RUSTON - Like every Monday afternoon during the college basketball season, the Associated Press Top 25 women's basketball poll was released with little hubbub around Ruston, La.

As has been the case for 435 weeks of the polls 478-week life since its inception during the 1976 season, the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters were ranked among the Top 25 schools, this week at No. 7.

Just another week and another ranking for a program that has more Final Four appearances than most school's have winning seasons. However, this week's Top 25 ranking was significant as it marked the 215th straight week that Louisiana Tech has been in the Top 25, breaking the program's record set in the late 1970s, the entire 1980s and the early '90s.

That's right. The Lady Techster basketball program has been ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 for 215 straight weeks. The current streak started Nov. 24, 1992, the inaugural poll of the 1992-93 season when Tech was ranked No. 19.

One of the amazing things about the stretch is that Louisiana Tech has never been close to falling out of the poll. In those 214 weeks, Tech has been in the Top 10 in 169 weeks with the worst ranking being that 19th spot that started the streak way back in 1992.

The Philadelphia Inquirer's Mel Greenberg began the Associated Press Women's Basketball Top 20 poll at the start of the 1976-77 season with a panel of 34 coaches that now numbers 44 and represents all geographical areas of the nation as well as every conference. In 1989-90 the poll increased from 20 to 25 teams.