Tennessee on top

Lady Vols still No. 1, Scarlet Knights move into top 10

Posted: Monday November 28, 2005 4:10PM; Updated: Monday November 28, 2005 4:35PM

NCAA Basketball Power Rankings
Rank	LW	Team
1	1	Tennessee Lady Vols (5-0) Candace Parker has proven to be worth the wait. She leads the unbeaten Lady Vols with 15.6 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. Shanna Zolman (14.6 ppg.) continues to be a big threat from outside while sophomore guard Alexis Hornbuckle is putting up 11.4 points a game. With that kind of balance, it's no wonder the Lady Vols beat their first five opponents so badly, winning by an average of 27.8 points.
2	2	LSU Lady Tigers (4-0) Texas Tech challenged LSU in the season-opener in Lubbock, but the Lady Tigers have had no trouble since slipping out of west Texas with the win. They seem to be faring better at the point guard spot than many expected with RaShonta LaBlanc stepping in nicely. The 5-foot-7 sophomore has dished 20 assists in the first four games while turning the ball over just four times. It doesn't hurt to have Player of the Year candidate Seimone Augustus to work with either.
3	3	North Carolina Tar Heels (4-0) The speed of North Carolina is wreaking havoc on opponents. The Tar Heels' first four foes combined for 94 turnovers. Junior guard Ivory Latta makes teams pay for their mistakes while averaging 22.7 points a game. She's not just doing it against weak non-conference teams either: Latta put up 28 in North Carolina's win over Arizona State. Next week, Latta and the Tar Heels face a test against another strong team when they travel to Connecticut.
4	5	Baylor Lady Bears (6-0) No Steffanie Blackmon. No Chelsea Whitaker. No problem for the defending national champions. Abiola Wabara is doing just fine inside as Blackmon's replacement. Angela Tisdale is off to a fine start as Whitaker's replacement at the point providing the Lady Bears with a little more scoring at the position. She proved that against two of the best backcourts in the country, scoring 19 points against Georgia and 23 against UCLA.
5	6	Duke Blue Devils (5-0) The The Blue Devils are certainly taking advantage of the depth they've lacked for so long. Every player is logging at least 14 minutes a game. Four are averaging more than 11 points. The Blue Devils are doing it efficiently too, shooting 55 percent from the field. That why nobody has come close to knocking off Duke. Penn State fared the best and it lost by 26.
6	7	Ohio St. Buckeyes (3-0) All-America center Jessica Davenport has picked up where she left off. She leads Ohio State with 20.7 points and 11.7 rebounds per game. Her defensive skills haven't slipped either. Davenport blocked seven shots in the first three games of the season. Still, the Buckeyes have yet to face a challenge. That will change in the next couple of weeks, though. Ohio State will take on Boston College, USC and LSU in December.
7	9	Connecticut Huskies (5-0) It wasn't the national title, but the Huskies did win the preseason WNIT, knocking off a strong Oklahoma team in the process. Leading scorer Mel Thomas, the tournament MVP, is proving to be a formidable threat from the perimeter. Thomas is hitting 57 percent from 3-point range. Connecticut has balance, too. Thomas, Charde Houston and Ann Strother have led the Huskies. Houston is averaging 12.6 points in just 16 minutes a game.
8	11	Rutgers Scarlet Knights (2-0) The Scarlet Knights have only played two games, but they've done just fine so far. Senior Cappie Pondexter is running the show. She put up 44 points in those first two games and already picked up an MVP award at the Junkanoo Jam. Pondexter and the rest of the Rutgers backcourt are once again tough to slow.