Women’s basketball rankings: There’s a new No. 1, but this SEC team looks like the best in the country

UCLA is No. 1 after beating USC, but South Carolina has regained its dominant form.

The Power 4 conference tournaments are in the books and the results of them have shaken up the latest Associated Press Top 25 Poll.

South Carolina won the SEC, TCU captured the Big 12, UCLA finally beat rival USC to take the Big Ten, and Duke upset Notre Dame and N.C. State on its way to winning the ACC for the first time since 2013.

With that, UCLA is the new No. 1 team, retaking the top spot after previously holding it for 12 consecutive weeks earlier this season. South Carolina and UConn also received first-place votes. For its win in Greensboro, North Carolina, Kara Lawson’s Blue Devils jumped from 11th to seventh, tied for the biggest riser this week with Oklahoma State.

Michigan State fell out of the poll after losing to Iowa in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.

Here’s the full AP Top 25 Poll this week as Selection Sunday looms:

1. UCLA
2. South Carolina
3. UConn
4. USC
5. Texas
6. TCU
7. Duke
8. Notre Dame
9. N.C. State
10. LSU
11. Oklahoma
12. North Carolina
13. Kentucky
14. Baylor
15. Ohio State
16. West Virginia
17. Oklahoma State
18. Maryland
19. Kansas State
20. Tennessee
21. Alabama
22. Creighton
23. Florida State
24. South Dakota State
25. Ole Miss

Also receiving votes: Vanderbilt 41, Michigan 31, Michigan St. 24, Iowa 15, Louisville 14, James Madison 13, Georgia Tech 8, California 3, Fairfield 2, UTSA 1.

This writer gave South Carolina his first-place vote after seeing the Gamecocks in-person at the SEC Tournament in Greenville, S.C., where Dawn Staley’s team steamrolled the competition, including previously ranked-No. 1 Texas.

While South Carolina hit a few speed bumps in the regular season — losing to UCLA, Texas and UConn — it feels like the Gamecocks are again playing some of their best basketball and are refocused for another run to the Final Four. South Carolina’s 64-45 win over the Longhorns on Sunday marked its ninth SEC Tournament title in 11 years.

The only real time in Greenville where it felt like the Gamecocks could be in trouble was midway through the fourth quarter of Friday’s quarterfinal game against Vanderbilt, where stellar freshman Mikayla Blakes helped the Commodores trim the deficit to just five points with 4:22 to play. But then Chloe Kitts and MiLaysia Fulwiley stepped on the gas and helped South Carolina end the game on a 16-0 run to take a 19-point win.

Staley’s side followed that up by throttling Raegan Beers and Oklahoma, 93-75, before then topping Texas in the title game.

South Carolina ranks second in Her Hoop Stats Rating, ninth in rebounding and fourth in effective field goal defense. As explained last week, those are the marks of a team capable of winning a national championship.