(Photo: Nick Krueger/WCSN)
The preseason Pac-12 basketball media poll was released early Thursday morning and the Sun Devils were picked to finish seventh in the conference. The poll was released before the beginning of the Pac-12 basketball media day today in San Francisco.
Arizona State was picked to finish 11th last season in the preseason poll. This year, ASU’s seventh place ranking is the highest in three years for the program. Surprisingly, only 53 votes separate first from seventh place signaling that the league will remain very competitive this season with a large amount of parity. Arizona finished first in the poll picking up 21 of 23 first-place votes.
POLL:
- Arizona (21), 273.
- UCLA (1), 212.
- Colorado (1), 211.
- Oregon, 196.
- California, 194.
- Stanford, 166.
- Arizona State, 159.
- Washington, 121.
- Utah, 68.
- Oregon State, 67.
- USC, 63.
- Washington State, 39.
** ASU also received two votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
My take: Drop Cal to seventh, move ASU and Stanford up one spot a piece and that would be my ballot. Do the Sun Devils deserve the seventh spot? Of course not but the amount of unproven transfers who haven’t played Pac-12 basketball (and therefore the voters have not seen play) I’m sure caused some uncertainty. They look at that roster and only see Carrick Felix missing and then decided to drop ASU lower in the poll.
This author can be reached via email nkruege1@asu.edu or on twitter @NickPKrueger
