Women's ballot breakdown | Illinois vaults into AP Top 25

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.

Notre Dame (16) 23-2 733 2 2.

Texas (8) 26-2 718 3 3.

UCLA (6) 24-1 694 1 4.

Southern Cal 23-2 668 6 5.

Connecticut 24-3 632 7 6.

South Carolina 23-3 599 4 7.

LSU 25-2 569 5 8.

Ohio State 22-3 499 9 9.

North Carolina 23-4 475 12 10.

TCU 24-3 472 11 11.

Duke 20-6 444 13 12.

Kansas State 24-4 420 14 13.

N.C State 20-5 411 10 14.

Kentucky 20-4 378 8 15.

Tennessee 19-6 354 15 16.

Oklahoma 19-6 327 16 17.

West Virginia 21-5 190 18 18.

Alabama 21-5 187 21 19.

Baylor 22-5 154 25 20.

Georgia Tech 21-5 136 19 21.

Maryland 20-6 133 17 22.

Michigan State 19-6 131 22 23.

Creighton 21-4 96 24 24.

Oklahoma State 20-5 90 20 25.

Illinois 21-5 53 NR Others receiving votes: California 48, Utah 43, Louisville 28, South Dakota State 17, Florida State 16, Richmond 10, Michigan 10, Mississippi 10, James Madison 2, Vanderbilt 2, Harvard 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 15th regular-season ballot of the 2024-25 season shook out: RK., TEAM PREV.

1.

Notre Dame 2 2.

Southern Cal 4 3.

UCLA 1 4.

Texas 3 5.

Connecticut 7 6.

LSU 5 7.

Ohio State 8 8.

South Carolina 4 9.

North Carolina 11 10.

North Carolina State 10 11.

TCU 14 12.

Duke 12 13.

Kentucky 9 14.

Kansas State 13 15.

Tennessee 15 16.

Oklahoma 16 17.

Alabama 21 18.

Baylor 24 19.

Illinois 22 20.

West Virginia 19 21.

Creighton NR 22.

Georgia Tech 18 23.

Michigan State 25 24.

Maryland 17 25.

Utah NR Whos up Illinois.

Shauna Greens program had been knocking on the door of a Top 25 spot the past few weeks.

But the Illini finally cracked the AP rankings on Monday, moving into the Top 25 for the first time since the Dec.

9 poll.

Illinois has been on The N-Gs Top 25 ballot the last three times with a current program-record eight-game Big Ten winning streak that has moved the Illini from near the NCAA tournament bubble to all but clinching a place in the field of 68.

Now, the Illini will try to improve their March Madness seeding and avoid a First Four game, like two seasons ago, when Illinois return trip to the NCAA tournament lost some of its luster with a quick exit against Mississippi State.

Whos down South Carolina.

It wasnt just that the Gamecocks lost on Sunday at home to Connecticut.

Its how the reigning NCAA champions lost.

The Huskies ended South Carolinas 71-game home winning streak in emphatic fashion, with an 87-58 victory over coach Dawn Staley and her Gamecocks.

It was enough for UConn to vault past South Carolina in the NET rankings and take over the No.

1 spot despite the Gamecocks having 10 Quad I wins, six more than the Huskies.

What looked like a South Carolina team poised to firmly grab a No.

1 seed seems less certain now after a road loss to Texas and Sundays no-show against UConn.

Who to watch Whether Notre Dame can hold onto its No.

1 ranking.

That the Irish are the new No.

1, their first top ranking in six years, will be tested this week after they collected 16 first-place votes (Texas had the second-most with eight).

Notre Dame started off with a 64-49 victory against No.

11 Duke on Monday night in South Bend, Ind.

But thats one of three ACC games for the Irish in the span of seven days with trips to Miami (6 p.m., Thursday, ACC Network) and No.

13 North Carolina State (11 a.m., Sunday, ESPN) to follow for coach Niele Ivey, star guard Hannah Hidalgo and Co., as Notre Dame aims to extend its 18-game winning streak..

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