Dawn Staley and South Carolina picked up right where they left off: No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll.
The defending national champion Gamecocks were the unanimous choice of the 30-member national media panel in the preseason poll released Tuesday. It’s the third consecutive season South Carolina is the preseason favorite.
“This is where we wanted to be and envisioned for our program,” Staley said. “I got to give it to our players. We constantly get some of the best players in the country. They put us in this position as they work extremely hard. I don’t know if they come in and say i want to be the No. 1 team in the country, but they do say they want to be national champions. This is a step to being a national champion.”
Stanford, Texas, Iowa and Tennessee round out the top five teams in the preseason poll. It is Iowa’s best ranking since 1994 when the Hawkeyes were also fourth in midseason.
“It makes no difference in March what we’re ranked in October, but certainly I want my team to have confidence and be proud of what they’ve accomplished. Iowa is on the map,” coach Lisa Bluder said. “We’ll celebrate it and then forgot about it.”