Guru’s AP WBB Poll Triva: Historic Highs and Lows in Preseason Vote

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

The Associated Press Women’s Basketball Poll launching the 2019-20 season and released at noon Wednesday from the organization’s New York headquarters can be called one of the more significant ones of the entire 769 weekly rankings dating to November, 1976.

 

That’s when the first one was birthed out of The Philadelphia Inquirer in the nation’s bicentennial city that year initially as a Top 20 list until the rankings expanded in the early 1990s to a Top 25.

 

 Coaches made up the voting panel through 1993-94 and then It became determined by a media representative panel.

 

The 28 members who have produced the 44^th preseason rankings have made it historical as a new breed has broken through to reach the top while several traditional powers have been removed from what  have been the loftiest of heights.

 

For the first time ever in both the preseason and overall voting Oregon is No. 1 coming a year after starting third which was the first time the Ducks had ever landed inside the penthouse district of the Top 5.

 

Oregon is the third Pac-12 team to reach No. 1 behind Stanford and Southern Cal, though the Trojans in the Cheryl Miller era of the 1980s played in another conference prior to what was then the Pac-10 opening up competition for women several years after the NCAA began women’s championship events in 1981-82. 

 

Meanwhile, Tennessee, which missed the very first poll, had not been absent from any preseason tally in the ensuing 42 since then until Wednesday. The Lady Vols were in the 11^th spot a year ago.

 

Another giant that toppled from the heights though still hanging on is Notre Dame which claimed the No. 1 spot 12 months ago on the heels of the Irish’s second national title

 

 However, after barely missing a chance to take Baylor into overtime to continue to attenpt to add a second straight trophy, Hall of Fame coach Muffet McGraw lost all five starters to graduation and the WNBA draft.

 

Ranked 16^th following the previous launch position makes it the deepest plunge any team has taken between the two preseason rankings.

 

As for Connecticut, the record 11-time NCAA champs who own almost all the AP Poll glamor achievements, including a dominant total of 242 No. 1 rankings to Tennessee’s runner-up total of 112, find themselves in a spot that would thrill almost anyone else.

 

But not necessarily the Huskies, who are still in the Top 5 but in the last berth of that group at fifth, the lowest start since being ranked eighth at the outset of the 2006-07 season. 

 

In the 13 initial voting totals since then UConn was fourth in the 2011-12 preseason poll and no lower than third through the new preseason ranking.

 

Starting fifth is precarious from a stat standpoint in that the Huskies with what are now 186 straight appearances in a subset are the only team to be no lower than fifth the entire decade, which also makes then perfect in Top 10 totals.

 

The only other time since well into the previous decade the Huskies hit fifth was near the end of last season. There are eight more polls until January when the first rollout of the new 2020 decade balloting begins.

 

This is Connecticut’s 490^th straight ranking.

 

Notre Dame’s plunge from an overall perspective snaps a streak of 163 straight Top 10 rankings dating to holding 11^thon January 17^th 2011.

 

Other teams in the upper slots held onto their profiles with veterans returning.

 

Baylor, whose Lauren Cox is a leading national player of the year candidate along with Oregon’s triple double diva Sabrina Ionescu, is ranked second picking up three first place ballots behind Oregon’s other 25.

 

Stanford and Maryland with loaded rosters are fourth and fifth.

 

Texas A& M, picked by the SEC  coaches to win the conference, is in the high ground again at sixth while Oregon State, the geographical and conference rival to Oregon is seventh.

 

 A strong recruiting class made 2017 NCAA champion South Carolina the conference choice of the SEC media and Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks are also back with the poll elite while ACC-favorite Louisville is ninth and Mississippi State, which spent more time previously in the top five, is 10^th.

 

The next five are UCLA, Florida State, Kentucky, North Carolina State, and Texas.

 

Notre Dame at the aforementioned 16^th spot followed by Michigan State, Big East favorite DePaul, Miami and Arizona State round out the Top 20 with DePaul and Miami tied at 18^th.

 

The remaining five are Syracuse, Arkansas, and a Big Ten trio of Minnesota, Indiana and Michigan. 

 

Arkansas, coached by Mike Neighbors who guided Washington in the recent Kelsey Plum era, made a run in the SEC tournament and is in a renaissance mode in making the Razorbacks’ first preseason AP ranking since 2002-03 and first overall since Dec. 1, 2014.

 

The Big East with DePaul and American with UConn in its final year before re-joining the Big East are the only two non-power five groups with reps though the Big 12 has just Baylor and Texas.

 

The ACC leads the way with six teams and five each are from the SEC, Big Ten, and Pac-12.

 

Missing from last year’s final poll are Iowa and Marquette, who were ranked all season, and Iowa State and Gonzaga who joined near the midway point, and C-USA champion Rice, which was in the last five polls..

 

Oregon coach Kelly Graves, who had previously made Gonzaga nationally relevant alongside the Zags men’s team, went on to take the Ducks to their first Women’s Final Four in Tampa, where they extended eventual champion Baylor to the closing minute of the semifinal.

 

After the game, star guard Sabrina Ionescu declared she would forego another year before going pro in the WNBA, to rejoin a seasoned roster that bolstered the overwhelming No. 1 choice.

 

Though the legendary and late Tennessee coach Pat Summitt missed the first poll, she became the all-time regular appearing in the next 92 before a four week absence occurred.

 

The consistency returned until a 10-week drought occurred in 1984-85 after leading the Olympic team to the gold medal in Los Angeles the previous summer.

 

This week’s non-ranking has Tennessee matching the program drought dubious record, though new coach and former Lady Vol star Kellie Harper is charged with just this one.

 

The previous nine closing out last season were under former Vol Holly Warlick, Summitt’s longtime assistant who took over after Summitt’s resignation in 2012 to battle Alzheimer’s Disease.

 

Sunmitt finished with 618 appearances, missing only 15 polls, far ahead of Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer and UConn’s Geno Auriemma, who breaks a tie with retired Georgia coach Andy Landers at third with 523 rankings.

 

When Warlick took over she went on to gain 109 rankings but most were at the back end of the marathon under Summitt that finally ended after 32 seasons at 565 from February 1985 until February 2016.

 

It became bumpy after that and when paired with the inability to get back to the Final Four, though that drought started under Summitt, Warlick was dismissed at the end of last season.

 

XXXX

 

Current Streaks of Women’s Teams in This Week’s AP Women’s Poll – Oct. 30, 2019

Preseason

 

1-490 Weeks Connecticut across 26 seasons began Preseason 1993-94

2-300 Weeks Baylor across 16 seasons began January 5, 2004

3-233 Weeks Notre Dame across 11 seasons began Preseason 2007-08

4-175 Weeks Maryland across 9 seasons began Preseason 2010-11

5-129 Weeks South Carolina across 7 seasons began Dec. 10, 2012

 

6-95 Weeks Mississippi State across 5 seasons began Nov. 24, 2014

7-76 Weeks Texas across 4 seasons began Preseason 2015-16

8-69 Weeks Louisville across 4 seasons began January 11 2016

9-52 Weeks Oregon State across 3 seasons began December 19 2016

10-40 Weeks Oregon across two seasons began preseason 2017-18

 

11-28 Weeks Stanford across two seasons began week 13 of 2017-18

12-27 Weeks N. Caro. St. across two seasons began week 14 of 2017-18

13 Tie — 21 weeks Syracuse began preseason 2018-19

13 Tie — 21 weeks Arizona State began preseason 2018-19

15 – 18 weeks Kentucky began week 4 of 2018-19 

 

16 Tie – 10 weeks Florida State began week 12 of 2018-19

16 Tie – 10 weeks Texas A&M began week 12 of 2018-19

18 — 8 weeks Miami began week 14 of 2018-19 

19 – 5 weeks UCLA began week 17 of 2018-19

20 – 2 weeks DePaul began final poll of 2018-19

 

21 Tie — 1 week Arkansas began preseason poll of 2019-20

21 Tie — 1 week Indiana began preseason poll of 2019-20

21 Tie — 1 week Michigan began preseason poll of 2019-20

21 Tie — 1 week Michigan State began preseason poll of 2019-20

21 Tie — 1 week Minnesota began preseason poll of 2019-20

 

Recent Departed Major Streaks Primarily Previous Three Seasons

 

xx. Tennessee 565 weeks. Began Feb. 17, 1985 after 10-wk drought and ran across 32 seasons ending on 2/15/16.

xx. Duke 312 weeks. Began week 3 11/29/99 and runs across 17 seasons ending 1/11/2016.

xx. 312 Weeks Stanford across 17 seasons began Preseason 2001-02 ending 12/17/2017.

xx. Texas A&M 134 weeks. Began 11/16/09 2^nd week and runs across 7 seasons ending final poll 2015-16.

xx. Kentucky 132 weeks. Began feb. 1 2010 and runs across 8 seasons ending 1/2/2017.

xx. 59 Weeks Ohio State across 4 seasons began March 9 2015 ending final poll 2018

xx. 35 Weeks Duke across 3 seasons began December 5 2016 ending preseason poll 2019

 

Gone from final poll 2018-19 – Iowa and Marquette who went 20 weeks wire to wire last streaks.

Gonzaga last 16 weeks. Iowa State last 12 weeks. Rice last five weeks.

 

Total Preseason Appearances (44 is max.)

(113 Teams Listed)

Tennessee	42
Texas	35
Georgia	33
Maryland	32
Stanford	32
Connecticut	30
Louisiana Tech	27
Penn St.	25
Rutgers	25
Duke	24
LSU	23
North Caro.	23
Vanderbilt	23
North Caro. St.	22
Notre Dame	22
Old Dominion	20
Purdue	20
Baylor	19
Ohio St.	19
Virginia	19
Southern Cal	18
Oklahoma	17
Auburn	16
Iowa	16
Mississippi U.	16
Texas Tech	15
UCLA	15
Long Beach St.	14
South Carolina	14
DePaul	13
Kansas	13
Kentucky	13
Steph. F. Austin	13
Texas A&M	13
Arizona St.	12
Louisville	12
Western Ky.	12
California	10
Geo. Wash.	10
Michigan St.	10
Colorado	9
Florida St.	9
Oregon	9
Washington	9
Alabama	8
Kansas St.	8
Arkansas	7
Iowa St.	7
Mississippi St.	7
Oregon St.	7
Florida	6
Miami	6
Missouri	6
UNLV	6
West Virginia	6
Arizona	5
Cheyney	5
Minnesota	5
Oklahoma St.	5
St. Joseph's	5
Syracuse	5
UC Santa Barb.	5
Clemson	4
Nebraska	4
San Diego St.	4
Tennessee Tech	4
Wisconsin	4
Boston College	3
Delta St.	3
Drake	3
Illinois	3
Marquette	3
Michigan	3
Missouri St.	3
Montclair St.	3
Northwestern	3
Queens	3
South Florida	3
Southern Conn.	3
St. John's	3
Utah	3
Wayland Baptist	3
Xavier	3
Colorado St.	2
Dayton	2
Georgetown	2
Georgia Tech	2
Immaculata	2
Indiana	2
La.-Monroe	2
Mercer	2
TCU	2
Valdosta St.	2
BYU	1
Cal-St. Fullerton	1
Chattanooga	1
Cincinnati	1
Delaware	1
Florida Intl.	1
Gonzaga	1
Iliinois St.	1
James Madison	1
Lamar	1
Middle Tenn.	1
Mississippi Coll.	1
New Mexico	1
Pittsburgh	1
Seton Hall	1
Southern Ill.	1
Temple	1
Tulane	1
Virginia Tech	1
William Penn	1

Total Top 10 Preseason Appearances

 (64 Teams Listed)

Tennessee	37
Connecticut	27
Stanford	25
Georgia	21
Louisiana Tech	20
Duke	17
Texas	17
Maryland	15
Baylor	13
Notre Dame	13
LSU	11
North Caro.	11
Old Dominion	11
Long Beach St.	10
Ohio St.	10
Rutgers	10
Virginia	10
Louisville	9
Penn St.	9
Purdue	9
Auburn	8
UCLA	8
Iowa	7
North Caro. St.	7
South Carolina	7
Southern Cal	7
Vanderbilt	7
Oklahoma	5
Texas Tech	5
Cheyney	4
Mississippi St.	4
Mississippi U.	4
Steph. F. Austin	4
Texas A&M	4
Western Ky.	4
Alabama	3
Delta St.	3
Iowa St.	3
Kansas St.	3
Kentucky	3
Oregon St.	3
Wayland Baptist	3
Arkansas	2
California	2
Immaculata	2
La.-Monroe	2
Michigan St.	2
Montclair St.	2
Oregon	2
Cal-St. Fullerton	1
Florida	1
Florida St.	1
Georgetown	1
Illinois	1
Kansas	1
Mercer	1
Miami	1
Mississippi Coll.	1
Queens	1
St. Joseph's	1
Tennessee Tech	1
UNLV	1
William Penn	1
Xavier	1

Total Top 5 Preseason Appearances

(41 Teams Listed)

Tennessee	32
Connecticut	23
Louisiana Tech	15
Stanford	14
Georgia	12
Texas	10
Duke	9
Baylor	8
Maryland	7
Old Dominion	7
Notre Dame	6
South Carolina	6
LSU	5
Rutgers	5
Southern Cal	5
Auburn	4
Vanderbilt	4
Long Beach St.	3
North Caro.	3
Ohio St.	3
Oklahoma	3
Purdue	3
UCLA	3
Virginia	3
Wayland Baptist	3
Delta St.	2
Iowa	2
Kansas St.	2
Louisville	2
North Caro. St.	2
Oregon	2
Western Ky.	2
Alabama	1
Cal-St. Fullerton	1
Immaculata	1
La.-Monroe	1
Penn St.	1
Steph. F. Austin	1
Tennessee Tech	1
Texas A&M	1
Xavier	1

Total No. 1 Preseason Appearances

(La. Tech/Tennessee once tied)

(15 Teams Listed)

Connecticut	12
Tennessee	12
Louisiana Tech	3
Baylor	2
Duke	2
Notre Dame	2
Southern Cal	2
Stanford	2
Texas	2
Delta St.	1
Georgia	1
Maryland	1
Old Dominion	1
Oregon	1
Virginia	1