Nov. 18—The Illinois women’s basketball team will spend another week in the AP Top 25.
The Illini moved up one spot in the latest poll released late Monday morning with Shauna Green’s team at No. 22.
Illinois played only one game this past week, a 84-37 victory against Eastern Illinois this past Thursday.
The Illini (3-0) are currently in action playing their Field Trip Game against Le Moyne (0-4) at State Farm Center. Follow me on Twitter/X (@JoeVozzelli) for updates.
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Another week. Another unchanged Top 10 on my AP Top 25 women’s basketball ballot.
But after that? Some tough early-season calls.
Like what to do with a pair of two-loss teams in North Carolina State and Louisville? Whether to move TCU into the Top 25? To drop Florida State or not to drop the Seminoles from my ballot?
Keeping the Wolfpack and Cardinals ranked for another week came down to giving them the benefit of the doubt given the former has lost to No. 1 South Carolina and TCU (which should crack the Top 25) and the latter’s two losses were to a Top 5 team (UCLA) and Top 20 team (Kentucky).
The Horned Frogs received the second most votes of any team not in the Top 25 among the national panel in both the preseason poll and last week’s first regular-season ballot.
That TCU is back in the national conversation is an interesting turn of events after coach had to forfeit two games in his first season in Fort Worth, Texas, last winter after his team didn’t have enough available players due to injuries. That the Horned Frogs still managed to finish 21-12 is somewhat remarkable.
Year two has started off well with still one of the most dominant centers in the women’s game — and now in her seventh college season — with the 6-foot-7 graduate student delivering 31 points and 16 rebounds in Sunday’s 76-73 home win against N.C. State. Prince has teamed up well with now two-time transfer . Van Lith had an up-and-down lone season at LSU before opting to leave for TCU in the offseason with the 5-9 guard averaging 17.3 points and 6.8 rebounds so far through four games with Horned Frogs.
Lastly, FSU became the odd team out on my ballot. I was probably too high on the Seminoles. Perhaps gave them too much credit for a nine-point loss at Illinois (a game I watched in person). The fact is teams around them kept stacking wins (and remain undefeated) and TCU was deserving of inclusion. That meant one team had to be dropped — and FSU was my choice.
Here’s how my full ballot shook out this week:
Rk., Team Prev.
1. South Carolina 1
2. Connecticut 2
3. Southern Cal 3
4. UCLA 4
5. Texas 5
6. Notre Dame 6
7. Iowa State 7
8. LSU 8
9. Maryland 9
10. Oklahoma 10
11. Kansas State 14
12. Duke 12
13. Ohio State 13
14. North Carolina 17
15. West Virginia 16
16. Baylor 19
17. Mississippi 18
18. North Carolina State 11
19. Illinois 20
20. Kentucky 25
21. Nebraska 22
22. Alabama 23
23. Oregon 24
24. Louisville 15
25. TCU NR
