Baylor on top of women's poll; Michigan enters

"Wow, that's really special." Barnes Arico said. "The kids have bought into what we're doing. We have a really great group of seniors that are really experienced."

Baylor remained the top choice for the second straight week, earning 34 first place ballots. The Lady Bears cruised to easy wins over Iowa State and Kansas and now own the longest active conference winning streak, with 32 straight Big 12 victories.

Notre Dame, UConn, Duke and Kentucky round out the first five. The Wildcats switched places with Stanford, which saw its 81-game conference winning streak end with a loss to No. 7 California on Sunday. It's Kentucky's best ranking in nearly 30 years.

Kentucky and Stanford were the only two changes in the first 16 teams in the Top 25. Miami fell out of the poll after losing to both Maryland and Florida State.

Michigan, which was last ranked on Dec. 23, 2002, is 3-0 in Big Ten play for the first time in the history of the program. The Wolverines were coming off a strong season which they won 20 games and earned a trip to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 11 years.

Unlike St. John's, where Barnes Arico built the program up, she knew better than to change much right away at Michigan.

"I came into their program. They had established it, and they had gone to the NCAA tournament, and they had done things," she said. "If I came in and just started saying, 'Heck no, we're doing it this way,' there could have been a revolt."