Dawn Plitzuweit's program is ranked No. 17 in the preseason AP Top 25. The team posted the news with "Starting the season at No. 17." It's the first time Minnesota has been ranked in a preseason poll since 2019, and it's the payoff for a breakthrough 2025-26 season.
The ranking comes with a big blow, though. Tori McKinney, Minnesota's leading scorer, is out for the season after hurting her knee in practice last week. A team that was built to bring back its top 3 scorers now has to replace one of them before the first game.
The No. 17 spot is about last March. Minnesota went 24-9 and tied for 4th in the Big Ten. As a 4 seed, the Gophers made their first NCAA Tournament since 2018 and beat Green Bay and Mississippi to reach the Sweet 16, their first since 2005. Top-ranked UCLA ended their run there. Minnesota finished No. 15 in the final AP poll.
Without McKinney, more falls on junior guard Mara Braun and guard Grace Grocholski, the other two of last year's top 3 scorers. The Gophers also have to replace 4-year starting point guard Amaya Battle, post Sophie Hart and backup post Finau Tonga. The new players include 2 transfers, Gracie Merkel from Penn State and Tayla Thomas from Northwestern, plus point guard Leah Harmon, who comes from Miami and UCF and is recovering from knee surgery. Natalie Kussow and Tori Oehrlein join as freshman guards. Braun said the group is "shooting for even further" than the Sweet 16.
Big Ten play will be hard every night. The conference put 9 teams in the preseason Top 25, the most ever for 1 league. USC is No. 3, Michigan No. 5, Iowa No. 10, UCLA No. 11 and Washington No. 16. Ohio State is right behind Minnesota at No. 18, followed by Maryland at No. 20 and Illinois at No. 23. South Carolina is No. 1 with 23 of 31 first-place votes.
The program has also released tip times for the full schedule, and season tickets are on sale now. The season opens November 2 against Harvard.
