The Pac-12 may be breaking up soon, but the conference showed during the first week of the women’s basketball season it will be a national player in the sport this year.
Five league teams are now in the top 10 of the latest Associated Press top 25 rankings, released Monday.
UCLA leads the way at No. 3, followed by Utah at No. 4, Colorado at No. 5, Stanford at No. 6 and USC at No. 10.
Washington State also stayed put in the rankings at No. 24.
Both the Bruins (3-0) and Utes (2-0) did what they were expected to do during the season’s first week, winning easily against overmatched competition.
The big movement for the conference came from the Buffaloes, Cardinal and Trojans.
Colorado (3-0) upset then-No. 1 and defending national champion LSU 92-78 on Nov. 6, then won a pair of games to finish out the week. As a result, the Buffaloes jumped a poll-best 15 spots in the AP rankings. LSU, meanwhile, fell to No. 7.
Stanford (2-0) followed a season-opening win over Hawaii with a dominant 96-64 victory over then-No. 9 Indiana — that win vaulted the Cardinal nine spots in the AP poll.
USC (2-0), meanwhile, knocked off then-No. 7 Ohio State in its season opener before later handling Florida Gulf Coast. Those wins pushed the Trojans up 11 spots in the rankings, the second-largest climb of the week.
Washington State (3-0) stayed unbeaten in the early going — needing OT to hold off Gonzaga — to remain ranked.
“Our league is so good, we’ve been preaching it,” Utah coach Lynne Roberts said last Wednesday when asked about the early-season results.
A couple other notable things for Utah basketball from the AP rankings: the No. 4 Utes will play at No. 21 Baylor on Tuesday. The Bears fell two spots after winning their lone game last week.
Also, South Carolina jumped five spots to No. 1 in the AP poll after blowout wins over then-No. 10 Notre Dame and then-No. 14 Maryland. Utah plays South Carolina in a neutral-site matchup on Dec. 10.