Kinda impressive that the 3 Tobacco Road schools are currently so close to each other.
It has gone in cycles in the AP Poll era. NC State was the dominant team early and was ranked for most of the first 14 years of the poll. UNC was next to be a regular participant in the poll...Duke had some poll success with Katie Meier and Chris Moreland...but it was the arrival of Gail Goestenkors that propelled Duke into a poll regular. Sylvia Hatchell was building a solid program at UNC and hit #1 in 1993, and Duke also reached the pinnacle later in the 1990s.
Meanwhile...NC State's fortunes took a downturn following the 1991-92 season (when UCONN ended the title run of what was, to that time, the best team NC State ever had). Losing seasons in two of the next three years tarnished the reputation of the Wolfpack Women and Kay Yow, who also started to suffer some health issues. State had only sporadic stays in the top 25 between 1995 and 2007, when we beat a #1 team for the first time ever (Duke in the semi-finals of the ACCT) and, as usual, ended our special season at the hands of UCONN, this time in the Fresno regional.
All that time, UNC and Duke were both in the rankings for a prolonged run...often both in the top 10 at the same time...while NC State would just make sporadic appearances but rarely very long stays in the poll. Kellie Harper than assured NC State would lose further ground to the teams in blue by not having NC State in the rankings AT ALL for her 4-year tenure. By the mid 2010s, both UNC and Duke had charged way ahead of NC State in the number of poll appearances.
Then, the pendulum began swinging back NC State's way with the arrival of Wes Moore. As NC State started achieving some poll success once again in the late 2010s, the programs at both UNC and Duke began to suffer and both ended their long streaks in the poll (312 weeks for Duke and 163 weeks followed shortly by another 58 week stint in the mid 2010s were the longest streaks for UNC). Now, for the last few years, it has been mostly NC State achieving the high rankings of the three Triangle teams once again, with UNC and Duke making occasional appearances (reminiscent of how things were in the late 1970s through mid 1980s).
But yes...it is interesting that these three teams are all clustered together there in the standings of poll appearances...that those three programs put great emphasis on the sport early, when women's basketball wasn't always a high-priority sport at every college. And, pollwise, that those three have attained about the same amount of success...but if you don't know the back-history of how things were to how things are now, those numbers just look like numbers.
This post is already too long but I will leave you with this: 25 teams have been ranked #1 for at least a week; Duke has been #1 for 34 weeks in poll history. North Carolina has been ranked #1 for 5 weeks. NC State holds the distinction of being the team ranked #2 the most times without ever reaching #1...with 14 different polls. 3 seasons ago, we were ranked #2 and had a chance to finally get our first #1 ranking, after we had beaten #1 Louisville earlier in the week. But...a trip to Chapel Hill and a loss to the Tar Heels kept us at bay and we have never again threatened to be #1.
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