Women’s Basketball Coaches Poll: Alabama Crimson Tide has surprising ranking

Here’s where the Crimson Tide rank after their first loss in conference play.

The Alabama Crimson Tide women’s basketball team suffered an 84-40 blowout loss in Austin to the Texas Longhorns last week before rebounding for an 84-78 win over Ole Miss on Sunday.

As it turns out, Alabama’s first loss in SEC play didn’t effect its ranking in the USA TODAY Sports Women’s Basketball Coaches Poll. The Crimson Tide (16-2 overall, 3-1 SEC) were ranked No. 19 in Tuesday’s new poll, the same ranking as last week. Kristy Curry’s team also placed No. 19 in the new AP Top 25 poll, released Monday.

Alabama will face Dawn Staley’s second-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks (16-1) in Coleman Coliseum Thursday night at 6 p.m. CT. The game can be seen on ESPN+/SEC Network+.

The UCLA Bruins remained atop the coaches poll for the seventh consecutive week after improving to 16-0. Behind South Carolina at No. 2, Notre Dame (14-2) stayed at No. 3 with Kim Mulkey’s LSU Tigers (19-0) at No. 4 and JuJu Watkins and USC (16-1) at No. 5.

The SEC had seven teams in the Top 25. In addition to South Carolina and LSU, Texas was also ranked in the top 10 at No. 7. The Kentucky Wildcats (15-1) rose four spots to No. 11 after their eighth straight win. Oklahoma (14-3) dropped two spots to No. 13, while the Tennessee Lady Vols (15-1) remained at No. 15.

Full Week 11 USA TODAY Sports Women’s Basketball Coaches Poll

Rank School Record Points
1 UCLA 16-0 750 (30)
2 South Carolina 16-1 717
3 Notre Dame 14-2 679
4 LSU 19-0 654
5 USC 16-1 643
6 UConn 15-2 557
7 Texas 16-2 557
8 Ohio State 16-0 535
9 Maryland 15-1 533
10 Kansas State 17-1 488
11 TCU 17-1 465
12 Kentucky 15-1 386
13 Oklahoma 14-3 376
14 North Carolina 15-3 349
15 Tennessee 14-2 320
16 Duke 13-4 297
17 Georgia Tech 15-2 237
18 Cal 16-2 212
19 Alabama 16-2 188
20 West Virginia 13-3 186
21 NC State 12-4 165
22 Michigan State 13-3 108
23 Utah 13-3 92
24 Baylor 14-3 68
25 Minnesota 16-1 49

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