PISCATAWAY, NJ – The Rutgers women’s basketball team is ranked 18th in the Womenscollegehoops.com Very Early Bird Top 50, the group has announced.

The Scarlet Knights engineered the most dramatic turnaround in Division I, improving from 9-20 in 2001-2002 to 21-8 and the second round of the NCAA Tournament this past season. Womenscollegehoops.com ranked Rutgers 27th in its final 2002-2003 rankings.

RU is one of six BIG EAST Conference teams to be included in the Very Early Bird Top 50, joining Connecticut (first), Notre Dame (14th), Boston College (26th), Virginia Tech (33rd) and Villanova (43rd).

Last month, Womenscollegehoops.com also included Rutgers sophomore point guard Cappie Pondexter (Chicago, IL) on its All-America Second Team.

Womenscollegehoops.com Very Early Bird Top 50

1. Connecticut
2. Duke
3. Tennessee
4. Kansas State
5. LSU
6. Texas
7. Purdue
8. Stanford
9. Utah
10. Texas Tech
11. Penn State
12. Georgia
13. Minnesota
14. Notre Dame
15. Louisiana Tech
16. Virginia
17. North Carolina
18. Rutgers
19. UC-Santa Barbara
20. TCU
21. Oklahoma
22. Vanderbilt
23. Arizona
24. Ohio State
25. Colorado
26. Boston College
27. Arkansas
28. Arizona State
29. Iowa
30. Washington
31. Creighton
32. Old Dominion
33. Virginia Tech
34. Saint Joseph’s
35. Cincinnati
36. UCLA
37. Baylor
38. Michigan State
39. George Washington
40. Colorado State
41. Mississippi State
42. Charlotte
43. Villanova
44. DePaul
45. Illinois
46. South Carolina
47. BYU
48. Georgia Tech
49. New Mexico
50. Southwest Missouri State
Liberty