After back-to-back years appearing in the national title game and the departure of generational talent Caitlin Clark, the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s college basketball team will have a new face this year.
Lisa Bluder retired. Jan Jensen is taking over as the head coach. Lucy Olsen transferred in from Villanova and will play a large part in the offensive scheme.
Despite the changes, the familiar faces of Sydney Affolter and Hannah Stuelka remain with the Hawkeyes ready for their chance to leverage their experience and talent as the leaders of this team.
With the shuffling and the new year come new rankings. The preseason AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll is one of those rankings and has the Iowa Hawkeyes just on the cusp of getting ranked.
Iowa is unranked in the preseason poll but is sitting just outside the poll as the top team receiving votes.
Coming in at No. 1 in the poll is the defending champions, the South Carolina Gamecocks. The rest of the top five are No. 2 Uconn, No. 3 USC, No. 4 Texas, and No. 5 UCLA.
Other Big Ten teams in the preseason rankings include No. 14 Ohio State, No. 23 Nebraska, and No. 25 Indiana.
Here’s a look at the full preseason AP Top 25.
OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES:
Iowa 37, TCU 30, Utah 24, Illinois 23, Stanford 17, Michigan State 16, Gonzaga 16, Vanderbilt 12, South Dakota St. 7, Miami 4, Tennessee 3, Fairfield 3, Middle Tennessee 3, Georgia Tech 2, Syracuse 1, Princeton 1.
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