Women's college basketball rankings: Projected AP Top 25 after South Carolina hands LSU first loss

On Friday night, one day after the game had initially been scheduled, South Carolina handed LSU its first loss of the 2024-25 season and with that, the list of undefeated teams dwindled to just one: UCLA.

The Bruins enjoyed a dominant week, beating a pair of ranked teams (Baylor and Maryland) by 15 points each. UCLA will remain in the No. 1 spot in this week's AP poll.

But with the LSU loss, the top five is going to shake up this week. Will it be UConn or Texas that moves up to fill LSU's spot?

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

LSU gets smothered by South Carolina

LSU put up a fight, but the South Carolina defense was simply too much for the Tigers. The team scored just 56 points in the loss; it's previous season low was 68 in a win over Washington.

This is where LSU's issues from deep become highlighted. The team was 3-for-14 from behind the arc and rank 356th in Division I in percentage of points that have come from three. When a team like South Carolina shuts you down inside, you need another gear you can try.

So, how far will LSU fall? It certainly didn't help its case when it had another poor scoring night in a 64-51 win over unranked Texas A&M, but this is still a one-loss SEC team, so it won't fall too far. Seven feels like a good estimate.

UConn is back in the top five

Texas beat two ranked teams this week, but Sunday's struggles against Ole Miss should be enough to keep UConn ahead in the polls.

The Huskies are at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to getting quality wins during conference play. The Big East is a top conference, but it's a slight bit below the four power conferences.

But UConn had two convincing wins over the second and third best teams in the Big East this week, beating Villanova by 43 points and then knocking off a Creighton team that was just outside the Top 25 last week.

Maybe the wins aren't quite as good as the Texas wins, but UConn won't be jumped by the Horns this week and will return to the top five for the first time since the Dec. 16 poll.

Uhh...Maryland?

The Terrapins just went through the toughest stretch of arguably any team all year, facing Texas, Ohio State and UCLA all in a row.

Maryland lost all of them. And that only wouldn't be a huge issue if the Terps had been competitive in those games. That, however, was far from the case. The team opened the stretch with a 38-point loss to Texas, but rebouned somewhat, only loosing by eight to Ohio State. The stretch ended with a 15-point loss to UCLA.

The good thing for Maryland's case for staying in the top half of the rankings is that all four of its losses are to teams that should be ranked in the top 10 this week.

But is that enough? They beat the teams they were supposed to beat, but three losses in a row can't be ignored. Maryland will take a tumble this week. My prediction is No. 14, but there's a lot of volatility here depend on what voters think about the qualities of their wins before this losing streak.

Welcome back, Oklahoma State

The Cowgirls made the Top 25 two weeks ago, but a loss to Houston, the worst team among the top four conferences, made that time in the rankings shortlived.

But it appears that loss to Houston might have just been one really bad moment in an otherwise strong campaign.

Oklahoma State has won three in a row since that Houston loss, including a big one-point win over No. 9 TCU, handing the Horned Frogs their only conference loss so far.

Even with TCU and Kansas State ranked fairly far ahead of the rest of the Big 12, the conference battle is wide open. The Cowgirls are only one game back in the loss column behind those two teams with a lot of basketball left to play.