By Michael Perry
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The University of Cincinnati women's basketball program started in 1971. Thirty-one years later, the Bearcats are ranked in the preseason for the first time.

UC is No. 18 in the Associated Press poll, released Monday night.

The Bearcats have four returning starters from a team that went 27-5 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

"This is a new thing," 17th-year coach Laurie Pirtle said. "Obviously, it's really good to have that kind of respect this early.

"Now you have to back that up with practices because that's where you're going to win games. We've got to practice like a top-25 team because if we don't, we won't be."

Cincinnati was ranked in the top 25 last season for the first time and was No. 19 in the final AP poll and No. 23 in the final USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll.

"It's always nice to be ranked, but we know we can't just come in and not play," senior point guard K.B. Sharp said. "We have to back it up. We want to do better than last year."

UC plays its second exhibition game Nov. 12 against Ohio Girls Basketball Magazine (7 p.m., Shoemaker Center), then opens the regular season Nov. 22 at No. 24 Mississippi State.

E-mail: mperry@enquirer.com

	Record	Pts	Pv
1. Duke (38)	31-4	1,093	3
2. Tennessee (4)	29-5	1,049	6
3. LSU (1)	18-12	941	22
4. Connecticut (1)	39-0	873	1
5. Kansas St.	26-8	839	11
6. Stanford	32-3	818	5
7. Texas Tech	20-12	814	17
8. Purdue	24-6	794	9
9. Georgia	19-11	749	-
10. Notre Dame	20-10	696	-
11. Texas	22-10	674	14
12. Vanderbilt	30-7	608	4
13. North Carolina	26-9	551	16
14. Penn St.	23-12	506	24
15. Minnesota	22-8	453	18
16. Louisiana Tech	25-5	442	8
17. Arkansas	20-12	338	-
18. Cincinnati	27-5	235	19
19. Colorado St.	24-7	218	20
20. Boston College	23-8	165	21
21. George Washington	21-9	150	-
22. Oklahoma	32-4	148	2
23. Iowa St.	24-9	147	10
24. Mississippi St.	19-12	141	-
25. UC Santa Barbara	26-6	106	-

Others receiving votes: TCU 100, Washington 94, Tulane 88, Virginia 81, Old Dominion 75, Oregon 67, BYU 46, Colorado 46, N.C. State 26, New Mexico 26, South Carolina 21, Ohio St. 14, Florida 12, Pepperdine 8, Villanova 8, Michigan St. 6, Southern Cal 6, Harvard 5, Houston 5, Michigan 5, Ball St. 3, Temple 3, DePaul 2, Rutgers 2, Pittsburgh 1, Rice 1, Siena 1.