A record six Pac-12 women's basketball teams ranked in the AP Poll

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A Pac-12-record six teams are ranked in the Associated Press poll this week, UCLA earning a No. 5 rating, its highest since 1999. Five teams are also ranked in the USA Today/WBCA Coaches poll. Along with the Bruins who are No. 4 in the coaches’ poll, OREGON and STANFORD are in the top 15, as well. The Ducks are the 10th-ranked team in the nation for the second-straight week and Stanford is No. 14 in the writers poll and 12th in the coaches. OREGON STATE is No. 18 in the polls, while CALIFORNIA is 21 and 23, respectively. ARIZONA STATE enters the AP poll for the first time this season, coming in at No. 24 ... The Bruins face their second-straight top-five opponent, taking on No. 1/1 Connecticut on Tuesday night on ESPNU. UCLA has a 32-game home-win streak heading into the game, the second-longest active streak in the nation ... Other big scheduled matchups this week are ASU facing No. 7 Mississippi State and OSU traveling to face No. 16 Duke. Other potential matchups could occur depending on results at preseason tournaments ... Just two games into her sophomore season and Sabrina Ionescu tied the Pac-12’s all-time triple-doubles record of six. She is one more triple-double away from, not only breaking the league record, but tying the NCAA record ... UCLA’s Jordin Canada was voted the Pac-12 Player of the Week after leading the Bruins to an upset of then-No. 3 Baylor last week, also becoming just the 10th player in Pac-12 history with 600-career assists ... COLORADO’s Annika Jank is the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week, posting a double-double to upset then-No. 24 Miami.

RECORDS WATCH
Picking up where Pac-12 women’s basketball left off last year with chasing down records, OREGON’s Sabrina Ionescu kicked off the 2017-18 campaign posting a triple-double in the first game of the season and already has two. With those two occurrences, she has already tied the Pac-12 carer mark and is one shy of tying the NCAA record.

NCAA CAREER TRIPLE-DOUBLES
1. Suzie McConnell, Penn State (1985-88) 7
    Louella Tomlinson, Saint Mary’s (2008-11) 7
3. Sabrina Ionescu, Oregon (2016-present) 6*
    Nicole Powell, Stanford (2001-04) 6*
    Danielle Carson, Youngstown State (1982-86) 6
    Alyssa Thomas, Maryland (2011-14) 6
    Samantha Logic, Iowa (2012-15) 6
8. Joskeen Garner, Northwestern State (1993-96) 5
    Shalee Lehning, Kansas State (2006-09) 5
    Brittney Griner, Baylor (2010-13) 5
* Pac-12 career record holder

NCAA Active Leaders
Four Pac-12 players can be found among the NCAA’s active career leaders. UCLA’s Jordin Canada has proven herself to be one of the top point guards in the nation. She currently ranks second in career assists (607) among active players becoming just the 10th player in Conference history to dish out 600 assists. She is also fourth among active leaders with 246 steals.

CALIFORNIA’s Kristine Anigwe currently has the third-best career scoring average among players in the country at 20.7 points per game and her 9.5 career rebounding average is fourth, while OREGON’s Lexi Bando’s 46.1 career three-point percentage is the top-shooting percentage in the nation.

Triple Doubles Galore
OREGON’s Sabrina Ionescu, who is chasing the NCAA and Pac-12 records, and UCLA’s Jordin Canada opened the 2017-18 campaign with a triple-double each and since, have combined for three, giving the Conference 32 instances all-time. Since the start of the 2015-16 campaign, there have been a total of 10 triple-doubles achieved.

Triple-doubles were a rare occurence in the Pac-12 prior to the 2012-13 campaign. From Feb. 1996-Feb. 4, 2012, only two players had achieved the feat with former Stanford standout Nicole Powell accounting for six instances from Feb. 2001-Mar. 2002 and former UCLA great Noelle Quinn had one triple-double to her credit in Feb. 2004. Since Feb. 2012, there has been at least one triple-double each year.

Historic Campaign
Pac-12 women’s basketball is coming off back-to-back historic seasons, sending two teams to the NCAA Women’s Final Four for the first time ever in 2015-16 and following up with a Conference-record seven teams earning NCAA Tournament bids. At least one Pac-12 team has reached the national semifinal round in nine of the last 10 years. League teams have not lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament the last two years, combining for a 12-0 record. Additionally, the Conference has set records for the number of league teams advancing to the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight, with a combined nine teams reaching the round of 16. The Pac-12 has also boasted the top conference RPI in the country the last two seasons.

In addition to the overall success of league teams last year, it was a special campaign following Washington’s Kelsey Plum break the all-time NCAA scoring record and celebrating Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer’s 1,000th-career win, a feat only one other Division women’s basketball head coach had achieved and only two men’s or women’s Division I head coach.

ALL-STAR RETURNS
Nine of the 15 All-Pac-12 honorees return this season, including four of the Conference’s top-five scorers and three of the top-five rebounders. UCLA’s Monique Billings was one of just two players last season to average a double-double, ranking fifth in scoring (16.7) and second in rebounding (10.5). The last two USBWA National Freshmen of the Year are among the all-star returnees, with CALIFORNIA’s Kristine Anigwe earning the honor in 2016 and OREGON’s Sabrina Ionescu picking up the award in 2017. The Pac-12’s assist and assist-to-turnover leader UCLA’s Jordin Canada also returns.

Other All-Pac-12 honorees on team rosters this season are Oregon’s Ruthy Hebard, Oregon State’s Marie Gulich, Colorado’s Kennedy Leonard, Stanford’s Brittany McPhee and USC’s Kristen Simon.

NEW FACES & FAMILIAR FACES
The Pac-12 welcomes a pair of new coaches to the sidelines this season. USC’s Mark Trakh returns for his second stint as head coach of the Trojans. He spent 2005-2009 in Los Angeles, leading USC to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances. Most recently, he was coach at New Mexico State where the team earned three-consecutive NCAA Tournament berths. Jody Wynn takes over at Washington after spending the last eight years as head coach at Long Beach State where she led the team to three-consecutive 20-win campaigns and a NCAA Tournament berth.

ROAD TO COLUMBUS
Teams across the country will be focused on getting to Columbus this season, the site of the 2018 NCAA Women’s Final Four. To get to Columbus, Ohio, teams will have to go through regional sites at Lexington, Ky., Albany, N.Y., Kansas City, Mo., and Spokane, Wash. The first and second round of the tournament will take place on 16 campus sites with the top-16 seeds hosting.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE