AP Top 25 Week 8

[Centerstream]

UConn still #1, Texas down to 7 #1 votes

AP Top 25 Women's College Basketball Poll

The official page for the AP Top 25 women's college basketball poll. Keep up to date and view the latest NCAA women's basketball ranking updates each week for the 2025-26 season.

apnews.com

Big moves
Iowa dropped 3 spots ☹️
Baylor and Tennessee dropped 7 and 6 spots each respectively.

 

[DEpup]

One more voter came to their senses.... I'm wondering when Villanova will start getting some votes.

 

[jabstep]

It looks about right for now.

 

[Centerstream]

Note: there will not be new rankings next Monday, December 29th.
Jan. 5th will be the next ranking.

 

[ubasketball]

Taking nothing away from us (we play the teams on our schedule) and admitting to a UCONN bias, if both Texas and UCONN continue to dominate, it's hard not to see Texas dislodging us based on their remarkably challenging schedule and our relatively weak one. Frankly, that does not bother me, but what I am concerned about is all the experience Texas will get playing high-stress, competitive games while we walk through the Big East. Yes, ND and Tenn are down the road, but Texas's road looks a lot more bumpy.

 

[DefenseBB]

Taking nothing away from us (we play the teams on our schedule) and admitting to a UCONN bias, if both Texas and UCONN continue to dominate, it's hard not to see Texas dislodging us based on their remarkably challenging schedule and our relatively weak one. Frankly, that does not bother me, but what I am concerned about is all the experience Texas will get playing high-stress, competitive games while we walk through the Big East. Yes, ND and Tenn are down the road, but Texas's road looks a lot more bumpy.

Um, wash/rinse/repeat...this discussion has been a regular thread every year. Texas has played a very good schedule thus far this year (shocking to be honest) and the do seem to have a more organized offense and while their schedule of conference games is significantly harder, I am not sure I am worried. If we get to play them in the final four, great, the game will decide but I am still significantly more bullish on our scoring depth and our offensive execution than anything Vic can put on the court. I guess we can always ask our long time member @cferraro04 to give us a hypothetical match up on the current stats to prove my point of the players. We are significantly deeper than Texas, though to be fair they are pretty deep with more offense coming off the bench with better shooters as well.

You bring up an interesting thought though, I have started to use the efficiency/game score calculations for the team comparison. The top 5 teams are interesting. From a Massey perspective, here are their Rankings and efficiency scores. I will add my comments below the stats
1. UConn 85.4 and 123.6 (3rd) vs. #2 OOC ranked schedule
2. Texas 81.68 and 120.3 (5th) vs. #6 OOC
3. SC 85.94 and 125.3 (2nd) vs. #5 OOC
4. LSU 79.42 and 144.5 (1st) vs. #66 OOC
5. UCLA 78.49 and 120.3 (4th) vs. #3 OOC

So according to Massey and my efficiency scoring, SC is neck and neck with UConn, not Texas but it is close.

LSU, while having a "gaudy" 144.5 efficiency rating, has built that vs. a pathetic #66 OOC with only the Duke (#23) win against a team in the top 123 (Georgia Southern #123). This number will tumble. Most troubling for LSU is the rather high number of Turnovers (15.5 per game) which is the worst especially considering how poor the opponents are/were.

Texas does play SC twice this conference season (before the SECT) so that will be interesting.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Looking at a host of articles about other top 20 teams it is like their is a vibe out there of denial; of not wanting to return to living in a UConn world. Lots can happen, but for now I'm just going to bask in the Husky glow.

 

[JellyBean]

I do like that some folks picked Texas as their #1 in their rankings and the majority of the voters have UConn as their #1, which is pretty much the debate across WBB and it is great for the game. Texas and UConn will be the conversation for the rest of the season until they meet up, as who is the true #1. The rest of the Top 25. It is what it is. I just have never been a fan of how some programs can have 3 or 4 losses and still be ranked while some teams are undefeated or have 1 or 2 losses and never get ranked. Like Arizona State. They can't get votes for the Top 25 or crack the Top 25?

 

[visitingcock]

Um, wash/rinse/repeat...this discussion has been a regular thread every year. Texas has played a very good schedule thus far this year (shocking to be honest) and the do seem to have a more organized offense and while their schedule of conference games is significantly harder, I am not sure I am worried. If we get to play them in the final four, great, the game will decide but I am still significantly more bullish on our scoring depth and our offensive execution than anything Vic can put on the court. I guess we can always ask our long time member @cferraro04 to give us a hypothetical match up on the current stats to prove my point of the players. We are significantly deeper than Texas, though to be fair they are pretty deep with more offense coming off the bench with better shooters as well.

You bring up an interesting thought though, I have started to use the efficiency/game score calculations for the team comparison. The top 5 teams are interesting. From a Massey perspective, here are their Rankings and efficiency scores. I will add my comments below the stats
1. UConn 85.4 and 123.6 (3rd) vs. #2 OOC ranked schedule
2. Texas 81.68 and 120.3 (5th) vs. #6 OOC
3. SC 85.94 and 125.3 (2nd) vs. #5 OOC
4. LSU 79.42 and 144.5 (1st) vs. #66 OOC
5. UCLA 78.49 and 120.3 (4th) vs. #3 OOC

So according to Massey and my efficiency scoring, SC is neck and neck with UConn, not Texas but it is close.

LSU, while having a "gaudy" 144.5 efficiency rating, has built that vs. a pathetic #66 OOC with only the Duke (#23) win against a team in the top 123 (Georgia Southern #123). This number will tumble. Most troubling for LSU is the rather high number of Turnovers (15.5 per game) which is the worst especially considering how poor the opponents are/were.

Texas does play SC twice this conference season (before the SECT) so that will be interesting.

Clarification: Texas is scheduled to play SCar only once more this season. (They play LSU twice in conference - not SCar)..Their non- conference game has already been played . ( of course, they could meet again in the SEC TOURNAMENT.)

Massey’s algorithm is not alone in ranking SCar above Texas. Most computer based rankings follow Massey including NET herhoops and others. The human polls ( and me) favor Texas for second place based on the on/conference head to head win and knowledge of SCar’s shallow bench. I don’t think the computers “ think” about bench issues which are important. We had a solid lead over Texas until Okot fouled out..

Oh well, it’s all pretty meaningless until selection Sunday and not THAT IMPORTANT then. What is important is each team’s last game