LSU Women’s Basketball Rises To No. 5 In Latest AP Poll

By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter

The LSU women’s basketball team checked in at No. 5 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 Poll.

The Tigers jumped Vanderbilt after going 1-1 in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

LSU (27-5, 12-4 Southeastern Conference) earned a dominant 112-78 win over Oklahoma (24-7, 11-5 SEC) before falling in a close 83-78 game to No. 3 South Carolina (31-3, 15-1 SEC). Vanderbilt (27-4, 13-3 SEC) dropped to No. 6, likely due to being one-and-done in the SEC Tournament after an 89-78 loss to Ole Miss (23-11, 8-8 SEC).

After winning the SEC Tournament, Texas (31-3, 13-3 SEC) jumped South Carolina to claim the No. 3 spot in this week’s rankings, while South Carolina slid to No. 4.

LSU is still projected as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, according to ESPN bracketologist Charlie Crème. The Tigers also moved ahead of Vanderbilt in Crème’s projected field of 64, landing as the No. 5 overall team in the bracket.

However, LSU would currently be paired with the nation’s most dominant team, UCLA. The Bruins (31-1, 18-0 Big 10 Conference) are projected as the No. 2 overall team in Crème’s latest bracket, despite holding an 18-1 Quad 1 record compared to UConn (33-0, 20-0 Big East Conference), which sits at 8-0 in Quad 1 games.

Sidenote: The resumes are not even close to comparable; UCLA has to be the #1 overall seed ahead of UConn.

They're going to have 18 Q1 wins vs 8 Q1 wins for UConn.

— Kyle Huesmann (@HuesmannKyle) March 8, 2026

UCLA also owns the No. 1 strength of schedule in the country, compared to UConn’s No. 58-ranked schedule.

Why does this matter for LSU?

The Tigers could avoid a potential matchup with UCLA for the third straight year and instead be paired with the defending national champion Huskies – a matchup that could be much more favorable for LSU.