Iowa State women rocket into Top 25
January 28, 1998
Tennessee remained a unanimous No. 1 Monday in The Associated Press women’s basketball poll, which underwent a massive revision in the other 24 spots.
Only two other teams held the positions they occupied a week ago after 16 ranked teams, including eight in the Top Ten, lost during the last seven days.
Some many teams were beaten that Vanderbilt lost to Tennessee by 32 points and climbed three places.
The major changes included:
—Iowa State getting ranked for the first time and Hawaii making its first Top 25 appearance in more than four years.
—Duke zooming from 24th to 13th after beating three ranked teams in a week.
—Stanford returning to the Top Ten for the first time since early in the season.
—Nebraska and Purdue dropping out.
Tennessee (21-0) overwhelmed DePaul 125-46 before beating Vanderbilt and received all 39 first-place votes from a national media panel. The Lady Vols have been No. 1 all season and have been unanimous in all but the first two polls.
Connecticut (19-1) moved from third to second after three more lopsided wins that included a 93-72 victory over Old Dominion, which dropped one place to third.
Louisiana Tech held on at No. 4 after beating Penn State by 30 and losing at Western Kentucky by two and Texas Tech remained fifth despite losing at Iowa State. The Lady Raiders bounced back to beat Kansas four days later.
North Carolina, up five spots, and Vanderbilt were tied for sixth and Illinois fell two places to eighth after losing to Indiana. Stanford climbed four spots to ninth and Arizona, which lost to Oregon and beat Oregon State, went from seventh to 10th.
Stanford, a Final Four team the last three years, started the season ranked fourth then fell low as 18th after losing three of its first four. But the Cardinal (10-5) have won eight of their last nine and once again look to be the team to beat in the Pac-10.
Utah, which made the poll for the first time only three weeks ago, climbed three places to 11th. Then it was North Carolina State, Duke, Florida and Western Kentucky, followed by Virginia, Georgia, Washington, Florida International and Wisconsin.
Clemson, Stephen F. Austin, Hawaii, Iowa State and Southwest Missouri State held the final five places.
Hawaii (16-1), which has lost only to Iowa State, made the Top 25 for the first time since the week of Jan. 4, 1994, when it was 21st. The Rainbow Wahine have won 12 straight since their loss.
Iowa State (16-3) lost at Missouri 59-57 in overtime on Saturday, but the Cyclones’ 82-73 victory over Texas Tech earlier in the week earned them enough attention to break into the Top 25 for the first time.
The ranking came in coach Bill Fennelly’s third season on the job. Iowa State was 22-86 in the four seasons before he arrived.
“The first time you ever do anything in life is a moment you should feel very good about,” said Fennelly, whose first two Iowa State teams went 17-10 and 17-12.
“If you get ranked among the best women’s college teams in the country, you should be very excited about it and we are. Who would have thought 2 1/2 years ago this was even a possibility?”
Duke made its big jump after beating North Carolina State, Virginia and Clemson to move into a tie for first in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Nebraska, 21st last week, fell out after losing to Baylor. A loss to Indiana knocked out Purdue, which had been 23rd.