Utes Crack Top 25 For First Time

This time, Utah got noticed.

Off to its best start and with some good victories on the road, Utah broke into The Associated Press women’s basketball poll on Monday for the first time history.

The Utes (11-0) were voted into the No. 22 spot by a national media panel, which again made Tennessee a unanimous choice at No. 1. Utah became just the third Western Athletic Conference team to gain a national ranking, following Brigham Young and San Diego State.

“This is a nice thing for the program and our players, and it’s a good thing for the Western Athletic Conference,” Utah coach Elaine Elliott said. “This isn’t the first time we played a tough schedule and had success against ranked teams, but the formula just seemed to work this time.”

Tulane also was new to the Top 25, returning after a two-week absence. Voters made room for the newcomers by dropping Colorado, which lost twice in the past week, and Arkansas.

Tennessee received all 38 first-place votes after decisively answering two more challenges. Playing for the first time in nearly two weeks, the Lady Vols (15-0) routed Arkansas by 30 points and beat Connecticut by 15.

Their 950 points in the voting were 38 more than Old Dominion (10-0), which was second for the seventh straight week, the same span that Tennessee has been unanimous. Tennessee has led the poll all season.

Connecticut (12-1) remained third with 850 points despite the loss to Tennessee, its first during the regular season in 53 games. Louisiana Tech (10-2) stayed at No. 4 with 842 points.

Texas Tech climbed two places to fifth and was followed by Vanderbilt, Washington, North Carolina, Virginia and Arizona. North Carolina fell three places after losing its ACC opener to Clemson.

Big Ten victories over Wisconsin and Michigan State and a 40-point thrashing of Colorado sent Illinois from 13th to 11th. Then it was Florida, Southwest Missouri State and Stanford, followed by Wisconsin, Nebraska, North Carolina State, Auburn, Western Kentucky and Georgia.

The final five were Florida International, Utah, Purdue, Tulane and Duke.

Utah has long been a solid program under Elliott, who has guided the Utes to seven NCAA tournament appearances.

A victory over Arkansas at a tournament in Texas gave Utah some acclaim this season, as did road wins over Kansas State and Montana.