Jan. 22, 2001
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The Notre Dame women’s basketball team, off to its best start ever at 18-0 and the only undefeated team in the country, has moved from third to first in the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today polls released Monday, marking the first time the Irish have been ranked No. 1 in their 24-year history of varsity women’s basketball. Notre Dame becomes the 19th school to hold the No. 1 ranking in the 25-year history of the AP poll. Connecticut fell one spot to second, marking the first time in seven seasons one conference has held the top two spots.
“Being ranked No. 1 is certainly a thrill and very exciting,” says Irish head coach Muffet McGraw, in her 14th season as head coach at Notre Dame and 19th overall. “It is a great reward for the team for all the hard work them have put in, but women’s basketball season doesn’t end until April 1, so we aren’t focusing on the No. 1 ranking.”
The Irish entered the season with their highest-ever preseason rankings at sixth in the AP poll and fifth in the ESPN/USA Today before moving up to fourth in both polls on Nov. 27. Two weeks later on Dec. 11, Notre Dame rose from fourth to third in both polls — at the time its highest ranking in school history. The Irish stood third for six weeks, defeating top-ranked Connecticut 92-76 on Jan. 15, hours after the last week’s polls were released.
The Irish women’s basketball team becomes the second Notre Dame team to hold the No. 1 ranking in 2000-01. The Irish women’s soccer squad took over the No. 1 ranking on Sept. 18, and held the top spot for 11 weeks, finishing the regular season unbeaten and ranked first with a 20-0-1 record.
The BIG EAST Conference becomes just the third conference — joining the Atlantic Coast and Southeastern Conferences — to boast a pair of No. 1 teams in the same season. Two top-ranked conference teams in the same year had happened in just four previous seasons with Auburn and Tennessee in both ’87-88 and ’88-89, Maryland and Virginia in ’91-92 and Tennessee and Vanderbilt in ’92-93. Tennessee and Vanderbilt were ranked first and second, respectively, on Nov. 16, 1993, the last time two conference teams were one-two in the AP poll.
In addition to the Irish and Huskies holding the top two spots in women’s basketball, Georgetown and St. John’s were the first BIG EAST men’s basketball teams to be ranked first and second. Fifteen years ago both were ranked first during the season and spent a large part of the 1984-85 season holding the top two spots in the polls.
As has been tradition at Notre Dame since 1974, an eight-foot lighted numeral #1 sign — designed to be lit anytime a Notre Dame team is ranked first — will be illuminated atop Grace Hall, a former men’s residence hall.
Notre Dame defeated host Seton Hall 72-47 on Sunday to improve to 18-0 on the season and 7-0 in the BIG EAST in its first outing since the Connecticut game. The 18-game winning streak currently is the longest active streak in the country. The Irish will play their first-ever game as the No. 1 team when they travel to West Virginia for a 7:00 p.m. BIG EAST game on Wed., Jan. 24, at the WVU Coliseum.
The Women’s Top Twenty Five
By The Associated Press
The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ women’s college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Jan. 21, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week’s ranking:
Record Pts Pv 1. Notre Dame (40) 18-0 1,024 3 2. Connecticut (1) 15-1 978 1 3. Tennessee 18-1 950 2 4. Duke 17-1 883 5 5. Georgia 16-3 856 4 6. Purdue 17-3 813 6 7. Iowa St. 15-1 783 7 8. Louisiana Tech 15-4 730 8 9. Texas Tech 15-2 697 910. Florida 15-2 650 1011. LSU 13-5 601 1212. Oklahoma 13-4 569 1313. SW Missouri St. 13-3 520 1414. Rutgers 11-5 440 1115. Clemson 15-4 436 2016. Vanderbilt 15-3 341 1517. Texas 15-5 309 1718. Xavier 13-2 308 2319. Penn St. 12-6 263 1620. Oregon 11-4 245 1821. Utah 16-2 230 2422. N.C. State 11-7 105 2223. Arizona 14-4 87 1924. Villanova 13-4 71 -25. Colorado 13-3 57 -
Others receiving votes: Mississippi St. 56, Arkansas 54, Virginia 47, Baylor 46, Wisconsin 25, Alabama 19, St. Mary’s, Cal. 16, Stanford 16, Ball St. 11, Indiana 9, Missouri 9, George Washington 8, Illinois 8, Mississippi 8, Washington 8, Drake 7, North Carolina 6, Cincinnati 4, DePaul 4, Auburn 3, Memphis 3, Virginia Tech 3, TCU 2, UAB 2, Wis.-Green Bay 2, Arizona St. 1, Houston 1, Michigan 1.