A&M Women Receive Votes in AP Poll

January 16, 2006

The Texas A&M women's basketball team received votes in The Associated Press women's college basketball poll this week for the first time since January of 2001.

The Aggies, who are off to their first 14-3 start since 1994 when it started 15-3, received 10 votes in the weekly top 25 poll for the first time since a four-week stretch that ended on January 9, 2001.

A&M has not been ranked in the top 25 since March 11, 1996 when it won the final Southwest Conference Tournament and received an automatic bid into the NCAA Championship.

The Aggies beat a pair of teams this past week that were receiving votes. A&M beat Kansas State (66-39) at home before beating Kansas (78-64) on the road. Kansas State is again receiving votes this week.

A&M's losses are to current No. 10 DePaul on a neutral court (84-71), at Hawaii (68-66), and at Texas Tech (56-55). Two of A&M's three losses are by a combined three points.

If the Aggies crack the top 25 in the coming weeks, A&M coach Gary Blair would become just the eighth coach to take three different teams into the AP Top 25 since the poll's inception. He took Stephen F. Austin and Arkansas into the top 25 when he was each school's head coach.

Blair would become one of four active coaches to have taken three different schools to the top 25. The other three active coaches are C. Vivian Stringer at Rutgers, Jim Foster at Ohio State, and Sharon Fanning at Tennessee-Chattanooga.

Blair ranks No. 16 among active coaches in all-time top 25 weekly appearances with 146.

The Aggies will play at No. 8-ranked Baylor (12-2, 2-2) on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

AP Poll Notes for Texas A&M and Coach Gary Blair

• It marks the first time that Texas A&M has received votes in the AP Top 25 Poll since Jan. 9, 2001. A&M received votes for a four week stretch ending with the Jan. 9, 2001 poll. (A&M started that 2000-01 season 10-1 enroute to 11-3).
• Only seven coaches have had three different schools in the AP Top 25 Poll:
  • *C. Vivian Stringer-Cheyney, Iowa, Rutgers
    
  • *Jim Foster--Saint Joseph's, Vanderbilt, Ohio St.
    
  • Lin Dunn--Miami, Mississippi, Purdue
    
  • *Sharon Fanning--Kentucky, Miss. St, Tenn.-Chattannoga
    
  • Don Perrelli--Northwestern, S. Conn., St. John's
    
  • Marianne Stanley--Old Dominion, Southern Cal, Stanford
    
  • Debbie Yow--Florida, Kentucky, Oral Roberts
    WITHIN REACH:
    
  • *Gary Blair-Stephen F. Austin, Arkansas, Texas A&M
    *active college head coach
    
• A&M's last appearance in the AP poll came on March 11, 1996 following winning the Southwest Conference Tournament.
• A&M's highest ranking in the AP poll was No. 18 on Jan. 24, 1995.

Associated Press Women's Top 25

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press' women's college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Jan. 15, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week's ranking:

 Record Pts Pvs 1. Tennessee (35) 17-0 1,138 1 2. Duke (9) 16-0 1,108 2 3. LSU (2) 14-0 1,064 3 4. North Carolina 16-0 1,014 4 5. Connecticut 15-2 918 7 6. Maryland 14-2 915 6 7. Ohio St. 13-2 851 8 8. Baylor 12-2 792 5 9. Rutgers 12-2 790 10 10. DePaul 16-1 742 11 11. Purdue 13-2 723 12 12. Michigan St. 13-5 561 9 13. Georgia 12-4 551 13 14. Stanford 11-4 543 14 15. Arizona St. 14-3 527 15 16. Minnesota 11-4 495 17 17. Oklahoma 13-4 461 16 18. Virginia Tech 14-1 322 21 19. Vanderbilt 13-4 251 23 20. New Mexico 13-4 244 18 21. Temple 12-4 165 19 22. Boston College 12-5 154 22 23. BYU 13-1 108 - 24. Notre Dame 10-5 97 20 25. George Washington 11-4 78 - 

Others receiving votes: N.C. State 75, Southern Cal 56, Missouri 53, Louisville 44, Washington 26, Utah 22, Florida 13, Texas A&M 10, Texas 9, St. John's 8, Kentucky 7, Kansas St. 3, Pittsburgh 3, UCLA 3, Iowa 2, Texas Tech 2, Indiana St. 1, Montana 1.