See where Nebraska women's basketball landed in preseason AP Top 25 poll
Women鈥檚 basketball rivals Nebraska and Creighton will begin the 2024-2025 college season inside the Associated Press Top 25 rankings.
The AP poll, released Tuesday, has CU 21st and NU 23rd. The Bluejays and Huskers each reached the second round of last year鈥檚 NCAA Tournament and return the bulk of their starting lineups for this season. CU is led by senior and Crete graduate Morgan Maly, while NU is led by Lincoln Pius X graduate Alexis Markowski.
Nebraska and Creighton, which play Nov. 22 in Omaha, each lost top players, too, NU point guard Jaz Shelley exhausted her eligibility while CU forward Emma Ronsiek chose to play her final season at Colorado State with her younger sister. The Bluejays finished 26-6 last season and 23rd in the final AP rankings. Coaches tabbed Creighton 19th in the final rankings. Creighton started last season 22nd in the preseason AP poll.
NU finished 27th and 30th in the final rankings, respectively. Nebraska received votes in the 2023-2024 preseason poll but was not ranked.
The last time both the Bluejays and Huskers were ranked in the AP preseason poll was 2022-2023, when Creighton was 21st and Nebraska was 22nd in both polls.
In the 2024-2025 poll, defending national champion South Carolina is No. 1, followed by Connecticut, Big Ten newcomer USC, Texas and UCLA, also new to the conference. While UConn and Creighton are the only two ranked Big East teams, other ranked Big Ten teams include Ohio State (14th) Maryland (18th) and Indiana (25th).听
Iowa finished just outside the Top 25. It advanced to the last two NCAA finals behind record-breaker Caitlin Clark, who chose to go to the WNBA instead of playing her final year of eligibility for the Hawkeyes. Coach Lisa Bluder also retired. Iowa signed Villanova star Lucy Olsen in part to fill Clark鈥檚 considerable void.