UCLAReported Analysis · AP Women's Basketball · 2026–27 Preseason
UCLA Begins at No. 11 After Six Championship Players Are Drafted
By Poll Behavior ·
UCLANo. 11UCLA opens the AP women's basketball preseason poll at No. 11 after winning the 2026 NCAA championship. The team being ranked has changed substantially: six Bruins were selected in April's WNBA draft, including five in the first round.
Those departures set two single-school draft records, according to UCLA's official report. Lauren Betts, Gabriela Jaquez, Kiki Rice, Angela Dugalić and Gianna Kneepkens went in the first round; Charlisse Leger-Walker followed in the second. The WNBA's draft report corroborates the six-player and five-first-round records.
The October 20 poll gives the new Bruins 442 points. Thirty of the 31 voters include them, with placements ranging from third to 23rd. That is broad inclusion accompanied by substantially different expectations of where UCLA belongs.
Where the Support Settles
Eleven voters place UCLA in the top 10. The largest concentration comes immediately below that boundary: seven rank it 11th and five 12th. Two put it outside their top 20, including the one who leaves it off the ballot.
| Placement | Ballots |
|---|---|
| Top 10 | 11 |
| 11th–15th | 17 |
| 19th or 23rd | 2 |
| Not Ranked | 1 |
AP gives 25 points for first place, declining by one per position through one for 25th. An omission earns none. UCLA's 442 points therefore combine markedly different evaluations, from 23 points for its third-place vote to no points from the omitted ballot.
The average among its 30 included placements is 11.27. That figure excludes the omission; it describes where the voters who ranked UCLA placed it, rather than inventing a position for the remaining voter.
Last season's championship establishes what the departed group helped accomplish. The draft establishes how much personnel changed before the current poll.
The Bruins begin with a place on nearly every ballot and a wide spread in assigned positions. Replacing a record draft class gives that uncertainty a concrete setting. Whether the new roster can approach the championship team's level remains to be demonstrated on the court, beyond what this preseason distribution can establish.
Sources & Methodology
Complete poll and ballots; preseason Insights; official UCLA draft announcement, April 13, 2026; WNBA draft report, April 14, 2026. Poll Behavior calculated the distribution and ranked-only mean from the current 31-ballot panel, with 30 included placements. The championship reference is to UCLA's first NCAA title; the program also won the AIAW title in 1978.
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UCLA Begins at No. 11 After Six Championship Players Are Drafted
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