Women's Fastbreak On SI

Texas Tops AP Women's Basketball Rankings for First Time in Over Two Decades

The Texas Longhorns are atop the AP Women's Basketball Rankings for the first time in 21 years.
Grant Young|
Texas Longhorns forward Madison Booker (35) dribbles the ball in the first half as the Texas Longhorns take on the Vanderbilt Commodores at the Moody Center, Feb. 5, 2025.
Texas Longhorns forward Madison Booker (35) dribbles the ball in the first half as the Texas Longhorns take on the Vanderbilt Commodores at the Moody Center, Feb. 5, 2025. | Sara Diggins/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Texas Longhorns women's basketball team entered their 2024-25 campaign as a favorite to win a national championship. Given they have a deep roster that's anchored by superstar sophomore Madison Booker, it seemed that they had as good of a chance as any to secure their program's first national title since 1986.

Then the Longhorns suffered a devastating overtime defeat to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in early December. A little more than a month later, they were beaten by 17 points by the defending champion South Carolina Gamecocks.

While this might have caused some to doubt whether Texas was truly a title contender, they have since quelled any doubts since that last defeat, rattling off a 10-game win streak that includes avenging that loss to South Carolina along with beating other top-25 teams like Maryland, Tennessee, Kentucky, and the LSU Tigers on February 16.

And as a result of this recent run, the Longhorns have become the country's No. 1 ranked team in the most recent AP rankings, which were updated on Monday.

This means Texas has now earned its first No. 1 AP ranking for the first time since Feb. 16, 2004, which is almost exactly 21 years ago.

There's still a lot more season to play, and Texas still has several tough tests ahead of them as they get into the postseason. But they've put themselves in a great position to earn a top seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament and perhaps make a deep run to realize their national championship dreams.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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