How Lady Vols writer Cora Hall voted in the AP Top 25: Top-10 shakeup as regular season ends
It wouldn't be the last week of the regular season without a little chaos and a few upsets.
Half of my top 10 lost last week to shake things up going into conference tournaments. One team that didn't was South Carolina, which beat Tennessee to finish a second straight undefeated regular season. With a new starting lineup in a season that many thought would be a rebuild, the Gamecocks have been perfect.
They've been No. 1 on my ballot since the first week and have been nothing short of dominant this season.
How the top 10 changed after No. 2 goes down
Ohio State had a good run at No. 2, but with a loss to Iowa on Sunday, the Buckeyes dropped to No. 4. The Hawkeyes are up to No. 8 on my ballot after sitting at No. 11 last week, which was the only time they slipped outside of my top 10 all season after losing to Indiana. But Iowa is back up after Caitlin Clark, who broke Pete Maravich's NCAA Division I scoring record Sunday, led it to a revenge win at home.
Stanford jumps up to No. 2 after a win over Oregon State. The Beavers are still without star forward Raegan Beers and it was still a close game, but UCLA lost to Oregon State after it lost Beers early in the game. Plus, USC went to two overtimes against Arizona last week, so I left the Trojans at No. 3 this week after the near-loss.
Texas drops to No. 6 after losing to Oklahoma by one point. The officiating was not good by any stretch of the imagination, but the Longhorns also gave up way too many offensive rebounds and opportunities to the Sooners at the end. Oklahoma followed the win with a loss to Kansas, so it only rose to No. 16 on my ballot.
Virginia Tech and Colorado both fell out of my top 10. The Hokies lost to Notre Dame and then lost to Virginia – a game in which star center Elizabeth Kitley left with a knee injury and did not return. Virginia Tech dropped to No. 11 with the two losses. The Buffs lost to UCLA and then Washington State, and they look like they need a reset going into postseason. Colorado drops to No. 15 with a 21-8 record now.
UCLA rose to No. 5 with the ranked win over the Buffs, and LSU rose to No. 9 with two more wins to close out the regular season. Notre Dame rose to No. 10 with two ranked wins last week. The Irish beat Louisville after taking down the Hokies, and they're trending in the right direction going into the ACC Tournament.
Newcomers to the ballot
Three of the last five teams on my ballot from last week lost, and Duke and West Virginia fell out of my top 25 this week with losses to unranked opponents. Louisville stayed on my ballot because it lost to Notre Dame.
That means UNLV checks in this week at No. 23. UNLV is on an 11-game winning streak and entered the rankings last week at No. 24. The Rebels are the Mountain West champs and have risen to No. 29 in the NCAA NET.
The other newcomer is Ole Miss, which finished the regular season 22-7, including 12-4 in the SEC. The Rebels finished third in the SEC and have really figured some things out going into SEC Tournament next weekend.
Cora Hall's AP Top 25 ballot for Week 15
South Carolina
Stanford
USC
Ohio State
UCLA
Texas
Oregon State
Iowa
LSU
Notre Dame
Virginia Tech
UConn
NC State
Indiana
Colorado
Gonzaga
Oklahoma
Utah
Syracuse
Kansas State
Baylor
Louisville
UNLV
Princeton
Ole Miss
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How end of regular season affects Lady Vols writer Cora Hall's AP Top 25
