USC women inside Top 5 of ‘way-too-early’ poll for 2016-17 season

ESPN.com writer Charlie Creme is high on the South Carolina women’s basketball team heading into the 2016-17 season.

The Gamecocks are No. 3 in Creme’s “way-too-early” Top 25 for next season, ahead of defending national champion Connecticut at No. 4. In fact, Creme projects a wide-open season ahead with the Huskies losing so much talent.

“The reign of Connecticut, at least as the dominant, immovable force in the game, is over,” he wrote.

Notre Dame and Louisville are Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in the early ranking by Creme, who is known for his NCAA women’s tournament bracket projections each year.

He wrote of the Gamecocks: “The loss of Tiffany Mitchell – the heart and soul of the Gamecocks’ rise to prominence – certainly hurts, but Dawn Staley adds a pair of all-conference-caliber transfers from the ACC: Kaela Davis from Georgia Tech and Allisha Gray from North Carolina. They were each top scoring options at their respective schools in 2014-15 and give South Carolina the wing shooting that was a weakness the past two seasons. SEC player of the year A’ja Wilson and Alaina Coates are both back in the post. Bianca Cuevas’ play at the point and ability to get the ball to all of these weapons in the right spots will be the key.”

South Carolina won the SEC regular season title and postseason tournament and finished the season 33-2 after a Sweet 16 loss to Syracuse.

“It’s obvious we had expectations of going further than the Sweet 16,” coach Dawn Staley said earlier this week while wrapping her season. “How we move forward will be on us as a coaching staff and on the players to just commit ourselves to when we get to that point again, to not be denied.”

View the full way-too-early Top 25 here.

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 4:07 PM with the headline "USC women inside Top 5 of ‘way-too-early’ poll for 2016-17 season."