Guru's AP WBB Poll Trivia: Team Current Streaks in This Week's Poll

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

With Connecticut quickly rising back to No. 1 in The Associated Press women’s basketball poll and likely to stay there through the rest of January and into early February until the next risk occurs when South Carolina visits, there is a sense of stagnation in the sport from some parts.

But with lots of non-game time until the next few days, the Guru has calculated all the current streak appearances in this week’s rankings and surprisingly 18 of them have streaks across only three seasons or less.

True, some of the teams are part of the all-timers who just jumped back aboard, but for the most part there are more newbies and seldom-ranked schools in recent seasons then the ones who used to dominate.

Notably missing, though likely back soon, is Tennessee, whose all-time streak of over 500 weeks went by the boards last season and now has fallen again since appearing at the outset of the 2016-17 edition.

Duke’s longtime run, one of the best-ever, ended last season but the Blue Devils are rolling again having returned in the last month.

So here is the list showing the best to worst but remember, not checked yet, but some teams like Maryland’s long run, might have some earlier streaks which are a bit better than their current ones.

Incidentally, this is week No. 719 in what is now a 41-year history and some teams that put up big numbers overall but not listed – current or yesteryear – are Louisiana Tech, Old Dominion, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Penn State, Rutgers, LSU, Purdue, Vanderbilt, Virginia, North Carolina State, Auburn, Iowa, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Southern Cal, Stephen F. Austin, Kansas, Michigan State, and Iowa State.

Current Appearance Streaks of the Women’s Teams in This Week’s AP Poll – Jan. 2, 2017

80 weeks or better
1. Connecticut 440 weeks across 23 seasons began Preseason 1993-94
2. Stanford 295 weeks across 16 seasons began Preseason 2001-02
3. Baylor 250 weeks across 13 seasons began January 5, 2004
4. Notre Dame 183 weeks across 10 seasons began Preseason 2007-08
5. Kentucky 132 weeks across 8 seasons began Feb. 1 2010
6. Maryland 125 weeks across 6 seasons began Preseason 2010-11
7. South Carolina 82 weeks across 5 seasons began Dec. 10 2012

20 weeks or better
8. Mississippi State 45 weeks across 3 seasons began Nov. 24, 2014
9. Weeks Florida State 38 weeks across 3 seasons began January 12 2015
10. Ohio State 30 weeks across 3 seasons began March 9 2015
11. (Tie) Oklahoma 28 weeks across 2 seasons began Preseason 2015-16
11. (Tie) Texas 28 weeks across 2 seasons began Preseason 2015-16
13. UCLA 24 weeks across 2 seasons began November 30 2015

10 weeks or better

14. (Tie) Louisville 19 weeks across 2 seasons began January 11 2016

14. (Tie) Miami 19 weeks across 2 seasons began January 11 2016
16. West Virginia 12 weeks across 2 seasons began February 29 2016

1-9 weeks
17. Washington 9 weeks across 1 season began Preseason 2016-17
18. (Tie) Duke 5 weeks across 1 season began December 5 2016
18. (Tie) South Florida 5 weeks across 1 season began December 5 2016
18. (Tie) Virginia Tech 5 weeks across 1 season began December 5 2016
21. Arizona State 4 weeks across 1 season began December 12 2016
22. Oregon State 3 weeks across 1 season began December 19 2016
23. California 2 weeks across 1 season began December 25 2016
24. (Tie) DePaul 1 week across 1 season began January 2 2017
24. (Tie) Kansas State 1 week across 1 season began January 2 2017