Women's college basketball rankings: Projected AP Top 25 after Iowa upsets USC

It was an exciting week of women's college basketball action, topped off by a huge upset win by an unranked team over a top five opponent.

At the top of the rankings, UCLA remains undefeated and thus maintains the No. 1 spot. The team received 31 of the 32 first-place votes last week and should maintain a similar number, though South Carolina's win over Tennessee could help it siphon off one or two more first-place votes.

Below is a projection of what Monday's AP Top 25 poll will look like.

Projected AP Top 25 women's college basketball rankings

1. UCLA
2. South Carolina
3. Notre Dame
4. Texas
5. UConn
6. USC
7. LSU
8. Ohio State
9. TCU
10. Duke
11. Kentucky
12. Kansas State
13. North Carolina
14. NC State
15. Cal
16. Maryland
17. Michigan State
18. Oklahoma
19. Tennessee
20. Georgia Tech
21. West Virginia
22. Florida State
23. Alabama
24. Creighton
25. Vanderbilt

Iowa upsets USC on Caitlin Clark jersey retirement day

We have a change in the top five after USC suffered a road defeat against Iowa on Sunday.

If there's ever a time to pick an upset ahead of time, it was this game, as the Trojans were multiple time zones away from home for a game against a raucous Iowa crowd that was made even more energetic by the fact it was the day the program retired Caitlin Clark's number.

I'm not saying Iowa was fated to win this game, but the Hawkeyes had the momentum on their side from the first whistle.

JuJu Watkins and Kiki Iriafen both shot under 40 percent as the Trojans suffered their first loss since November, with Iowa prevailing 76-69.

The Hawkeyes now sit 15-7 on the year and have won three in a row, but a five-game losing streak last month means the team won't parlay this win into its own ranked spot. It could get a few votes though.

Oklahoma State might have a rankings curse

For the second time this season, Oklahoma State entered the rankings and was promptly embarassed.

The first time, the team lost to Houston, arguably the worst power conference team at the time.

This time? The loss at least came to a ranked West Virginia team, but the Cowgirls were held to just 37 points in the loss to the Mountaineers. The team shot just 21.2% from the floor, including Micah Gray going 2-for-13.

While the team managed a win this past week against Arizona State, a loss like this one is enough to knock Oklahoma State right outside the Top 25.

Kentucky continues to impress

Only one team this week had multiple wins over ranked opponents. That team was Kentucky, which took down both Alabama and Oklahoma.

After a surprising loss to Texas A&M, the Wildcats have won three in a row to move to 19-2 on the season.

Both of these wins came against teams with very good offenses, with Oklahoma ranking fifth in points per game and Alabama ranking 25th. Despite that, the Wildcats found ways to win, albeit very different ones in each game.

Against Alabama, the Kentucky defense clamped down, holding the Crimson Tide to 56 points. In the game against Oklahoma, the Kentucky defense wasn't able to keep up, but the offense came alive and outdueled a very good Sooners team, winning 96-86.

That's what makes this Kentucky so dangerous: it wins however it needs to win.

Oklahoma tumbles

Defense has long been an issue for the Sooners and it remains one this year. The team's defensive numbers look worse than they are because of the frenetic pace the offense plays at, but even then, ranking 270th in scoring defense is rough.

Defense is how the Sooners lost a pair of games this week. The team averaged 93 points in two games this week, but went 0-2 because its opponents averaged 101 points.

Oklahoma can score with anyone, but none of that matters if the team keeps hemorrhaging points. It's lost three of the team's last four games because it can't get defensive stops and now sits at 3-6 against temas with a top 50 Her Hoop Stats rating.

That's why Oklahoma will take the biggest fall this week, dropping an estimated five spots. It could have fallen farther, but Tennessee and Cal both lost this week, so the floor should be No. 19.