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In an announcement that aligns with NCAA Tournament seedings, the University of Connecticut, UCLA, Texas, and South Carolina secured the coveted top four spots in the final regular-season Associated Press women’s basketball Top 25 rankings, released on Monday.
UConn’s Huskies clinched the position of overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA bracket, which was revealed on Sunday evening. Historically, teams ranked No. 1 in the poll as they enter March Madness have gone on to win the NCAA championship 17 times out of 43 since the inception of the women’s tournament in 1982.
This season, the Associated Press will release a final poll after the conclusion of the NCAA Tournament, as it has done for the past two years. The upcoming poll is scheduled for April 6.
The UCLA Bruins, ranked second, garnered an additional first-place vote, bringing their total to three from the 31-member national media panel. Meanwhile, UConn maintained strong support, receiving the remaining 28 votes. With few games involving ranked teams last week—only UConn and Princeton were in action and both secured victories—the Top 25 rankings saw minimal changes from the previous week.
The AP has done a final poll after the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons so there is one more poll this season on April 6.
The No. 2 Bruins picked up one more first place vote this week, giving them three from the 31-member national media panel. UConn received the other 28. With so few games last week that involved ranked teams — only UConn and Princeton played and both won — the Top 25 didn’t change much from the week before.
LSU, Vanderbilt, Iowa and Duke followed No. 3 Texas and No. 4 South Carolina. Michigan and West Virginia rounded out the top 10 teams. All will host NCAA Tournament games this weekend. West Virginia flipped places with Ohio State, moving up to No. 11.
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
The NCAA Tournament opens with First Four games taking place on Wednesday and Thursday.
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