While there’s still a lot of basketball to be played this season, the South Carolina Gamecocks women’s college hoops team clearly still has a lot of work and development to do if they’re to realize their NCAA championship aspirations this season.
The Gamecocks finished the 2023-24 season with a perfect 38-0 record, which concluded with them beating Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes in the 2024 NCAA national championship game. Then Dawn Staley’s squad began the 2024-25 season with five straight wins before falling to the UCLA Bruins. While this early-season loss raised a lot of alarms around the Gamecocks program, if only because the team hadn’t experienced defeat in so long, losses like these happen against other great teams.
South Carolina responded to that loss (and several other defeats they suffered in the regular season) by advancing all the way to the 2025 NCAA championship game, where they were ultimately beaten by the UConn Huskies.
Nov 23, 2025; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley speaks with guard Ta’Niya Latson (00) against the Queens Royals in the second half at Colonial Life Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-Imagn Images | Jeff Blake-Imagn Images
This is why South Carolina fans shouldn’t be too concerned about the team’s 66-64 defeat to the Texas Longhorns that occurred on November 27. While this loss might sting a bit more than the non-conference loss the Gamecocks were handed last season, the bottom line is that there’s plenty of time for Dawn Staley to right the ship and make this defeat a distant memory.
South Carolina Drops Spot in AP Rankings After Loss to Texas
The updated AP Top 25 Women’s Basketball Rankings were released on December 1, and there was some movement among the country’s top teams.
South Carolina dropped from No. 2 to No. 3 in the rankings, largely because of their loss to the Longhorns. As for Texas, they jumped from No. 4 to No. 2 after they beat the Gamecocks and the previously No. 3-ranked UCLA Bruins (who fell to No. 4) this past week.
There was no other movement inside the top 10. The UConn Huskies are still the country’s No. 1-ranked team, and the LSU Tigers, the Michigan Wolverines, the Maryland Terrapins, the TCU Horned Frogs, the Oklahoma Sooners, and the Iowa State Cyclones made up the six through 10 spots in that order.
The AP Poll is out and Texas has officially jumped to No. 2 behind No. 1 UConn after beating UCLA and South Carolina last week. Rest of top ten stays relatively the same.
1. UConn
2. Texas
3. South Carolina
4. UCLA
5. LSU
6. Michigan
7. Maryland
8. TCU
9. Oklahoma
10. Iowa State
— chelsea leite (@chelsealeite) December 1, 2025
The Gamecocks have a relatively tough match against the No. 22-ranked Louisville Cardinals on December 4 and then have a pretty easy slate of games through the rest of December. SEC Conference play begins for them against Alabama on January 1, and that’s when the real fun should begin for Staley’s squad.
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