Michigan moved up to sixth place in Monday’s The Associated Press women’s basketball poll, their highest ranking ever.
South Carolina was the No. South Carolina remained the No. 1 team in the poll. It received 29 of the 30 first place votes from a national media panel, beating Vanderbilt (then-No. 24 Mississippi and Florida. The other top vote went to the third-ranked North Carolina State. Stanford remained at No. 2.
Louisville moved up to the fourth spot.
The Wolverines have a busy week with games against Indiana, No. 5 and Iowa. 21 Iowa in the following seven days.
Michigan, which was not in the Top 10 prior to this season, hosted Hoosiers on Monday night in a matchup between two of the best Big Ten teams. COVID-19 protocols have allowed Indiana to play its first game since Jan. 16.
Kim Barnes Arico, Michigan coach, said that “they haven’t played for a while so we’re going prepare for everyone.” “It’s so interesting in COVID that you don’t even know who’s going.
After the No. 1 ranking, both teams moved up one spot. Last week, 4 Tennessee lost to Auburn. The Lady Vols finished seventh. Auburn won the match against a top five team for the first time since 1997’s SEC Tournament. Tennessee will host Arkansas on Monday, before facing Florida on Thursday and UConn rival on Sunday.
The top 10 were completed by UConn, Baylor, and Arizona.
Ole Miss and Duke were eliminated from the Top 25, while Florida Gulf Coast was ranked 22nd and North Carolina 24th, respectively.
MILESTONE
Kim Mulkey , LSU’s coach, earned her 650th win with Sunday’s victory over Kentucky. She is now the fastest coach in both men’s and ladies’ basketball to achieve that milestone. Her record at Baylor and LSU is 650-108, with 18-4 this season.
600 CLUB
Karl Smesko, Florida Gulf Coast coach, needs just one win to reach 600 wins in his career. FGCU defeated its conference rivals last week, and is now 19-1 in the season. Princeton was the only loss. The Eagles have been able to do it without their star player Kierstan Bell. She had surgery last week to fix a partially torn meniscus. They expect her to be back in March. Bell, who averages 23.4 points per game, already indicated that she would enter the WNBA draft in March.
GAME DURING THE WEEK
No. 19 Oregon at No. 8 Arizona, Friday. Arizona lost by a double-digit margin to Oregon in the first meeting earlier this month. It should be a fun match.
