UConn drops to No. 11 in AP Poll
After 13 straight wins, including nine in the Big East, UConn women’s basketball’s weaknesses were finally exposed.
And it didn’t help that it was against one of the program’s longtime foes and on a night where the Huskies honored four of their national championship teams.
“Today we weren’t, for whatever reason, we just were not on the same page tonight,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said after Saturday’s
loss to Notre Dame. “And people have bad games, people have bad shooting nights, bad communication nights and Notre Dame looks like a national championship team against us . ... It’s basketball, you know.”
The loss drops UConn (17-4) out of the top 10 for the first time since Jan. 1. In Monday’s latest AP Top 25 Poll the Huskies fell three spots to No. 11.
South Carolina defeated LSU in Baton Rouge to remain No. 1, but a handful of top-ranked teams were upset last week and saw their rankings drop in the poll.
Former No. 2 UCLA fell five spots to No. 7 after losses to Washington State and Utah last week. Colorado also fell three spots to No. 6 following a loss at then-No. 25 Oregon State.
The new top five teams are, in order, South Carolina (19-0), Kansas State (20-1), Iowa (19-2), Stanford (19-2) and NC State (18-2).
While not ranked among the top 25 teams, Fairfield (17-1) received 13 votes in the ‘Others Receiving Votes’ category.
Marquette also received seven votes.
Creighton joins UConn as the lone Big East teams in the poll. The BlueJays fell one spot to No. 22 despite wins over Georgetown and Seton Hall.
The Huskies have less than two weeks until their final non-conference matchup of the regular season: a Feb. 11th road game at top-ranked South Carolina.
UConn will next play at Villanova on Wednesday (6:30 p.m. on SNY) before hosting St. John’s in Storrs on Sunday at 3 p.m.