UConn (19-0) was a unanimous choice for the fourth consecutive week and led a top five that was unchanged from the previous poll. Kansas was the poll's only newcomer, returning at No. 25 after a one-week absence.

Louisiana Tech was second, Georgia third, Tennessee fourth and Notre Dame fifth.

Connecticut had one of its toughest games of the season last week, beating Boston College 84-77 before routing Miami 84-36. The Huskies received all 44 first-place votes from the national media panel and had 1,100 points -- 62 more than Louisiana Tech.

The longest previous stint at No. 1 for Connecticut came in the 1996-97 season, when the Huskies led the poll the final 12 weeks.

Louisiana Tech (14-2) beat Arkansas-Little Rock 95-52 in its only game last week. That game was played the morning after it was scheduled because of a snowstorm. The Lady Techsters' game with Arkansas State on Saturday was postponed.

Georgia (21-2), the first Division I team to reach 20 victories, was just 19 points behind Louisiana Tech in the voting. The Lady Bulldogs are coming off solid wins over Mississippi and Vanderbilt.

Tennessee (16-3), which had not been sharp in recent games, returned to form with one-sided victories over North Carolina State and Kentucky. Notre Dame (17-2) beat St. John's and Georgetown to run its winning streak to 13.

Penn State climbed one place to sixth and LSU jumped five places to seventh, the Lady Tigers' highest ranking since they held the No. 7 spot the week of Jan. 15, 1984. LSU climbed after beating Mississippi State on Sunday.

Iowa State, Texas Tech and Rutgers completed the top ten.

The 83-63 loss to Tennessee sent North Carolina State from eighth to 11th, Duke fell three places to 12th after Sunday's loss to Virginia and Auburn and UC Santa Barbara were tied for 13th. Then it was UCLA, Old Dominion and Purdue, followed by Boston College, Arizona and Mississippi State.

Tulane, Oklahoma, Illinois, Virginia and Kansas held the final five places.

Though nine ranked teams lost during the past week, only Stanford, which had been 24th, dropped out. The Cardinal, who had been in for just one week after being ranked for three weeks early in the season, lost to Washington on Thursday.

Kansas (14-5) returned after an outstanding defensive performance in a 58-49 victory over Iowa State, which had been averaging 80 points a game. The Jayhawks defeated Missouri 90-71 earlier in the week.

Texas Tech matched LSU's climb of five spots with its jump from 14th to ninth. The Lady Raiders have won five straight since a Jan. 8 loss at Oklahoma.

UCLA's fall from 10th to 15th was the biggest drop. The Bruins beat Oregon State but lost at home to Oregon.