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The Maryland women's basketball team is ranked No. 6 in the season's opening Coaches Poll, released on Thursday.
Connecticut – which beat Maryland in the Final Four en route to a national title last year – is the unanimous No. 1. South Carolina, Notre Dame, Tennessee and Baylor round out the top five, with the Terrapins coming in next.
The Big Ten has three other ranked teams: Ohio State (10), which returns a bunch of rotation players from last year, Iowa (23) and Northwestern (24). The Terps will run into each of those teams in conference play, where they went unbeaten in their first run through the Big Ten a season ago.
| RK | TEAM | RECORD | PTS |
| 1 | Connecticut (32) | 0-0 | 800 |
| 2 | South Carolina | 0-0 | 757 |
| 3 | Notre Dame | 0-0 | 719 |
| 4 | Tennessee | 0-0 | 689 |
| 5 | Baylor | 0-0 | 666 |
| 6 | Maryland | 0-0 | 620 |
| 7 | Florida State | 0-0 | 542 |
| 8 | Louisville | 0-0 | 528 |
| 9 | Oregon State | 0-0 | 460 |
| 10 | Ohio State | 0-0 | 435 |
| 11 | Texas | 0-0 | 429 |
| 12 | Duke | 0-0 | 388 |
| 13 | Mississippi State | 0-0 | 385 |
| 14 | Stanford | 0-0 | 382 |
| 15 | Arizona State | 0-0 | 377 |
| 16 | Texas A&M | 0-0 | 304 |
| 17 | Kentucky | 0-0 | 303 |
| 18 | Oklahoma | 0-0 | 210 |
| 19 | South Florida | 0-0 | 183 |
| 20 | North Carolina | 0-0 | 143 |
| 21 | George Washington | 0-0 | 109 |
| 22 | DePaul | 0-0 | 106 |
| 23 | Iowa | 0-0 | 101 |
| 24 | Northwestern | 0-0 | 98 |
| 25 | Princeton | 0-0 | 84 |
Maryland loses two important guards from last year's team, Laurin Mincy and Lexie Brown, but returns the nucleus of its Final Four team and adds five-star freshman forwards Kiah Gillespie and Brianna Fraser.
The Terps open their season with an exhibition on Halloween against Goldy-Beacom. The regular season starts on Nov. 14 against UMass Lowell at Xfinity Center.