South Carolina women's basketball nearly reclaims throne atop AP rankings
South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley said earlier this season that she felt her team wins and loses “at the time [they] need to” do so. When the Gamecocks lost back-to-back Sunday contests against Texas and UConn in February, many didn’t believe Staley’s words. However, with a blowout victory over the Longhorns to claim the SEC Tournament title on Sunday, it’s now hard to argue with the USC boss.
The 64-45 victory gave South Carolina their third straight season with a completed SEC Championship sweep. In 2022-2023, 2023-2024, and 2024-2025, the Gamecocks earned both the SEC regular season and tournament titles.
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As it turned out, Carolina also earned a little bit more on Sunday.
When the AP poll updated its rankings on Monday, the Gamecocks nearly reclaimed the top spot. After rankings 5th in last week’s Associated Press ranking, USC took over the No. 2 spot. Rounding out the top 5 spots are the UCLA Bruins (1st) and then the UConn Huskies (3rd), Southern Cal Trojans (4th), and Texas Longhorns (5th).
You can see the entire AP top 25 rankings below (first-place votes also in parentheses):
- UCLA Bruins (16)
- South Carolina Gamecocks (9)
- UConn Huskies (7)
- Southern Cal Trojans
- Texas Longhorns
- TCU Horned Frogs
- Duke Blue Devils
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- NC State Wolfpack
- LSU Tigers
- Oklahoma Sooners
- North Carolina Tar Heels
- Kentucky Wildcats
- Baylor Bears
- Ohio State Buckeyes
- West Virginia Mountaineers
- Oklahoma State Cowboys
- Maryland Terrapins
- Kansas State Wildcats
- Tennessee Lady Volunteers
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Creighton Blue Jays
- Florida State Seminoles
- South Dakota State Jackrabbits
- Ole Miss Rebels
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This week, South Carolina will not play. In fact, no women’s basketball teams will see the floor after some smaller conference tourneys complete their championship tournaments early this week.
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This year’s Selection Sunday is on March 16th. Fans can tune in to see how the committee places the Gamecocks on ESPN (also via streaming on the ESPN app) starting at 8:00 p.m.
South Carolina’s strong run through the conference tournament all but secured the team’s status as an NCAA Tournament No. 1-seed. However, the Gamecocks have a real chance of being March Madness’ overall No. 1, as well. They also should wind up as the top seed in one of the two Birmingham brackets, allowing USC FAMs to stay closer to home in support of their favorite team. Carolina will play its first two NCAA Tournament games (the second coming if they win the first-round game as expected) at home at Colonial Life Arena before moving out to Birmingham.
