UCLA has taken the No. 1 spot in the CBS Sports women’s college basketball Power Rankings after upsetting South Carolina on Sunday. Cori Close has a very deep roster, and it was on full display against the reigning national champions.
UCLA’s 77-62 victory snapped a 43-game winning streak for South Carolina. The Gamecocks did a good job limiting Lauren Betts, but as Dawn Staley put it, they “got killed by everybody else.”
Another big game took place in Los Angeles this past weekend, and that one saw USC fall to Notre Dame. Hannah Hidalgo was shining as usual, and so was Olivia Miles, who has not missed a beat this season despite having been sidelined for 627 days. However, Sonia Citron also deserves credit because she did a solid job guarding USC star JuJu Watkins. Notre Dame had a strong argument to take the No. 2 spot, but UConn stayed put because of its undefeated record.
Texas is having an impressive start to the season, but the Longhorns were a casualty of all the movement this week and fell out of the top five. However, this makes their game against Notre Dame on Dec. 5 a lot more interesting.
Baylor completely fell out the rankings after an unexpected loss to Indiana, a team that was held to just 39 points by North Carolina on Monday.
Audi Crooks has been one of the most impressive players this season, but Iowa State dropped eight spots to No. 16 after losing to Northern Iowa last week. The Cyclones almost suffered another upset loss, but a game-winning shot by Crooks helped them skate by Drake with a 80-78 win on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Iowa had been knocking at the door all season, and they finally entered the top 25. Jan Jensen’s team has not played a ranked opponent yet, but its wins have been pretty dominant so far — including a 72-43 victory against Washington State on Saturday.
Here are the official CBS Sports women’s college basketball Power Rankings:
Women’s college basketball Power Rankings
First five out: Baylor, Michigan State, Michigan, Stanford, Florida State
