The Arizona Wildcats will open the 2021-22 season ranked in the AP’s Top 25.
The UA was listed 22nd when the first poll of the season was released Tuesday, six months after making their first-ever Final Four and appearing in the national championship game.
Five Pac-12 teams made the poll: defending national champion Stanford is third, Oregon is 10th, Oregon State is 14th and UCLA is 20th. Two of the teams that Arizona will face in nonconference play — No. 6 Louisville and No. 25 Texas — are also ranked.
Arizona’s ranking among its Pac-12 peers — fifth — is in line with where it the Wildcats were picked to finish in the league during last week’s preseason poll.
Dawn Staley and South Carolina are back in a familiar spot: No. 1. It’s the second consecutive season that the Gamecocks are the preseason favorite.
“With who we brought back and who added for this season, we knew we would start out among the hunted, and it’s something that our program is getting used to,” said Staley, who is going into her 14th season as South Carolina coach. “Watching practice every day, I can see that we have the pieces and the competitive fire to reach all of our goals. We have a few more weeks to put those pieces together into a cohesive, successful team that can live up to this preseason ranking.”
The Gamecocks received 14 of the 29 first-place votes from a national media panel. UConn was second, garnering 10 first-place ballots. It’s the 15th consecutive season that the Huskies were among the top five teams in the preseason.
Indiana is No. 8, the school’s highest ranking ever in women’s basketball. There’s a lot of excitement around Bloomington, with all five starters returning from a team that went to the Elite Eight last year (where the Hoosiers lost to UA) and had its sixth straight 20-win season.
Michigan also tied its best ranking ever, coming in at No. 11. The Wolverines return three starters, including Naz Hillmon, from the squad that lost to Baylor in overtime in the Sweet 16 last season.
There are high expectations in Iowa this year: The Hawkeyes are No. 9 and Iowa State is No. 12.
Iowa, led by star guard Caitlin Clark, has its its highest preseason ranking since the team was sixth in 1996.
Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly has a bulk of his starting five back, including Ashley Joens and Lexi Donarski. It’s the team’s best ranking in the preseason since 2001, when the Cyclones were eighth.
The only non-Power Five team in the poll is No. 21 South Florida out of the American Athletic Conference.
