Stanford University coach Tara Vandelbier tied the late Pat Summitt for the most appearances in women’s basketball polls by the Associated Press.
VanDerveer’s Cardinals stayed in second place behind top-ranked South Carolina on Monday, spending a week with one of the AP Top 25 teams. When she was in charge of that program, she spent 592 weeks at Stanford and 27 weeks at Ohio State, her 618 weeks at Summitt in the polls were all from Tennessee.
The Hall of Fame coach downplayed the achievement.
“I’m lucky to have been here for 36 years. We have great players and we’ve had success,” VanDerveer said. “I don’t pay attention[to the record]. People bring it up and I’m like, ‘OK, great.’
Louisville has been out of the top 25 for 127 weeks for the first time since 2016. This was his fifth longest active streak. The Cardinals (5-4) started the season in seventh place and have struggled to find consistency this year, dropping their final two games to Ohio and Central Tennessee.
They are the third preseason top 10 team to fall out of the ballot, joining Texas (this week) and Tennessee (last week). After 1994-95 when the AP Top 25 was voted on by reporters, only 10 of the preseason top 10 teams were out of the rankings until this year.
Even more unusual is the dropout of the top five preseason schools. He had only five teams do it earlier this year, and none until January. Tennessee did it last, falling out of the rankings on February 22 after starting the 2015-16 season in his No. 4 spot.
Both Texas and Tennessee are now out before New Years.
“There are two factors at play here. One of them is more parity with better teams,” said former UConn star, ESPN analyst and top 25 voter Rebecca. says Lobo. “Another factor is the transfer portal. It reflects that you can’t count on being a team, and I think by the end of the season all these teams will be on the ballot.”
Ohio moved up to No. 3, the Buckeyes’ highest ranking since November 30, 2009. Indiana and Notre Dame round out the top five.
UConn dropped three spots to No. 6, while Virginia Tech moved to No. 7, the highest ranking for any school. North Carolina and North Carolina tied for her for eighth, and Iowa for tenth.
Ranked Razorback
Arkansas (10-0) entered the poll in 21st place. The Razorbacks are having a difficult month with a game against No. 18 Clayton and a tournament in San Diego that includes Oregon, South Florida and Ohio.
“I think we know a lot about our team,” Arkansas coach Mike Neighbors said.
He was also pleased that his team took the vote, as all the sports teams that played on campus this year were ranked, including soccer, men’s basketball, soccer, and cross-country.
“We didn’t want to be the team to stop that streak,” he said.
Falling Louisville
The Cardinals have been ranked every week since January 11, 2016. That was the same season they started the year in 8th place before dropping out on November 30th. It wasn’t until last week that the top 10 teams dropped out of the ballot. Things got better in Louisville as the Cardinals finished that regular season 24-6 and went 15-1 in the ACC.
historic week
With Louisville, Texas and Tennessee in the top 25, it’s only the second time in the poll’s history that those three teams didn’t make the list. The only other time was the 1976 first-ever poll.
come and go
Oklahoma and Kansas also returned to the top 25 this week, coming in at 23rd and 24th. Marquette dropped out after losing to Seton Hall.
AP Sports writer Janie McCauley contributed to this article.
AP Top 25
1. South Carolina (29 first-place votes)
2. Stanford
3. Ohio
4. Indiana
5. Notre Dame
6.UConn
7. Virginia Tech
8. North Carolina
9.NC state
10. Iowa
11.LSU
12. Arizona
13. UCLA
14. Michigan
15. Utah
16. Iowa
17. Oregon
18. Clayton
19. Baylor
20. Maryland
21. Arkansas
22. Gonzaga
23. Oklahoma
24. Kansas
25. Villanova
Other Votes: Kansas 37th, Marquette 30th, Louisville 28th, Texas 17th, St. Johns 14th, South Florida 12th, Miami, Florida 12th, Virginia 8th, Duke 5th, Florida State 4th, Rice 4th, Purdue 3rd, Nebraska 2nd Missouri 2, Seton Hall 1, Middle Tennessee 1
AP Sports writer Janie McCauley contributed to this article.
— Doug Feinberg, AP Basketball Writer
