After starving for players early in the season, Iowa coach Angie Lee is feasting now. And loving it.
Iowa returned to the Associated Press women's basketball poll at No. 25 on Monday for the first time since late November, the result of a late-season surge that carried the Hawkeyes to the Big Ten championship. They were ranked as high as 11th early in the season before getting hit by injuries and stumbling to a 3-6 start. But with the injured players returning, Iowa has won 13 of its last 16 and takes a six-game winning streak into the Big Ten tournament.Tennessee remained a unanimous No. 1 in the poll after completing the school's first unbeaten regular season. The top six teams stayed the same and Iowa was the only newcomer.
Connecticut held a 20-point lead over No. 3 Old Dominion, which was followed by Louisiana Tech, Stanford and Texas Tech. Arizona climbed one spot to seventh and Duke jumped three places to eighth, its highest ranking ever. North Carolina State and North Carolina completed the Top Ten.
Florida International also achieved its highest ranking with a jump of two spots to 11th. Then it was Florida, Illinois and Vanderbilt, followed by Virginia, Clemson, Western Kentucky, Utah, Hawaii and Alabama.