Women's ballot breakdown | Top 25 stay ends for Illini

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 25 The top 25 teams in The Associated Press womens college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, and total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking.

Rk., Team Rec.

Pts Prev.

1.

UCLA (24) 9-0 791 1 2.

Connecticut (8) 8-0 769 2 3.

South Carolina 9-1 742 3 4.

LSU 11-0 652 5 5.

Southern Cal 8-1 628 6 6.

Texas 8-1 621 4 7.

Maryland 10-0 608 7 8.

Notre Dame 7-2 607 10 9.

Duke 9-2 533 8 10.

Oklahoma 8-1 517 11 11.

Ohio State 8-0 459 12 12.

TCU 9-1 447 9 13.

Kansas State 10-1 427 13 14.

North Carolina 9-1 419 16 15.

West Virginia 9-1 376 15 16.

Kentucky 8-1 296 14 17.

Michigan State 9-0 193 24 18.

Iowa State 8-2 190 20 19.

Tennessee 7-0 179 NR 20.

Michigan 8-1 166 23 21.

Iowa 8-1 125 17 22.

Mississippi 6-3 104 18 22.

North Carolina State 6-3 104 NR 24.

Nebraska 8-1 99 25 25.

Georgia Tech 9-0 92 NR Others receiving votes: Alabama 73, Illinois 69, California 23, Stanford 18, Vanderbilt 15, Utah 14, Louisville 9, Richmond 8, South Dakota St.

8, Creighton 5, Oklahoma State 4, Harvard 3, Florida State 3, Texas Tech 3, Baylor 1.

THE NEWS-GAZETTES TOP 25 Illinois beat writer Joe Vozzelli is in his sixth season as an AP Top 25 voter.

Heres how his fifth regular-season ballot of the 2024-25 season shook out: RK., TEAM PREV.

1.

UCLA 1 2.

South Carolina 3 3.

Connecticut 2 4.

LSU 5 5.

Notre Dame 7 6.

Texas 4 7.

Maryland 6 8.

Southern Cal 8 9.

Duke 9 10.

Oklahoma 10 11.

Ohio State 11 12.

North Carolina 16 13.

Kentucky 12 14.

Kansas State 13 15.

TCU 14 16.

West Virginia 15 17.

Tennessee NR 18.

North Carolina State NR 19.

Mississippi 20 20.

Iowa State 21 21.

Iowa 18 22.

Illinois 22 23.

Alabama 17 24.

Michigan 24 25.

Nebraska 25 Whos up Tennessee.

The Volunteers used to be a Top 25 regular.

But the tradition-rich program has fallen from the heights it enjoyed, especially during the Pat Summitt era when it won eight national championships.

So much so that it had been more than a full year since Tennessee found itself in the AP Top 25.

That changed on Monday.

Kim Caldwell, whose hiring in the offseason saw the Volunteers break from the Summitt coaching tree, is off to a 7-0 start in her debut season with Tennessee vaulting to No.

19 after a 78-68 win against then-No.

17 Iowa at the Champions Classic on Saturday night in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Caldwell has brought a relentless press defense and up-tempo offense with her to Knoxville, Tenn., with the Volunteers playing a deep rotation and using hockey-style like line changes.

Whos down Illinois.

That the Illinis only two losses are to currently ranked teams didnt matter in eyes of voters when it came to Shauna Greens team.

A four-week stay among the Top 25 ended on Monday after Illinois lost 83-74 to No.

12 Ohio State less than 24 hours earlier.

The Illini were one of three teams to fall out of Mondays rankings, joining Alabama and Louisville.

That allowed Tennessee, North Carolina State and Georgia Tech to join the Top 25.

Illinois best win a season-opening home victory against Florida State is still a Quad II win with the Seminoles outside the Top 25 in the NET rankings at No.

30.

Who to watch Connecticut and Notre Dame renew their storied rivalry at 6 p.m.

on Thursday (ESPN) at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend, Ind., in what is a Top 10 matchup.

The Irish (7-2) moved up to No.

8 after an 80-70 home win in overtime against Texas, while the second-ranked Huskies (8-0) already have two wins against current AP Top 25 teams.

Injuries have been a talking point this season for coach Niele Iveys Notre Dame team.

But Hannah Hidalgo has been brilliant for the Irish in averaging 24.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists..

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