UConn's basketball teams stand at or near the top of the first regular-season Associated Press polls.
Some basketball coaches get a sense of pride about their ranking in preseason polls. To others, where you finish means way more than how you start.
How did UConn’s Geno Auriemma and Dan Hurley feel Monday when they saw their teams stand among the elite in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll?
No matter what either say, they should be feeling darn good about their rankings.
Auriemma’s Huskies women’s team held on to its No. 1 preseason ranking in the Week 2 poll. (The preseason poll counts as the Week 1 poll.) Hurley’s men’s squad, ranked No. 4 in the preseason, came in at No. 3 after a pair of convincing opening-week wins over New Haven and UMass Lowell. Those victories came by an average of 43 ½ points per game.
The UConn women captured 27 of the 31 first-place votes from a select media panel, with the other four going to No. 2 South Carolina – the runner-up to UConn in the 2025 NCAA Women’s Tournament.
Joining the women’s top 10 were Baylor, which beat then-No. 7 Duke in its opener in Paris, and Southern California, a one-point winner over preseason No. 9 North Carolina State.
Auriemma, for one, wasn’t averse to seeing his team – the defending national champ – at preseason No. 1.
"Hopefully it's a little bit of a confidence builder and not, 'Oh my god!'" Auriemma told the AP after the preseason rankings were announced Oct. 14.
"I'm happy for them. We talk a lot about how we're not out here to prove that we're defending national champions or we're preseason number one in the country, and we have to beat everybody by 40. We don't want to get caught in that trap. You tend to finish the year where you're predicted. So I like being in this position."
Hurley didn’t share his colleague’s opinion.
"There's nothing more useless than preseason polls and picks," Hurley said last month during Big East media day, as reported by Fox Sports. "Preseason polls are pretty meaningless. I don't even do mine.”
UConn’s chief competition for Big East supremacy, St. John’s, fell from preseason No. 5 to No. 13 after a 103-96 loss to then-No. 15 Alabama on Saturday.
In the men’s poll, Houston leapfrogged Purdue for the No. 1 spot on total points, despite the Boilermakers taking 36 of 61 first-place votes, compared to 18 for Houston. UConn earned three votes, with No. 4 Duke (two), No. 6 Michigan (one) and No. 8 Alabama (one) also recognized.
The UConn women are back in action at home on Wednesday against Loyola Chicago. Before that, the men will host Columbia on Monday.
AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll: Week 2, Nov. 10
- UConn
- South Carolina
- UCLA
- Texas
- LSU
- Oklahoma
- Baylor
- USC
- Maryland
- NC State
- North Carolina
- Tennessee
- Ole Miss
- Michigan
- Duke
- Iowa State
- TCU
- Notre Dame
- Vanderbilt
- Oklahoma State
- Iowa
- Louisville
- Kentucky
- Michigan State
- Washington
AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll: Week 2, Nov. 10
- Houston
- Purdue
- UConn
- Duke
- Arizona
- Michigan
- BYU
- Alabama
- Kentucky
- Florida
- Texas Tech
- Louisville
- St. John's
- Illinois
- UCLA
- Iowa State
- Michigan State
- North Carolina
- Gonzaga
- Tennessee
- Arkansas
- Auburn
- Creighton
- Wisconsin
- Kansas