University of Tennessee Athletics
Lady Vols are #3 in AP Poll
October 29, 2011 | Women's Basketball
Oct. 29, 2011
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The Tennessee Lady Volunteer basketball team will start the 2011-12 season ranked No. 3 in The Associated Press poll. The preseason rankings were released on Saturday.
The Lady Vols received 906 points to place behind No. 1 Baylor (988) 33 first place votes and No. 2 Notre Dame (934) 6 first place votes.
Tennessee returns eight letterwinners, including senior All-American Shekinna Stricklen, from the 2010-11 squad which went 34-3 and captured both the SEC regular season and tournament championships for back-to-back titles matching 2009-10's success in the SEC. Last season, UT earned a No. 1 seed in the 2011 NCAA Tournament and advanced to the Elite 8 before losing to Notre Dame.
"We are aiming high and have great expectations for this season," Lady Vol head coach Pat Summitt said.
"Starting out at number three in the AP poll is a good beginning," she continued. "We will quickly see how far we have to go to be able to cut down nets. Seven of our first 10 games will be against ranked opponents - all before Christmas."
Coach Summitt was referring to the stretch of games against No. 7 Miami (Nov.15), No.1 Baylor (Nov. 27), No. 24 Texas (Dec. 4), vs. No. 19 DePaul (Dec. 11), at No. 16 Rutgers (Dec. 13), at No. 22 UCLA (Dec. 17) and at No. 5 Stanford (Dec. 20).
This marks the 30th time the Lady Vols have started out the preseason AP poll ranked among the top five teams.
The Baylor Lady Bears are ranked at the top for the first time in the preseason women's basketball poll by the AP. They started last year at No. 2 before ascending to No. 1 in early January for the first time in school history. The Lady Bears finished with a No. 3 ranking and will visit Knoxville on Sun., Nov. 27 in a game to be televised by ESPN.
Baylor received 33 of 40 first-place votes Saturday from a national media panel. The Lady Bears became the first Big 12 school to be ranked No. 1 to start the season since Texas in 1985 and 1986.
Notre Dame drew six first-place votes and was second, with Tennessee, Connecticut and Stanford rounding out the first five. The No. 2 ranking is the Irish's best since the final poll of 2001 when they also were ranked second. The Lady Vols travel to South Bend, Ind., on Mon., Jan. 23.
The Lady Bears could meet the Irish in the Preseason WNIT final in mid-November.
Notre Dame returns four starters, including guard Skylar Diggins, from last season's squad that lost to Texas A&M in the national championship game.
"I think there are a few teams that could win it this year," Irish coach Muffet McGraw said.
UConn has dominated the poll the last few years, holding the No. 1 ranking for a record 51 consecutive weeks. It returns four starters from last season's Final Four squad.
Texas A&M is sixth, receiving the other first place vote.
Miami, which was picked to win the Atlantic Coast Conference for the first time, was seventh. It's the best ranking for the Hurricanes since they finished the 1992 poll at No. 6. Tennessee and Miami meet for the first time ever in the State Farm Tipoff on Nov. 15 in Knoxville.
"That's a really big honor," Miami coach Katie Meier said. "It's a moment for us. We're going to have fun with it. You're a fool if you don't take a moment to step away and enjoy it."
Duke, Louisville, and Georgetown round out the first 10. It's the highest ranking ever for the Hoyas.
Maryland was 11th, followed by Penn State, Georgia, Florida State and Oklahoma. The last time the Nittany Lions were ranked this high was in the final poll of 2004 when they were fifth.
Rutgers was 16th followed by Purdue, Kentucky, DePaul and North Carolina.
LSU, UCLA, Southern California, Texas, and St. John's round out the poll. It's the first time USC has been ranked since 2006. The Women of Troy return four starters from last season's team that finished fourth in the conference.
USC is one of eight teams in the poll not ranked at the end of last season. The others are Penn State, Georgia, Rutgers, Purdue, LSU, Texas, and St. John's.
The Big East has seven teams in the Top 25 with the ACC next at five. The SEC and Big 12 have four, the Pac-12 three and Big Ten two. It's the first time there was no team outside the BCS conferences in the Top 25.
Tennessee is scheduled to face 11 teams (in 13 games) ranked in the preseason poll this season.
Associated Press Preseason Poll
Record Pts Finish
1. Baylor (33) 34-3 988 3
2. Notre Dame (6) 31-8 934 9
3. TENNESSEE 34-3 906 4
4. UConn 36-2 876 1
5. Stanford 33-3 852 2
6. Texas A&M (1) 34-5 772 7
7. Miami 28-5 750 11
8. Duke 32-4 705 6
9. Louisville 22-13 690 _
10. Georgetown 24-11 585 22
11. Maryland 24-7 569 16
12. Penn St. 25-10 491 _
13. Georgia 23-11 432 _
14. Florida St. 24-8 428 15
15. Oklahoma 23-12 344 21
16. Rutgers 20-13 283 _
17. Purdue 21-12 277 _
18. Kentucky 25-9 275 17
19. DePaul 29-7 263 10
20. North Carolina 27-9 261 14
21. LSU 19-13 228 _
22. UCLA 28-5 175 8
23. Southern Cal 24-13 158 _
24. Texas 19-14 152 _
25. St. John's 22-11 151 _
Others receiving votes: Ohio St. 118, Michigan St. 95, Gonzaga 57, Texas Tech 41, Green Bay 32, Iowa 20, California 19, Georgia Tech 17, Kansas St. 15, Iowa St. 12, Xavier 6, Dayton 4, Marist 4, Temple 4, Vanderbilt 4, Florida 2, Oral Roberts 2, Delaware 1, Marquette 1, Pittsburgh 1.
2011-12 Tennessee opponents in bold italics.
