Iowa cracks top 10 in women's AP poll for 1st time in 2 years - ESPN

Iowa cracked the top 10 for the first time in two years and UConn remained the unanimous No. 1 choice in The Associated Press Top 25 women's basketball poll released Monday.

The Hawkeyes last were ranked this high in the final poll of Caitlin Clark's senior year. They had been as high as 11th a few times this season.

UConn received all 30 first-place ballots from a national media panel as the top six teams in the poll were unchanged from a week earlier. The Huskies have won 34 consecutive games dating back to last season. UConn was hosting former Big East rival Notre Dame late Monday; the Fighting Irish fell out of the poll this week.

First-place votes in parentheses

No. 2 South Carolina and No. 3 UCLA were next. Texas remained fourth despite losing to South Carolina 68-65 last week. Vanderbilt and LSU were next while Michigan moved up a spot to seventh with Louisville, TCU and Iowa rounding out the top 10. Each team climbed one place after Kentucky lost to Mississippi State on Sunday. The Wildcats fell four spots to 11th.

Soaring Blue Devils

Duke vaulted back into the poll at No. 21 after winning its 10th consecutive game last week. The team was seventh in the preseason Top 25 before dropping six of its first nine games to fall out. Duke has been on a hot streak over the past month to get back in the poll.

Rising Tigers

Princeton moved up to No. 20 this week, the team's best ranking since the Tigers were 13th in the final poll of 2015. They had a 13-game winning streak heading into Monday's game against Harvard. The lone defeat on the season came against Maryland.

Falling Cyclones

Iowa State dropped out of the poll for the first time this season after losing its fifth consecutive game on Sunday. The Cyclones were