By Mel Greenberg
For those of you who haven't seen the Associated Press preseason women's poll released Saturday, here it is, though we are cutting and pasting this so hopefully the tabular drops line up ok.
BC-BKW--T25-Women's Top 25,0310
The Women's Top Twenty Five
By The Associated Press
The top 25 teams in The Associated Press' preseason women's
college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses,
2007-08 records, total points based on 25 points for a first-place
vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last year's final
ranking:
Record Pts Pvs
1. Connecticut (44) 36-2 1,124 1
2. Stanford (1) 35-4 1,018 4
3. Maryland 33-4 1,005 5
4. Oklahoma 22-9 946 14
5. Rutgers 27-7 914 7
6. North Carolina 33-3 892 2
7. Tennessee 36-2 857 3
8. Duke 25-10 815 9
9. California 27-7 769 10
10. Louisville 26-10 726 19
11. Texas A&M 29-8 624 8
12. Vanderbilt 25-9 546 21
13. Texas 22-13 501 –
14. Oklahoma St. 27-8 442 13
15. Virginia 24-10 437 24
16. Notre Dame 25-9 374 15
17. Arizona St. 22-11 364 –
18. Ohio St. 22-9 359 25
19. Baylor 25-7 353 12
20. Auburn 20-12 239 –
21. Florida St. 19-14 204 –
22. Xavier 24-9 170 –
23. Purdue 19-15 148 –
24. LSU 31-6 133 6
25. Old Dominion 31-5 124 11
Others receiving votes: Pittsburgh 116, Michigan St. 67, Iowa
St. 66, Marist 58, Marquette 56, Utah 50, Georgia 37, Kansas St.
25, Syracuse 20, DePaul 8, George Washington 7, Illinois St. 7,
Southern Cal 5, West Virginia 5, Arkansas 3, Georgia Tech 2,
Montana 2, UTEP 2, Gonzaga 1, Iowa 1, Liberty 1, S. Dakota St. 1,
SMU 1.
So how did the Guru spend his extra hour after working the desk in the office Saturday night?
He went mining in the data base during the time change to find those little nuggets that won't necessarily be noticed in other reports.
We begin to saying schools in "Red States" are as endangered as what some other polls, so to speak, are saying about the election.
Let's take Georgia, for example. For the first time in 28 seasons dating back to the preseason poll of 1981-82, the Lady Bulldogs are a distant also-ran in the voting.
The graduation of five starters at Tennessee, including the departure of Candace Parker, has ramifications for both coach Pat Summitt s team and the entire Southeastern Conference.
The Vols are ranked seventh, the lowest preseason vote since a No. 6 nod at the starting gate in 1995-96 when Tennessee shook it off and won the NCAA title. Prior low votes before then were a No. 9 in 1985-86 and No. 14 in 1984-85.
As the recently dispensed phrase that used to exist here in Philadelphia until a certain World Series achievement last week, those were the drought years where most of the scant missing-in-action weeks can be found in Tennessee's storied poll history.
The Vols and Summitt have now been ranked 543 times, missing just 14 times, as we turn the history page to Season 33 and week No. 557. In that span 145 teams have been ranked 12,913 times.
Meanwhile, it's the first time since the original preseason poll of 1976-77 that no Southeastern Conference affiliated school has made the preseason Top Five. Back then, AIAW terminology was used and Tennessee was not ranked in the very first poll.
Since then, however, the Vols have appeared in all ensuing 32 preseason votes.
Incidentally, Saturday's release with a Nov. 1 stamp is the earliest-ever rollout, although the next vote will be taken Nov. 16.
Beyond Connecticut, the overall favorite, with 444 of 45 first-place votes, it should be quite the wild ride into March Madness this season, although many of the top eight in Saturday's vote could find themselves among the higher seeds when the NCAA field is announced.
Connecticut has been ranked 18 straight times in preseason polls dating back to a No. 14 in 1995-96 after the Huskies had won their first NCAA title.
Auburn's preseason appearance is the Tigers' first since 2003-04, while Old Dominion is on the first list for the first time since the 2001-02 season.
No. 2 Stanford is making it's 21st appearance, while Rutgers has made the preseason approval ratings 23 times. Scarlet Knights' coach C. Vivian Stringer has made 23 preseason appearances, but she has done it with three different teams -- four times with Cheyney, 10 with Iowa, and nine with Rutgers.
The only other coaches with three different teams in preseason polls are Jim Foster (St. Joseph's, Vanderbilt, and Ohio State), and Gary Blair (Stephe F. Austin, Arkansas, and Texas A&M).
Xavier, which has appeared during seasonal voting, is making its first appearance in the preseason vote it is also the first listing for Musketeers coach Kevin McGuff.
Meanwhile, the media panel itself has undergone some shuffling and, like the newspaper industry, is a bit downsized from last year. The overall total of voters has shrunk from to 45, involving 16 detractions overall and 10 additions.
Those of you at schools out there who found your own way to obtain email addresses -- you can erase the following members who either chose not to stay, moved to other beats, or got involved in layoffs or moved to other locations.
The 16 emigrees are Tommy Deas of the Tuscaloosa News, Ramona Shelburn of the Los Angeles Daily News, Buddy Davis, the veteran La. Tech writer of the Ruston Leader; William Weathers of the Baton Rouge Advocate, Danny P. Smith of the Columbus Commercial Appeal in Misssissippi; Steve Tabaka of the Omaha World-Hearld; Rachel Carter of the Raleigh News & Observer; JoAnne Harrop of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; John Frierson of the Chattanooga Times; Brian Davis of the Dallas Morning News; Jerry Hill of the Waco Tribune-Herald; Don Bowman of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram; Vic Dorr of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, altough he is still there; Dick Rockne of the Seattle Post-Inteligencer; Eric Herter of the Dominion Post in West Virginia; and Tom Ziemer of the Wisconsin State Journal.
Some of the newcomers arrive from the same papers represented by previous voters.
The rookies, with one exception, are Debbie Antonelli of Westwood One; Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News; Robert Cessna of the Bryant-College Station Eagle; Brice Cherry of the Waco Tribune; Stacey Dales of ESPN, Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; Marcus Henry of Newsday; Adam Minichino of the Columbus Commercial Dispatch, who had been a previous voter in Athens, Ga., several years ago; Patrick Ochs of the Oxford Eagle;and Edward Robinson III of the Raleigh News & Observer.
Additionally, Mechelle Voepel remains at ESPN.com but is no longer at the Kansas City Star.
We'll be back with more trivia to kill a little time prior to tipoff.
-- Mel
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