Texas moved up in the latest Associated Press women’s basketball poll, but the bigger headline Monday came at the top.
The Longhorns rose one spot to No. 6 after opening the season with a pair of lopsided wins, beating Fairleigh Dickinson 85-65 and Northern Colorado 91-29. Senior All-American Madison Booker’s Saturday performance against Northern Colorado stood out in more ways than one: she topped 2,000 career points and moved past Clarissa Davis into third place on Texas’ all-time scoring list.
Texas was not the only team making noise in the new rankings. Michigan jumped three spots to No. 2 and pushed UConn down to No. 4 after the Huskies’ loss to the Wolverines. UConn, which lost to South Carolina in last season’s Final Four, now sits behind South Carolina, Michigan and USC.
After the defeat, UConn coach Geno Auriemma pointed to his team’s response in the moment.
"It’s not about the loss. It’s just disappointing to see how some of our players reacted when it was time to step up and make plays," UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said in his postgame press conference.
South Carolina remained No. 1, collecting 32 first-place votes. USC stayed at No. 3 with one first-place vote, while Duke held No. 5 and Texas followed at No. 6.
The rest of the top 10 featured Louisville at No. 7, Vanderbilt at No.
8, LSU at No. 9 and a tie at No. 10 between Iowa and UCLA. Kentucky checked in at No.
12, Notre Dame at No. 13 and Oklahoma at No. 14 after a seven-spot rise.
TCU landed at No. 15, followed by Washington, Ohio State, Minnesota, Oklahoma State and Maryland. Ole Miss came in at No.
21, Illinois at No. 22, North Carolina at No.
23, West Virginia at No. 24 and Nebraska at No. 25.
Among teams receiving votes were Baylor, NC State, Arizona State, Virginia, Kansas, Florida, Michigan State, Fairfield, Colorado, Tennessee and Princeton.
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