Dayton flies into top 25

Dayton jumped into the AP women's basketball Top 25 for the first time in school history, while Connecticut remained an unanimous No. 1 for the 19th consecutive poll.

The 25th-ranked Flyers (6-1) passed their first test as a Top 25 team Monday night beating Illinois-Chicago 73-46. Coach Jim Jabir was thrilled his team made the poll.

"That's awesome," Jabir said. "Seven years ago we won three games. Any coach pours their heart and soul into their program and to gain that kind of recognition for our school is special. My 12-year-old son Jackson would check every day where we were in the rankings. Now he'll see us there."

The Huskies received all 40 first-place votes Monday from the national media panel. They have been the AP's top team the past 28 polls.

The first nine teams remained the same for a third straight week after going a combined 23-0 with a 29-point average margin of victory last week. Connecticut eased through another week, winning the WBCA Classic. The Huskies routed Hofstra, Richmond, and Clemson by an average of 44 points.

Stanford was No. 2, followed by No. 3 Ohio State, No. 4 North Carolina and Notre Dame. Tennessee was sixth, followed by LSU, Baylor, Xavier and Texas A&M.

The Flyers started drawing attention to themselves when they opened with a 77-74 win against then-No. 10 Michigan State. Dayton almost pulled off a second straight upset two days later before falling to then-No. 23 Louisville 65-63. They've won all four games since, including a victory at Purdue.

Jabir debated whether to let his young team know they were ranked before their game Monday.

"First I wasn't going to tell them until afterwards," Jabir said. "But they are always checking the internet and I want to make sure we put it in perspective. I didn't want them finding out on their own and going off on all different directions."

Duke fell a spot to 11th despite two blowout victories in Cancun. The Blue Devils were followed by Florida State, Georgia, Virginia and Arizona State. Vanderbilt moved up five spots to 16th. Texas dropped four places to 17th after going 2-1 in the Paradise Jam. The Longhorns, who play at Tennessee on Sunday, were followed by Oklahoma, Pittsburgh and California.

DePaul, Michigan State, Georgia Tech, Kansas, and Dayton round out the Top 25.

Georgia Tech joined Dayton as the new entries, with Mississippi State and San Diego State dropping out. The Yellow Jackets were ranked 19th in the preseason poll before dropping out the first week.