After its best start in school history, Illinois cracked the Associated Press’ top 25 women’s basketball poll for the first time in 23 years on Monday.
The Illini (14-3) ranks 24th in their first Top 25 appearances since November 27, 2000. This has been a remarkable turnaround under his coach Shauna Green in his first year. Last season he went 7-20 with the team, and he was just 1-13 in the Big Ten. Illinois has not had a winning season since his 2012-13.
“It means a lot. You realize how far we’ve come in a really short amount of time,” said Green, who came to Illinois after successful running coaching in Dayton. “Most of my kids weren’t alive when they were last ranked. I was in my sophomore year of college.”
South Carolina remained the #1 team, receiving all 28 votes from the National Media Panel. Gamecocks has been number one for his 29th consecutive week. Stanford and Ohio State followed in the polls, beating out Illinois on Sunday.
UConn moves up one spot to 4th place. The Huskies postponed their game against DePaul on Sunday with only his six scholarship players due to injuries.
LSU moved up two spots to fifth place. It’s the first time the Tigers have scored this high since his fifth-place finish on December 14, 2009. LSU (16-0) got off to the best start in school history and surpassed the mark his team held in 2002-03 when he won his first 15 games.
South Carolina, Ohio, and LSU are the only teams remaining undefeated in the country. The Gamecocks and Tigers will face him on February 12th in South Carolina.
Indiana, Notre Dame, UCLA, Maryland and Utah rounded out the top 10. The Utes lost their first game of the season last Friday to Colorado State.
The Illini, who haven’t played in the NCAA Tournament since 2003, suffered a 14-game losing streak to Northwestern University last week. This gave Illinois the best start for the school with his 14 wins in his first 16 games. Its losses span Indiana, Ohio and Delaware.
“If you went to Ohio State in the summer when you were 17 and said you had a chance to win, you’d say you’re crazy,” Green said. It’s something we should be happy about. We’re proud of it. It should motivate us even more.”
Villanova also entered the polls again this week at number 25.
St. John’s and Creighton were out of the ballot.
rising bears
Baylor moved to 3-0 in the Big 12 after knocking off the then-no. Last week Oklahoma was his 17th and Kansas his 21st. Kaitlyn Bickle A big reason was that I recorded a double-double in both games. The Bears moved her up five spots to her 18th place in this week’s polls.
