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Lady Volunteers beat Duke, take top spot in AP poll

by Christian Schmidt
The Daily Cougar

Facing one of the nationis most difficult schedules hasnit stopped the Tennessee Lady Volunteers from climbing to the top of The Associated Press Top 25 Poll. Tennessee has a 16-1 record, with the lone loss coming at the hands of No. 3 Texas.

The Lady Volunteers received 44 of 47 first-place votes in the poll to give Tennessee its first No. 1 ranking since 2001. That marks its longest absence from the top spot since 1988.

Tennesseeis schedule has probably been the most difficult in the nation, with 10 opponents who either are or have been ranked this season.

Duke, which lost 72-69 to the Lady Vols on Sunday, came in at No. 2, down from first place a week ago. The Lady Blue Devils held the top spot for three weeks after taking it from Connecticut, who was No. 1 in the previous eight polls.

Texas, Connecticut and Penn State round out the top five.

Villanova, Boston College and Houston all fell out of the top 25. No. 23 Virginia Tech, No. 24 Vanderbilt and No. 25 Nebraska replaced them in the poll.

And then there were none

Dukeis loss to Tennessee means that no undefeated teams remain in womenis college basketball. Duke (14-1) was the last remaining unbeaten team.

DePaul, Miami, Tennessee, Southwest Missouri State and Duke are the only five teams with just one loss.

The polls

Itis hard to be objective when trying to analyze something with which youire intimately involved. Thatis a given. So voting in the national polls must be very difficult. Besides the difficulty of analyzing how good a team really is, it can be tough to mix objective criteria (win-loss records, statistics) with subjective criteria (will a team get better).

In saying the coachesi poll does a better job of rating the teams, I think that even the most dedicated womenis basketball writers have a tough time keeping up with all the Division I teams. There are just too many teams and not enough time.

But coaches often do a better job of analyzing teams. They watch tape, they talk to other coaches and they know which teams are better. Coaches often recognize talented mid-major teams (like Houston) and vote for them before the writers catch on.

Certainly my own bias (I am, after all, a student at UH and a beat writer for a handful of UH sports) affects my views. I think the Lady Cougars are one of the top 25 teams in the nation.

Of course, I see them every day. I know Chandi Jones is ridiculously talented. Iive seen Sancho Lyttle dunk (only in practice, though she did dunk in the Cougarsi first road game). I know head coach Joe Curl is both a great motivator and a solid coach.

There are probably three or four unranked teams I donit know about that should be in the AP poll. But you can bet those teamsi opponents know about them.

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