LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Louisville women’s basketball team will begin the 2025-26 season ranked No. 20 in the Associated Press Top 25 — with plenty of chances to climb.
The Cardinals are set to face five of the nation’s top 10 teams this season, including No. 1 UConn and No. 2 South Carolina. Louisville will also meet No. 7 Duke, No. 8 Tennessee and No. 9 N.C. State.
It is the 14th consecutive season that coach Jeff Walz’s program has been in the preseason rankings. The Cardinals opened last season No. 17.
Louisville | Kentucky | Indiana | Eric Crawford
Meanwhile, Kentucky re-enters the preseason poll at No. 24 in its second season under head coach Kenny Brooks. The Wildcats are one of eight SEC teams in the Top 25. The ACC has five teams ranked.
Defending national champion UConn opens the 2025-26 season right where it left off — as the No. 1 team in the country.
The Huskies earned 27 of 31 first-place votes in the Associated Press preseason Top 25 released Tuesday, with South Carolina — last year’s runner-up — ranked second and collecting the remaining four first-place votes.
It’s the 13th time since 1995 that Geno Auriemma’s program has opened a season atop the poll, and the first since 2017. With sophomore star Sarah Strong and super senior Azzi Fudd returning, expectations are once again sky-high in Storrs.
he top four teams — UConn, South Carolina, UCLA and Texas — finished in the same order in last season’s final poll, marking the first time in the 50-year history of the women’s AP rankings that the same quartet held the top four spots to end one year and begin the next.
LSU, Oklahoma, Duke, Tennessee, N.C. State and Maryland rounded out the top 10.
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