed Sunday night. While the Bruins are done until then, the Huskies faced Villanova for the Big East tournament title Monday night.
LSU moved up to No. 5, swapping spots with Vanderbilt. Despite its loss to UCLA, Iowa moved up to seventh. Duke jumped five places to eighth after winning the Atlantic Coast Conference championship, beating then-No. 12 Louisville in overtime.
Michigan was ninth and Oklahoma 10th.
In and out
Buoyed by reaching the ACC Tournament semifinals, Notre Dame re-entered the Top 25, coming in at No. 22. Notre Dame replaced Fairfield, which had entered the poll last week and advanced to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game Monday.
Conference supremacy
The SEC has the most teams in the Top 25 with eight. The Big Ten is next with seven. The Big 12 and ACC each have four. The Ivy League and Big East each have one.
Games of the week
Besides UConn, Princeton is the only other Top 25 team playing this week. The Tigers will face Brown in the Ivy League Tournament semifinals on Friday night. If they win, they will play either Harvard or Columbia on Saturday. The Lions handed the Tigers two of their three losses this season.
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