No. 1 South Carolina women run AP Top 25 streak to 36 weeks

The Gamecocks ran their streak to 36 consecutive weeks atop The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll to match Louisiana Tech for the second-longest run in the history of the poll that dates to 1976.

South Carolina (29-0) finished the regular season unbeaten and was back to being a unanimous choice at No. 1 in national media poll released Monday. The Gamecocks only trail UConn (51 weeks) for the longest consecutive streak atop the Top 25.

“There’s definitely no relief” after their flawless regular season, South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston said. “Now, were into the season where winning is the only option.”

While the Gamecocks won both of their games last week and enter the SEC Tournament as the No. 1 seed, the rankings got a big reshuffling. The 15 ranked teams losing at least one game was by far the most Top 25 schools to lose in the same week this season; 11 had lost in the same week a few times earlier this season.

Indiana, which lost at the buzzer to then-No. 6 Iowa on Caitlin Clark’s 3-pointer on Sunday, remained No. 2. Utah jumped up five places to No. 3 after beating then-No. 3 Stanford to clinch a share of the Pac-12 title. It’s Utah’s best ranking ever. The Cardinal dropped to sixth.

LSU and Maryland rounded out the top five.

Iowa was seventh with Virginia Tech eighth. UConn fell five spots to ninth after losing to St. John’s. Notre Dame was 10th. The Irish lost guard Olivia Miles to a knee injury in Sunday’s win over Louisville.

Villanova jumped four places to 11th. It’s the Wildcats best ranking since the team finished the 2003 season in the same spot. Texas made the biggest improvement, climbing seven spots to 12th.

Most of the Power Five conferences enter tournament play this week. The Big 12 Tournament is next week ahead of Selection Sunday and the beginning of March Madness.

South Florida re-entered the Top 25 at No. 25 after winning 15 of its last 16 games. The Bulls have one conference game left, at Cincinnati on Wednesday. South Florida was ranked for two weeks earlier this season. Florida State dropped out of the rankings.

The Wildcats dropped seven places to No. 21 after losing at Oregon and Oregon State over the weekend. Arizona is 12-3 at home but 7-5 on the road.