Holidays are over and we are back with Women’s basketball power rankings! Below are your first power rankings since conference play started. These rankings are based on games played through January 1st.
1. South Dakota (90 points | 9 first-place votes) The Yotes are off to a terrific 4-0 start after beating Oral Roberts, Kansas City, UND, and NDSU by an average of 27 points. Last Week: 1
2. South Dakota State (81 points) SDSU is also off to a strong 4-0 start with wins over Kansas City, Oral Roberts, UND, and NDSU. Balanced scoring as been their forte thus far. Last Week 3
3. Western Illinois (63 points). Western Illinois is off to a 2-1 start in conference play. They defeated Denver and Omaha before falling to St. Thomas 64-66. Last Week: 2
4. St. Thomas (56 points) Undoubtedly the largest jump in the standings belongs to the Tommies. Last time, all the voters had them in last place. Well, this week they received votes as high as third place after starting conference play 2-1. After losing to Omaha to start conference play, they picked up wins over Denver and Western Illinois. Last week: 10
5. NDSU (54 points) Having your first three games of the year against teams from North and South Dakota can be challenging. Having those games all on the road, well, that can be downright cruel. After picking up a win at UND, the Bison dropped the next two games to SDSU and USD. Last Week: 5
6. Kansas City (53 points) The voters were pretty split on having KC and NDSU at 5/6. Unfortunately, two of Kansas City’s four scheduled games were canceled due to COVID-19. The Roos dropped a pair of losses to USD and SDSU to start conference play. Games against Denver and Omaha were canceled. Last Week: 4
7. Oral Roberts (40 points) Oral Roberts dropped the first two games to USD and SDSU before picking up a road win at Omaha. Last Week: 7
8. Denver (24 points) Denver is off to an 0-2 start after dropping games at Western Illinois and St. Thomas. Their games against Oral Roberts and Kansas City were canceled. Last week: 6
9. Omaha (22 points) After picking up a win at St. Thomas, Omaha proceeded to lose the next two games against Western Illinois and Oral Roberts. Last week: 9
10. North Dakota (12 points) A close lose to rival NDSU was followed by a less-than-pretty road trip to the 605, as UND also dropped games at USD and SDSU to start the season 0-3. Last week: 8