North Carolina made the biggest jump in the last AP Top 25 of the regular season in women’s college basketball. The Tar Heels climbed five spots to No. 16 after an upset win over their biggest rivals in Duke on Sunday and have now won 12 of their last 13 games. This momentum could help their case for a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament and give them a chance to host the first weekend of March Madness.
Regular-season play is a wrap in major conferences. Many conference tournaments will be held this week, and then there will be a pause for title contenders before Selection Sunday on March 15.
Elsewhere in the ACC, Louisville dropped out of the top 10 after a clutch steal from Hannah Hidalgo showed that an unranked Notre Dame team is ready to compete in March. The Cardinals were replaced by TCU, as the Horned Frogs won their second consecutive Big 12 title. Baylor only scored 15 points in the first half against TCU, which was the Bears’ lowest scoring first half since 2010 and now they are down to No. 20 in the AP rankings.
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In the SEC, Ole Miss fell five spots to No. 24 after losing six of its last eight games. The Rebels’ most recent stumble was a 66-58 loss to Texas A&M, a bubble team entering the postseason with a lot of momentum.
The top nine teams in the rankings remained unchanged with UConn still the unanimous No. 1. Geno Auriemma’s Huskies have won 47 consecutive games — including their 2025 national championship — and just finished their 11th undefeated Big East season.
The UCLA Bruins stayed at No. 2 while becoming the first team to complete the first perfect Big Ten season since Maryland pulled it off in the 2014-15 campaign. As for South Carolina, Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks survived an upset scare against Kentucky to hold on to the No. 3 rankings.
AP Women’s Basketball Top 25
|
| 1 |
UConn |
31-0 |
775 (31) |
1 |
| 2 |
UCLA |
28-1 |
744 |
2 |
| 3 |
South Carolina |
29-2 |
713 |
3 |
| 4 |
Texas |
28-3 |
669 |
4 |
| 5 |
Vanderbilt |
27-3 |
660 |
5 |
| 6 |
LSU |
26-4 |
620 |
6 |
| 7 |
Oklahoma |
23-6 |
553 |
7 |
| 8 |
Michigan |
24-5 |
545 |
8 |
| 9 |
Iowa |
24-5 |
542 |
9 |
| 10 |
TCU |
27-4 |
502 |
11 |
| 11 |
Ohio State |
24-6 |
425 |
13 |
| 12 |
Louisville |
25-6 |
407 |
10 |
| 13 |
Duke |
21-8 |
404 |
12 |
| 14 |
Maryland |
23-7 |
346 |
14 |
| 15 |
West Virginia |
24-6 |
332 |
17 |
| 16 |
North Carolina |
25-6 |
312 |
21 |
| 17 |
Kentucky |
21-9 |
294 |
16 |
| 18 |
Michigan State |
22-7 |
280 |
15 |
| 19 |
Minnesota |
22-7 |
226 |
22 |
| 20 |
Baylor |
24-7 |
210 |
18 |
| 21 |
Texas Tech |
25-6 |
137 |
20 |
| 22 |
Georgia |
22-8 |
80 |
23 |
| 23 |
Princeton |
23-3 |
62 |
25 |
| 24 |
Ole Miss |
21-10 |
60 |
19 |
| 25 |
Fairfield |
25-4 |
34 |
NR |
Others receiving votes: Alabama 29, Notre Dame 26, Columbia 25, Villanova 19, Oklahoma St. 13, NC State 11, Rice 8, Washington 4, Tennessee 3, Rhode Island 2, Illinois 2, Iowa St. 1.
