ry. It seems all good stories need a bit of irony.There was

Its been 15 years since Muffet McGraw and Notre Dame were No. 1 in the poll.The Irish earned the top spot in The Associated Press womens basketball Tuesday, receiving 14 first-place votes from a 33-member national media panel to earn the top ranking in the preseason. Notre Dame last held the No. 1 ranking on March 5, 2001. McGraw returns most of the core from a team that went 33-2 last season.She was happy for the compliment, but found the ranking a little high considering her team is coming off one of its most disappointing seasons in a few years and didnt reach the Final Four for the first time in six years.Id rather we earned it, McGraw said. Were coming off the worst season weve had in six years, it seems odd that were preseason No. 1. You should have to earn it.McGraw has had a bunch of very good teams over the last 15 seasons that never reached the top spot. There always seemed to be someone just a little bit better.Other teams have had good teams, too. Connecticut has had some pretty good teams in there, McGraw said. There was a year when yeah maybe, Stanford beat Connecticut, but then South Carolina went to No. 1.Baylor was a close second, four points behind the Irish. The Lady Bears garnered 12 first-place votes.Being preseason No. 2 in the country brings great recognition to our school and our program, Lady Bears coach Kim Mulkey said. We welcome it. We have a schedule, nonconference and conference, that will be most challenging early in the season. Its one that I think will help us late in the season.UConn, which has won 75 consecutive games and four straight national championships, was third. The Huskies had been the No. 1 team for the last 24 weeks.I dont think we should be No. 1, UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. I dont think we should be anywhere near the teams that almost went to the Final Four and have everybody back and have all that experience and all that talent. Weve been in those situations before and were not there now. So, wherever they put us, Im OK.South Carolina and Louisville round out the top five teams. Maryland, Ohio State, Texas, UCLA and Mississippi State are next.Tennessee, which had its run of 565 straight weeks ranked in the Top 25 end last season, is back in at No. 13. The Lady Vols have been in each preseason poll except the first one. They are one of four teams not ranked in the final poll thats in the Top 25 now.National runner-up Syracuse was 14th, while Final Four participants Washington and Oregon State were 17th and 25th.The Southeastern Conference leads the way with six teams in the top 25. The Pac-12 and ACC each have five. UConn and 21st-ranked DePaul are the only two schools from non-power five conferences to be ranked.The first regular-season poll will be Monday, Nov. 14, with two big games that night. Baylor hosts UCLA while UConn visits Florida State.Here are a few other poll tidbits:ITS BEEN A WHILE: Missouri is ranked in the preseason for the first time since 1984. The Tigers reached the NCAAs for the first time in a decade and return star Sophia Cunningham. Unfortunately, they already lost second-leading scorer and top rebounder Jordan Frericks and reserve Bri Porter for the season with knee injuries.MISSING TRIANGLE: Duke is not ranked in the preseason for the first time since 1994-95. The Blue Devils arent the only member of Tobacco Road absent from the poll. North Carolina and North Carolina State arent ranked either. Its only the second time in the 41-year history of the poll that none of the three are in the preseason rankings. It also happened in 1986.HOOSIER HYSTERIA: Indiana is ranked for only the third time in the programs history. The No. 23 Hoosiers are coming into the season after equaling a school record with 21 victories and winning the teams first NCAA game. Indiana is led by junior Tyra Buss, who averaged 18.8 points last season.---AP Sports Writer Pat Eaton-Robb contributed to this story from Storrs, Connecticut.---More AP college basketball http://collegebasketball.ap.org Cheap Jordans . -- There were so many positives from the Orlando Magics first victory of the season that it was hard for coach Jacque Vaughn to stop praising his players. Air Jordan Black Friday . It was just business as usual for the Thunder at home. Durant scored 32 points and the Thunder beat the Bulls 107-95 on Thursday night for their eighth straight win. https://www.fakejordanwholesale.com/ . Hazard cut in from the left and scored with a swerving right-footed shot for ninth goal of the season, which proved to be enough for the victory despite Chelseas forwards again lacking a cutting edge up front. Fake Retro Air Jordan . -- Jacksonville wide receiver Cecil Shorts will likely be a game-time decision whether hell play Sunday in the Jaguars home game against the San Diego Chargers. Wholesale Jordans From China .In my heart and mind Im competing for India, luge competitor Shiva Keshavan told The Associated Press in an email interview. Every day Im flooded with messages from Indians all over the world telling me they are supporting me. Rajkot was ready. A man who had grown up among them - in some cases with them - was in the middle. On 99.Whooooooaaaaaaa, they went as the bowler ran in. Oooooohhhhhhh, they sighed when it was defended. They had to wait for a pesky tea interval. Then came a short and wide one outside off.Cheteshwar Pujara dabbed it to the right of point and those wobbly knees, both of which have undergone surgery, got cranking. They beat a direct hit and their owner kept running. Pujara had got his captain up on his feet. And so too his coach. He had given the entire crowd the very thing they would have been talking about since they realised Test cricket was finally coming home.Somewhere in those stands was a man who had sat through the entire days play with his hands folded across his chest. Maybe he thought crossing his fingers just wasnt strong enough. He finally got up, abandoned the pose and probably clapped the hardest. On the eve of the Test, Arvind Pujara said he had never seen his son bat in international cricket live. Four days later, he was surrounded by fans, each taking turns to shake the hand of the man who had gone to great pains to teach a young Pujara the game they all loved.Why should he stop there? Arvind had said on Tuesday, when asked how he would like for Cheteshwar to make a century in his home town. To be very honest, I was hoping to get a double-hundred, Cheteshwar said today after making 124. Like father, like son. Obviously before I played this game there were many nervous moments but I told myself that I will just focus on the things I have to do on the field, Pujara said. Because there were expectations - many family members and close friends were watching this game, even the crowd was expecting me to score big runs. But I told myself that I dont need to think about it, looking at the kind of position India was in, we wanted a good total, I just wanted to focus on the process and things turned out well for me.There was even a hint of destiny about it all. Pujara was givven out lbw on 86 and normally he would have been forced to walk off to the dressing room and ponder over what could have been.dddddddddddd This time, though, he had the right to an appeal. This time India had DRS at home.Initially, when the ball hit me I thought it was hitting high, Pujara said. It did not hit me on the front pad, it hit me on the rear pad. I confirmed with Vijay and he felt it was high. Then I was confident in taking DRS.As the ball-tracker showed it would have bounced over the stumps, Pujaras wife, Pooja, broke into a big grin, leapt up and down, absolutely elated.After years of opposition - most of which was centred around an issue with lbw calls - the fates had aligned to such an extent that DRS would overturn an lbw decision against an Indian batsman in its first match on home soil, and that same batsman would go on to make a century. It seems all good stories need a bit of irony.There was a villain as well. One who dared to hit Rajkots Pujara right in front of them. Chris Woakes rapped the batsman on his helmet three times in three overs in the morning.I got a couple of good bouncers. I thought I did not judge it well. But overall, in international level, I expect bowlers to bowl bouncers, said Pujara. Usually, I am very good at short balls. So, I think there were a couple of occasions where I did not judge properly. I told myself that even if I get hit on the helmet or body, I will take it. I know the conditions very well, a couple of short balls dont disturb me and my gameplan.And they didnt. Pujara moved smoothly past that phase and, though he couldnt get the double-hundred he wanted, he has put India in a much better position to draw the game. The cheers as he walked off, raising his bat one more time were deafening. For once, Indian fans wanted their No. 3 to stay just a bit more than they wanted to see the No. 4 coming out. ' ' '