JuJu Watkins returned to USC, and the Trojans opened with two wins. UConn lost at Michigan, then answered with a win over Iowa. Those different first weeks left the teams one point apart in the November 9 AP poll, USC third with 734 and UConn fourth with 733.
The order is even closer within the group that submitted preseason ballots. Those 31 returning voters gave each team exactly 688 points this week. The women's panel has two additional ballots, and their combined scoring favored USC by one point.
That arithmetic explains the final margin. The larger ballot distributions show why it should not be treated as evidence of much separation between the teams.
USC Gets Watkins Back as UConn Answers a Loss
Watkins scored 21 points in USC's 100–68 season-opening win over UNLV on November 2. Jazzy Davidson scored 23 and freshman Saniyah Hall added 22. USC's official account identified it as Watkins' first game in 588 days.
The Trojans then beat Utah State 118–40, with Watkins recording 32 points and 16 rebounds. That gave USC a productive opening week while keeping the question of how it will fare against stronger opposition ahead of it.
UConn's week offered a different combination. The Huskies lost 77–66 at Michigan, then beat Iowa 91–79 with 39 points from Sarah Strong. The Iowa result belongs beside the Michigan loss in assessing a week that ended with UConn falling two poll positions.
USC remained third, but that unchanged ranking also conceals a shift. Eighteen of the 31 returning voters raised the Trojans, five lowered them and eight kept them in place. Among the same voters, UConn was lowered on 28 ballots, raised on one and unchanged on two.
Two Additional Ballots, One Point of Difference
AP scoring gives 25 points for first, 24 for second and so on. Ethan Fuller ranked USC second and UConn fourth, worth 24 and 22 points. Mel Greenberg ranked UConn third and USC fourth, worth 23 and 22.
Together, those ballots contributed 46 points to USC and 45 to UConn. Added to the returning voters' 688–688 tie, they produce the official 734–733 order. The two additional voters disagreed about which team belonged higher; their different gaps supplied a net one-point USC advantage.
This comparison isolates where the final margin appears in the scoring. It does not give those ballots a different status from the other 31, all of which count toward the same published result.
USC Has More Higher Placements and a Wider Range
Twenty of the 33 voters rank USC above UConn, while 13 put UConn higher. USC therefore leads both in points and in the number of ballots that prefer it to the Huskies.
The totals nearly converge because the distances between placements also matter. USC's rankings span first through tenth, while every UConn placement falls between second and fifth. USC's larger group of favorable comparisons does not translate into a large aggregate lead across those different distributions.
The first week has supplied new evidence about both teams: Watkins is back on the court, and UConn has both a loss to the new No. 2 and a win over a preseason top-10 opponent. The ballots place them alongside each other after those tests. USC has the narrow advantage in the submitted rankings; a one-point margin leaves substantial room for the basketball ahead to change that order.
Sources & Methodology
AP preseason ballots and November 9 Week 1 ballots supply the rankings and calculations. All 31 preseason voters return, with Ethan Fuller and Mel Greenberg supplying the two additional ballots. The returning-panel comparison uses their Week 1 submissions, not their preseason points. Both teams appear on all 33 ballots, so all 33 contribute to the pairwise count. Game results and player statistics come from the linked official school sources.
USC
UConn
