South Carolina is overwhelming choice for No. 1 in Paste BN Sports women's basketball poll

South Carolina has made an emphatic statement early this season and  is now the near-unanimous No. 1 in the Paste BN Sports women’s basketball coaches poll.

The Gamecocks led the preseason in close balloting with Connecticut and Stanford.  They’ve validated their lofty projection with top-five wins against North Carolina State and the Huskies and received all but one of the 32 first-place votes in the first regular-season poll. UConn remains No. 2 after falling to South Carolina in the final of the Battle 4 Atlantis Championship Bahamas on Monday.

Maryland, off to a 6-0 start, moves up to No. 3. N.C. State is No. 4. Stanford slips to No. 5 after an early loss to No. 16 Texas, but the defending national champion Cardinal still picked up a first-place vote.

TOP 25: Complete Paste BN Sports women's college basketball poll

A couple more Big Ten teams are inside the top 10, with Indiana checking in at No. 6 and Michigan moving up to No. 9. Iowa is just outside at No. 11.

Louisville drops a tick to No. 7, with Baylor holding steady at No. 8. Tennessee climbs to the No. 10 spot after Sunday’s big comeback win against Texas.

No new teams crack the top 25. Georgia Tech, despite a loss over the weekend to Auburn, holds on at No. 25, staving off ACC rival Virginia Tech by 13 poll points.