Texas is No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll for the first time in 21 years and became the third different team to hold the top spot in the past three weeks.
The Longhorns moved atop the poll Monday after previous No. 1 Notre Dame lost in double overtime to N.C. State. UCLA had been No. 1 the 12 weeks prior to the Irish.
“I’m so happy for my kids, they’ve earned where they are today,” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said in a phone interview hours before his team routed Georgia on Monday night.
It is only the fifth time since 2001 that three different schools have been No. 1 in a three-week span. Add in South Carolina being No. 1 to start the season and there have been four teams atop the rankings this season, just the sixth time that has happened since the poll began in 1976. It has never happened with five schools.
“There’s so much parity in the game right now,” Schaefer said.
Texas, which last held the top spot in the poll on Feb. 16, 2004, received 19 first-place votes from a 31-member national media panel. The Longhorns have spent 48 weeks atop the poll in their illustrious history dating to their first appearance at No. 1 in 1980.
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