NEW YORK - When he took over as coach in 2014, Kelly Graves set out to establish Oregon as one of the elite teams in women's college basketball.
Coming off their first Final Four appearance, the Ducks are ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press poll for the first time in program history. Oregon, led by sensational guard Sabrina Ionescu, received 25 of the 28 first-place votes from the national media panel to grab the top spot in the preseason rankings released Wednesday.
"I think it validates our vision that we had going in here," Graves told the AP. "It validates the hard work from my staff that's been with me the whole journey. On this stage we had a better opportunity to be in position we now are."
Tennessee isn't ranked in the preseason for the first time since 1976, ending a 42-year streak dating to the beginning of the poll. The Lady Volunteers, whose remarkable run of 565 weeks overall in the poll ended in 2016, fell out of the rankings Jan. 14 this year and didn't return to the Top 25.
OFTEN AT THE TOP
Tennessee was not ranked Wednesday in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball preseason poll, which started in 1976, but no program has been No. 1 more often than the Lady Volunteers and Connecticut. Here are the all-time preseason No. 1-ranked teams by number of times in that spot.12: Connecticut (1996, 2000, ’02, ’04, ’09, ’10, ’11, ’14, ’15, ’16, ’18); Tennessee (1978, ’79, ’88, ’90, ’92, ’94, ’95, ’98, ’99, 2005, ’08).3: Louisiana Tech (1981, ’82, ’90)2: Baylor (2012, ’13); Duke (2003, ’06); Notre Dame (2017, ’19); Southern California (1983, ’84); Stanford (1993, ’97); Texas (1986, ’87).1: Delta State (1977); Georgia (1985); Maryland (2007); Old Dominion (1980); Oregon (2020); Virginia (1991).
The eight-time national champions had a change of leadership in the spring, bringing back former star Kellie Harper to coach the team after Holly Warlick's seven seasons ended without an NCAA tournament run that extended beyond the Elite Eight.
No. 2 Baylor, the reigning national champion, received the other three first-place votes. Stanford is ranked third, Maryland fourth and Connecticut fifth to continue a streak of top-five rankings that dates to January 2007 and is now at 239 consecutive weeks.
AP photo by John Locher / Oregon women's basketball coach Kelly Graves motions to his players during the first half of their Pac-12 tournament game against Arizona on March 8 in Las Vegas."That's nuts," Graves said of the Huskies' streak. "I think I'd be in my mid-70s by the time we reached that."
No. 6 Texas A&M has its best ranking since the Aggies were fifth on Dec. 29, 2014, and Oregon State, South Carolina, Louisville and Mississippi State complete the preseason top 10.
Graves knows no one tends to remember who was ranked first in October. He also believes his team, which was ranked third in the preseason last year, is mature enough to handle the pressure of being No. 1.
"I think it's really neat, and we're adult enough and smart enough to handle this," he said. "We've kept our heads down and continued to work. Stay humbled and hungry."
No. 16 Notre Dame, coming off two trips to the national championship game, is out of the top 10 for the first time since Jan. 17, 2011. Coach Muffet McGraw lost all five starters to the WNBA and two top reserves from last year transferred. It is the team's worst preseason ranking since the Fighting Irish were also ranked 16th in 2008.