With most major conference tournaments in the books, South Carolina holds a narrow lead in the penultimate USA TODAY Sports women’s basketball coaches poll before the start of the NCAA Tournament.
The Gamecocks suffered only their second loss of the season in the SEC tournament final to Kentucky but retain the No. 1 ranking by a four-point margin over No. 2 Stanford. It is the closest voting since early January following the Gamecocks’ first loss, when they held the lead in the poll by just two points ahead of Louisville.
This week, the Gamecocks retained 19 of 32 first-place votes, with 12 going to the Cardinal following their run to the Pac-12 championship.