Published Oct 19, 2021
NC State women's basketball ranked preseason top five
Matt Carter  •  TheWolfpackCentral
Editor
Twitter
@TheWolfpacker

Fresh off a second straight ACC Tournament title and a run to the Sweet 16 after earning the program's first ever No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, NC State women's basketball is ranked No. 5 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25.

The Wolfpack finished last year 22-3 overall and returns its top eight scorers plus added a talented group of newcomers that included sophomore transfers Diamond Johnson, a second-team All-Big Ten selection at Rutgers, and Madison Hayes, a SEC All-Freshman Team member from Mississippi State.

It is NC State's highest preseason ranking since it was No. 5 in 1979. The highest ever rating to begin the year was No. 4 in 1978.

NC State has now been ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll every week since Dec. 9, 2019 and reached No. 2 last year.

The Pack will open the season Nov. 9 against preseason No. 1 South Carolina in Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh. NC State defeated the Gamecocks, ranked No. 1 at the time, last season in Columbia, S.C.

NC State is also set to take on No. 4 Maryland in the Bahamas on Nov. 25 and No. 8 Indiana on the road Dec. 2 in non-conference play.

The Wolfpack was one of five ACC teams rated, joining Louisville (No. 6), Florida State (No. 16), Georgia Tech (No. 17) and Virginia Tech (No. 24).

Here is the full AP preseason top 25.

Advertisement
Preseason Top 25
RankTeamFirst place votesTotal points

1

South Carolina

14

705

2

Connecticut

10

696

3

Stanford

5

682

4

Maryland

632

5

NC State

589

6

Louisville

575

7

Baylor

522

8

Indiana

521

9

Iowa

513

10

Oregon

479

11

Michigan

403

12

Iowa State

376

13

Kentucky

368

14

Oregon State

273

15

Tennessee

244

16

Florida State

231

T17

Ohio State

197

T17

Georgia Tech

197

19

West Virginia

192

20

UCLA

175

21

South Florida

146

22

Arizona

135

23

Texas A&M

123

24

Virginia Tech

98

25

Texas

79

——

• Talk about it inside The State of Basketball

Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolfpacker

• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolfpacker

• Like us on Facebook