The voters for the AP Top 25 Women’s College Basketball Poll may have heard what Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said about them last week.
“I don’t believe that they take it seriously,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I don’t believe that they look at it. I went through, and I looked at the votes. Some people didn’t even move certain teams.”
Last week, when the Rebels moved up just one spot in the poll after beating then-No. 5 Oklahoma and Mississippi State, the Rebels’ coach said if either of those were losses they’d barely be in the top 25.
“Had we lost to Oklahoma and Mississippi State, we’d be fighting for our lives and they can’t tell me that that’s not the case,” McPhee-McCuin said.
On Sunday, Ole Miss had an uncharacteristically bad game shooting the ball and lost to unranked Georgia on the road, 82-59.
On Monday, the Rebels fell two spots to No. 18. Frankly, this writer was expecting a bigger drop in the rankings. Also, beating Ole Miss wasn’t enough for Georgia to move into the top 25 and are still placed in the receiving votes portion.
However, just because there was only a modest drop doesn’t mean what McPhee-McCuin said last week was wrong. There’s still some questionable decisions. The Rebels are two spots behind the same Oklahoma team they beat two weeks ago. Maybe even more perplexing is why Texas at 19-2 is still ranked ahead of undefeated Vanderbilt and LSU.
It also doesn’t change what’s already happened.
“Michigan barely lost to UConn and (the voters) treated them as if they were the No. 16 in the country right away,” McPhee-McCuin said last week. “LSU had a great win the other day against Texas at home. They moved them up six spots, okay? We go on the road. We lose to Texas by three points. We go on the road to Oklahoma, who’s No. 5. We won. Then we come home against a Mississippi State team that is rivalry, and we do something we hadn’t done since 1991, beat them by 25 points, and you move us up two spots. Where’s the consistency?”
Here’s this week’s complete top 25 poll:
AP Top 25 Women’s College Basketball Poll
- UConn 18-0
- South Carolina 19-1
- UCLA 17-1
- Texas 19-2
- Vanderbilt 18-0
- LSU 17-2
- Michigan 15-2
- Louisville 18-3
- TCU 18-1
- Iowa 16-2
- Kentucky 17-3
- Ohio State 16-2
- Michigan State 17-2
- Baylor 17-3
- Maryland 17-3
- Oklahoma 14-4
- Tennessee 13-3
- Ole Miss 16-4
- Texas Tech 19-1
- Princeton 15-1
- Duke 13-6
- West Virginia 15-4
- Alabama 17-3
- Nebraska 14-4
- Washington 14-4
