Who has a top 25 women's college basketball team? Mercer does

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com
 

          Mercer has regularly had a ranked women’s college basketball team.

          In the CollegeInsider.com mid-major poll.

          The Bears have taken a big step.

          They finally got through the one of the big top-25 doors Tuesday by being ranked 25th in the USA Today coaches poll, making program history in Division I.

          The women’s basketball coaches poll began in 1992-93, a year after the New South Women’s Athletic Conference merged with the old Trans America Athletic Conference, bringng Mercer along with it.

Mercer is currently fourth in the mid-major poll, behind two former Atlantic Sun rivals, No. 1 Belmont and No. 3 Florida Gulf Coast. But the Bruins and Ospreys aren’t ranked. FGCU is 27th and Belmont 32nd.

          Mercer is six spots behind Georgia, the alma mater of Bears’ head coach Susie Gardner, whose team carries a 22-game winning streak into Thursday’s big battle with Chattanooga.

          The last Southern Conference team to be ranked? Chattanooga, in 2015.

          Who does Mercer have to beat on Thursday to clinch its first outright regular-season conference title as a Division I program? Chattanooga.