1. Connecticut
2. South Carolina
3. Tennessee
4. Texas A&M
5. Notre Dame
6. Kentucky
7. Duke
8. Michigan St.
9. Texas
10. North Carolina
11. California
12. Iowa
13. Baylor
14. Maryland
15. Nebraska
16. Louisville
17. LSU
18. West Virginia
19. Dayton
20. Stanford
21. Syracuse
22. DePaul
23. Arkansas
24. Oregon
25. Purdue

quote:

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4. Texas A&M: The Courtneys -- Walker and Williams -- are both among the top 10 players returning in the SEC. Jordan Jones has emerged as a top point guard. The conference season will be a grind with so many good teams in the SEC, but if the Aggies can fill the hole in the post left by the graduation of Karla Gilbert, they should have a legitimate chance to reach a Final Four.

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http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/10818155/women-college-basketball-very-early-look-top-25-2014-15-season

[This message has been edited by Gap (edited 4/21/2014 9:30p).]

The ranking is obviously based on the team's excellent performance against Uconn in the Elite 8 game. No one played Uconn as good/competitive as the Aggies!

http://www.kbtx.com/sports/college/texasam/headlines/AM-Womens-Basketball-No-4-In-Early-2014-15-Rankings-256089961.html


[This message has been edited by zuize (edited 4/21/2014 10:03p).]

Dang the SEC looks stupid good next year.

I think our SEC road games schedule will be much harder this year. Final 4 contender, but will be hard to finish higher than third in the SEC.

I think we're too high, but then I'm not sure who else I would put above us who is below us.

Maybe ND should be above us. I don't think Notre Dame falls off as much as Creme does (although 5 is still very high). They lose Achonwa and McBride, but had two very promising backups for Achonwa and they bring in Brianna Turner. They were already very deep and have the 3 point shooting we lack. The ACC schools all have the interesting change of losing Maryland and adding Louisville.

Kentucky and LSU may be too high. Great guards, but both lose their starters at both the 4 and the 5.

Stanford will be expected to drop without Ogumwike and Ruef, but 20 seems like it may be too far. Tara is just such a great coach that I expect them to adapt. This year's freshmen where the #6 recruiting class and she brought in a lot of players. Stanford always has plenty of height in the front line, even if they don't have the athleticism of the Ogumwike sisters. The two Texans in the backcourt, Amber Orrange and Lili Thompson are very good.

Interesting that he's picking Arkansas and Oregon as top 25 teams when both just fired their coaches and have new staffs coming in. A lot of the commenters think he's not giving Oregon State enough love.

edit to add: not sure if they will be ready for top 25, but I expect Vic and his MSU Bulldogs to be dangerous next year.

[This message has been edited by biobioprof (edited 4/22/2014 10:16a).]

Oh ye of little faith

quote:

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Oh ye of little faith

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I always like to enjoy the feeling that the team has overachieved, which is harder to get when I have really high expectations.

[This message has been edited by cs69ag (edited 4/23/2014 4:12a).]

Have to agree with bio's thoughts....unless someone steps up in the 5 position, we will not match up well with teams that are strong inside...like UT or USC...we may be very good, and be no better than third in the SEC.

With the new juco guard to be announced tomorrow
and all the good perimeter players returning, I wish we would press full court the whole game and keep fresh players in the game....not by fouling, but causing turnovers, tiring the other team out and slowing them down from getting in to their offense till late in the shot clock!

I thought we played better and had a rhythm when we raised the tempo and played small. Now if we could ONLY hit an outside shot!

I expect we will play quite a bit of small ball including more pressing next year.

Stanford should definitely be higher, even without Ogwumike. And, I hate to say it, but I wouldn't be surprised to see LSU have a breakout year next year. Caldwell has built herself a tough squad over there.

That said, I think our Ags are definitely a Top 10 team. Should be an exciting year!

quote:

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unless someone steps up in the 5 position, we will not match up well with teams that are strong inside

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Agree

I think Rachel is ready to take that next step. She got a lot of meaningful playing time, especially in the SEC tournament, and got a chance to go against 2 of the best in Dolson and Stewart.

Hope so! So far, I just have not seen the want to...in pregame warmups, on the bench and at times in the games, except for a few times. it is encouraging to hear that she wanted a private work out very soon after the UConn loss. The 5 position is her position to lose. She has to have a good summer...on and off the court, and be much improved come fall.

We are already hearing Coach talk about going with more 4 guard offense...I like that based on
our personnel. If the other team does not have a good post player taller than about 6'2", I think 4 guards will work well and the 5 player could be as short as 6'1".

name me a top 10 team that doesn't have a player over 6.2

There were at least 12 players in the SEC last year 6'4" or taller. Several with very good ball skills.

My comments above re a 4 guard offense is for the many games we typically play where the other team does not have size or talent id the 4 and 5 poisitons.

Certainly for teams that do, like UT and USC,
we will need to play some of our taller players.

I agree, there aren't many teams that are really good without a good post player over 6'2". The wbb game has evolved to where there are some talented, well rounded taller players out there...but not too many great ones in any given year.