Defending champion UConn picked up where it left off as the No. 1 team in the country in The Associated Press Top 25 preseason women's basketball poll released Tuesday.

The Huskies received 27 first-place votes from a 31-member national media panel. South Carolina, last season’s runner-up to UConn, was picked second in the poll and garnered the other four first-place votes. It’s the fifth time in the last six years that Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks were picked in the top five of the preseason poll. UCLA and Texas were third and fourth and LSU was fifth.

Oklahoma was sixth, the Sooners’ highest preseason ranking since they were fourth in 2008. Duke, Tennessee, N.C. State and Maryland rounded out the top 10.

Led by sensational sophomore Sarah Strong and super senior Azzi Fudd, Geno Auriemma'

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