UConn opens women's hoops season in a familiar place
What else is new?
Connecticut, winner of 10 NCAA women's basketball national championships since 1995, including the last three, is again sitting atop The Associated Press preseason poll. It's the 11th time the Huskies earned the top spot in the poll, which was released on Tuesday.
Most college basketball teams have started playing exhibition games and will break into the regular season next week.
"I think it's part of the culture that we have hopefully created here where the expectations are really high," Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma told The Associated Press. "Not just the outside world's expectations, those are our expectations. We want to be viewed, year in and year out, as one of the best teams in the country."
Connecticut is led by senior forward Breanna Stewart, a two-time Associated Press Player of the Year and a surefire bet to be the No. 1 pick in next spring's WNBA Draft. Morgan Tuck, a redshirt junior from Bolingbrook, is another big talent for the Huskies, who have spent a total of 185 weeks as AP's No. 1 team in the nation.
Tennessee is next on that list with 112 weeks at No. 1.
Notre Dame, which has lost to Connecticut in the national title game the last two seasons, was ranked third in the preseason poll.
Meanwhile, the Big Ten Conference placed four teams in the poll, including Northwestern, which hasn't made the preseason poll since 1990. The Wildcats are ranked No. 19.
Northwestern coach Joe McKeown welcomes back four starters from a 23-win season. All four of those players averaged double-figures, including junior guard Nia Coffey, who led the team last season with 15.7 points and 9 rebounds per game.
Ohio State (No. 6), Maryland (No. 9) and Michigan State (No. 24) also made the poll while two other Big Ten teams, Rutgers and Iowa, received votes.
DePaul was among the teams that received votes as well. The Blue Demons finished 27-8 last year, won the Big East championship and lost to Notre Dame in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Longtime DePaul coach Doug Bruno welcomes back two solid seniors in forward Megan Podkowa (14.2 ppg, 6.4 rpg) and point guard Chanise Jenkins (12.4 ppg, 4.7 apg), both Chicago-area products.
Meanwhile, Northern Illinois begins the Lisa Carlsen era. She was hired during the off-season to become the program's 10th head coach. The head coach at Lewis for the previous eight seasons, Carlsen guided that program to a 148-89 record, four NCAA Division II tournament appearances and two Great Lakes Valley Conference titles.
Spreading their wings:
There's a new (kind of) WNBA team in Texas. New name anyway.
The Tulsa Shock has left Oklahoma after several rough years and has landed in Texas as the Dallas Wings. They were introduced Monday at College Park Center, where they will play their games on the University of Texas campus.
The team logo is a horse (not a unicorn) with wings and the team colors are electric blue and lime green.
The Wings are led by former Notre Dame standout and WNBA all-star Skylar Diggins, who didn't play much last summer due to a season-ending knee injury in the first month of the season.
• Follow Patricia on Twitter @babcockmcgraw. You can contact her via email at pbabcock@dailyherald.com.