The South Carolina Gamecocks dominated the SEC, and all of women’s basketball, last season en route to a perfect 38-0 record and a national championship.
Dawn Staley’s team more than deserves their preseason No. 1 ranking heading into the 2024-25 college basketball season, and the USA TODAY coaches poll delivered by giving the Gamecocks 27 out of a possible 31 first-place votes.
South Carolina is one of seven SEC teams ranked inside the top 25, just ahead of the ACC (6), Big Ten (6) and Big 12 (4).
Many will note the big storyline in women’s college basketball as the absence of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, who both had excellent rookie seasons in the WNBA, but the sport is still chock-full of star power. Paige Bueckers returns for No. 2 UConn in a quest to bring a national title to Storrs, while JuJu Watkins is perhaps the most exciting basketball player in the country over at USC.
Below is a look at five takeaways from the women’s basketball coaches poll, including which team was snubbed and which team was given a rather generous preseason ranking: