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Dawn Staley ‘surprised’ South Carolina wasn’t No. 1 overall seed (2:04)

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley makes the case for why her team should have been the top overall seed in the women’s NCAA tournament. (2:04)

Mar 17, 2025, 12:22 PM ET

UCLA remained No. 1 in the Associated Press women’s basketball Top 25 on Monday, one day after the Bruins earned the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history.

The Bruins head into March Madness with two losses, both coming from USC during the regular season. UCLA received 19 first-place votes from the 32-member national media panel.

TeamRecord1. UCLA (19)30-22. South Carolina (8)30-33. UConn (5)31-34. USC28-35. Texas31-36. TCU31-37. Duke26-78. Notre Dame26-59. NC State26-610. LSU28-511. Oklahoma25-712. North Carolina27-713. Kentucky22-714. Baylor27-715. Ohio State25-616. West Virginia24-717. Oklahoma State25-618. Maryland23-719. Kansas State26-720. Tennessee22-921. Alabama23-822. Florida State23-823. Creighton26-624. South Dakota State29-325. Mississippi20-10

South Carolina, the defending national champion, garnered eight first-place ballots as was No. 2.

UConn was third after winning the Big East tournament championship over Creighton in the only game with ranked teams this past week.

USC and Texas rounded out the top five and are also No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament that starts later this week.

TCU, Duke, Notre Dame and NC State were next. LSU was 10th.

The only change in the poll from this past week was Creighton dropping one spot to 23rd, switching places with Florida State.

There will be a final poll the day after the national championship game that will be played in Tampa, Florida, on April 6.

Conference breakdown

The Southeastern Conference has eight ranked teams. The ACC and Big 12 each have five while the Big Ten has four. The Big East has two and the Summit League one.

Games of the week

NCAA tournament action starts Wednesday with play-in games.