Notre Dame leads way in way-too-early preseason top 25 rankings

CHARLIE CREME via <a href="http://espn.go.com/" title="ESPN" class="espn_sc_byline">ESPN </a>

April 18, 2016, 5:03 PM ET

3 min read

— -- The season that the rest of women's basketball has waited for will finally arrive. The reign of Connecticut, at least as the dominant, immovable force in the game, is over. The 2016-17 season looks to be as wide open as any season in more than a decade (even in 2011, when Texas A&M and Notre Dame met for the championship, UConn and Baylor entered the season as big favorites).

Certainly teams can change before next season tips off, with player transfers, coaching changes and injuries. But it's time to start looking ahead.

2. Louisville
Jeff Walz brings everyone back from a team that lost just one game in the ACC in 2016 and adds one of the nation's best high school post players in Ciera Johnson from Duncanville, Texas. Myisha Hines-Allen made a huge ascent from her freshman to sophomore seasons when she won the media's vote for ACC player of the year (Notre Dame's Turner was the ACC coaches' pick for player of the year). Asia Durr could be that player in 2017. Mariya Moore remains an all-conference level player.

3. South Carolina
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.

5. Baylor
As good as Nina Davis has been in her three years in Waco, she has never been to a Final Four. The Lady Bears have lost in the Elite Eight each season. Breaking through won't be easy with the loss of Niya Johnson, one of the best pure point guards of the last decade, but Baylor returns everyone else of significance. The Lady Bears are already physically imposing with 6-foot-7 Kalani Brown, 6-3 Khadijiah Cave and 6-4 Beatrice Mompremier. And Kim Mulkey has added the No. 1 recruit in the nation, versatile 6-4 Lauren Cox.