Week 15 AP Top 25 poll - UConn down to #15

[BRS24]

Just breathe y'all -

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 2023-24 season.

apnews.com

Oregon State up 6 spots
VA Tech, Syracuse up 4 spots
UConn, Colorado, Notre Dame down 4 spots

And per my last post on week 14, here's what happened:

#2 Iowa lost to unranked Nebraska - down 2​

#3 NCSU lost to #16 VA Tech - down 3​

#4 Colorado lost to #17 Oregon St - down 4​

#11 UConn lost to #1 SC - down 4​

#12 ND lost to #15 Louisville - down 4​

#15 Louisville lost to #3 NCSU and #23 Syracuse - down 3​

#18 Baylor lost to unranked BYU - down 3​

#20 Utah lost to #17 Oregon St - down 2​

#22 WV lost to #18 Baylor - down 2​

Ohio State has the unenviable award of being the new #2 team. Will they be able to stay there? dun, dun, dun ...

 

[maple]

Welp, can't say I'm surprised.

At least we probably won't drop out of the top 25. But this has to be the worst ranked season in like, 30 years.

 

[Kaizen]

Well, our men's ranking is still #1 with 20-2 records.

 

[NEforceUConn]

I’m a bit surprised that SEC only has 2 teams ranked. I think SEC is a strong conference and I will be picking a bunch of their teams come March madness.

Can some more knowledgeable posters provide thoughts on conference strength? Tia

 

[oldhusky]

Well many of the best long running streaks have ended during our injury plagued seasons, but we still have a couple to defend. A very long streak of being ranked, which I don't think is in danger unless we blow a couple of remaining games or suffer another injury, and making the sweet sixteen I think since the first championship.

We can't jump up the polls a lot with basically no potential big win possibilities left. Regardless if we hold serve on the remaining games we are expected to win, we should move up a little bit, and secure our position as a hosting site for the first two games in the NCAA tournament.

That at least would give us a decent chance of keeping the sweet sixteen streak alive, but if we want to host we better run the table from this point.

 

[Centerstream]

I sorta alluded to this in Week 14 post: Funny that we lose to the #1 team (ie we were expected to lose) and drop 4 places. Other teams lose to unranked or lower ranked teams and drop 3 or less places.
But actually I was expecting us to drop to 14th or 15th and I agree that our chances to move back up are not very good, even if we win every remaining regular season game. It's highly unlikely that any of the 10th through 14th ranked teams are going to lose one or more games during their remaining regular season schedule. And if they do, it will most likely be to a higher ranked team, and we know how that will turn out for them...
Hopefully in the first NCAAT reveal we are one of the top 16.

 

[boscolino]

A very harsh season......hoping for the Sweet 16

 

[SLY63]

Probably looking at a 4 seed in the first bracket this week, and maybe climbing up to a low 3 in the tourney if we win out.

 

[Bald Husky]

Okay, now we know what we have to do. Our big OOC games are over, so since we got our butts kicked all 5 times, we have to put that to the back of our minds and go forward with the rest of our games. What we have to do is win the rest of our BE games, win the BE tournament, and then practice our asses off to get ready for the big dance. Poll watching should be over, it doesn't mean much to us anymore since we are not a top 10 team as of now. We will play where they put us, play when they tell us to, and just do the best we can. Goals now are to get home games for the first two rounds and win them to get to the sweet 16. Once we get there, depending how we can come together, maybe we can win a game or two. Who knows, but for now, practice and get better. Geno said that the seven playing now will be the players that will go for now on, so we can forget the Ines and Amari talk. Just focus on the remaining games on the schedule, so if we win all of them, a good state of mind will be with us come March. Go Huskies.

 

[BRS24]

I’m a bit surprised that SEC only has 2 teams ranked. I think SEC is a strong conference and I will be picking a bunch of their teams come March madness.

Can some more knowledgeable posters provide thoughts on conference strength? Tia

After week 4 and a bunch of losses, Ole Miss, Tenn, and Miss State all dropped out of the top 25 (table compressed to show SEC teams only). Although Tenn is in 3rd place in conference, the other 5 losses. As we've seen, there have been a few head scratching rankings (+/-). Part of the challenge is a bunch of strong teams within a conference, all beating up on each other, without a clear top tier, aka ACC, Big12, Pac12.

Here are the current standings and NET (#3):

 

[EricLA]

Seems about right to me. I get that the polls are only supposed to look at the most recent week, but every UConn loss has been by double digits. 5 losses by more than 10. All the teams we lost to are in the top 10 except for ND. Honestly, I'd have dropped us to 16 and put ND at 15. After all they whipped us too.

Some asked why we dropped 4 after losing to the #1 team. IMHO 2 reasons - we were outclassed in every way and save for 5 points at the end to pretty up the corpse, we were demolished by them. More than that, our margin of loss was about equal to several middle of the pack SEC teams. No way is this UConn team a top 10 team and we may well limp into hosting the NCAA's in the first weekend of play (ie. top 16).

I get they go off the NET and all that, and we do have good wins vs. UNC, L'ville, Marquette and Creighton, but really those are teams you'd expect a team in the 10-20 range to beat, and we did.

I'm not down on the team at all, but am beginning to face the reality that just making it to the sweet 16 in the NCAA's might be about all we can realistically expect.

 

[jaydee602]

This is such a travesty. Several teams have lost to SC without dropping in the rankings. Losing to the #1 team should not cost a team 4 spots!
Iowa lost to unranked Minnesota & only dropped two spots!

 

[VA Huskie]

Seems about right to me. I get that the polls are only supposed to look at the most recent week, but every UConn loss has been by double digits. 5 losses by more than 10. All the teams we lost to are in the top 10 except for ND. Honestly, I'd have dropped us to 16 and put ND at 15. After all they whipped us too.

Some asked why we dropped 4 after losing to the #1 team. IMHO 2 reasons - we were outclassed in every way and save for 5 points at the end to pretty up the corpse, we were demolished by them. More than that, our margin of loss was about equal to several middle of the pack SEC teams. No way is this UConn team a top 10 team and we may well limp into hosting the NCAA's in the first weekend of play (ie. top 16).

I get they go off the NET and all that, and we do have good wins vs. UNC, L'ville, Marquette and Creighton, but really those are teams you'd expect a team in the 10-20 range to beat, and we did.

I'm not down on the team at all, but am beginning to face the reality that just making it to the sweet 16 in the NCAA's might be about all we can realistically expect.

Good analysis. I do think we should get some credit for not having lost to a “true” unranked team (NC St wasn’t ranked when we played, but only bc the voters didn’t know how good they were). So I don’t understand why Iowa could lose to an unranked team and drop 2 spots, while we lose to #1 on their home court and we drop 4?

 

[VA Huskie]

This is such a travesty. Several teams have lost to SC without dropping in the rankings. Losing to the #1 team should not cost a team 4 spots!
Iowa lost to unranked Minnesota & only dropped two spots!

I know you meant Nebraska

 

[Rowdy831]

This is such a travesty. Several teams have lost to SC without dropping in the rankings. Losing to the #1 team should not cost a team 4 spots!
Iowa lost to unranked Minnesota & only dropped two spots!

They got pounded by SC and they were playing without their biggest advantage. UConn has played 5 really good teams this year and those 5 completely dominated UConn and so far the coaches have done nothing to adjust for it. This team is in a great place in the rankings and will climb a few spots before the tournament.

 

[MSGRET]

I want to know what the NET UConn has, that's what actually matters.

 

[reelfan]

The men are still # 1.

 

[BRS24]

I want to know what the NET UConn has, that's what actually matters.

Per update as of today, UConn is at #4.

 

[Plebe]

Good analysis. I do think we should get some credit for not having lost to a “true” unranked team (NC St wasn’t ranked when we played, but only bc the voters didn’t know how good they were). So I don’t understand why Iowa could lose to an unranked team and drop 2 spots, while we lose to #1 on their home court and we drop 4?

Iowa would've fallen farther if the two teams ranked immediately behind them hadn't both also lost. The results of the surrounding teams also affect each team's landing spot. Similarly, UConn dropped an additional spot because Oregon State won their way ahead of us.

 

[Boreifs]

UConn is still fourth in both Massey and Net.

 

[Centerstream]

This is such a travesty. Several teams have lost to SC without dropping in the rankings. Losing to the #1 team should not cost a team 4 spots!
Iowa lost to unranked Minnesota & only dropped two spots!

I understand your comment but how many ranked opponents has SoCar beaten? 5 or 6? Not too many to compare to. But I believe that both Maryland (when they were ranked) and the Golden Domers each dropped 6 places after losing to SoCar very early in the season. Not sure about LSU or any other teams besides UConn.

 

[meyers7]

After week 4 and a bunch of losses, Ole Miss, Tenn, and Miss State all dropped out of the top 25 (table compressed to show SEC teams only). Although Tenn is in 3rd place in conference, the other 5 losses. As we've seen, there have been a few head scratching rankings (+/-). Part of the challenge is a bunch of strong teams within a conference, all beating up on each other, without a clear top tier, aka ACC, Big12, Pac12.
View attachment 96348

Here are the current standings and NET (#3):
View attachment 96350

TN won't last long at #3 in the SEC. They have games with 2 games vs S. Carolina and a game against LSU. Also Arkansas, Texas A&M and @ Vandy could give them trouble. So they have 3+ more losses coming, before the end of the season. Another in the SEC tourney. So at least 12 losses before the NCAA's. Don't think they will get to 20 wins either.

Our season is bad, but we might be able to still laugh at TN. (fingers crossed)

 

[RoadMaster]

I understand your comment but how many ranked opponents has SoCar beaten? 5 or 6? Not too many to compare to. But I believe that both Maryland (when they were ranked) and the Golden Domers each dropped 6 places after losing to SoCar very early in the season. Not sure about LSU or any other teams besides UConn.

I'm fairly certain that LSU remained at #9 after losing (at home) to SC..

 

[Ozimoto]

At this point, the team is what it is. I don't expect any vast improvements, nor do I expect any outrageous collapses if the players that are left stay relatively healthy.

 

[ochoopsfan]

UConn has no "good wins"