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Defending national champion South Carolina is No. 1 in the Top 25 preseason women’s basketball poll, released Tuesday by The Associated Press.

Coach Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks return four starters from last season’s undefeated team and received 27 of the 30 first-place votes. South Carolina now has captured the top spot in the preseason poll in four of the past five seasons.

“We knew we’d have a target on our backs this season as the reigning champions and this preseason ranking just confirms that,” Staley said, per the school’s athletic department website. “We appreciate the recognition, but I know our coaching staff and our team are more focused on what we see in the gym every day. And that’s every player working extremely hard to get better individually and as a team.”

South Carolina tips off the regular season against Michigan on Nov. 4 in Las Vegas.

No. 2 UConn collected two first-place ballots and is ranked in the preseason top 10 for the 30th consecutive year. No. 3 Southern California received the other top vote, with Texas and UCLA also in the top five.

Notre Dame, LSU, Iowa State, North Carolina State and Oklahoma round out the top 10.

Iowa, which fell to the Gamecocks in the national title game last season, is not ranked following the departure of superstar Caitlin Clark to the WNBA. The Hawkeyes are first among the group of “others receiving votes.”

Stanford, meanwhile, is unranked in the preseason for the first time since 1999 following the retirement of Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer.

The Southeastern Conference leads with seven teams in the Top 25. The Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference each have six and the Big 12 has four.

The rest of the women’s AP Top 25 preseason poll:

11. Duke
12. Baylor
13. Kansas State
14. Ohio State
15. North Carolina
16. West Virginia
17. Louisville
18. Maryland
19. Florida State
20. Ole Miss
21. Creighton
22. Kentucky
23. Nebraska
24. Alabama
25. Indiana

–Field Level Media