Huskies picked fourth in Pac-12
Published 8:54 am Friday, October 28, 2011
SEATTLE _ Two consecutive conference tournament titles weren’t enough for the young University of Washington men’s basketball team to crack the top three in the Pacific-12 Conference preseason poll that came out today.
Media picked the Huskies to finish fourth in the conference, behind UCLA, Cal and Arizona.
The Bruins, with 14 of a possible 38 first-place votes, were picked to win the conference in a close vote. UCLA had 421 voting points. Second-place Cal had 405 points, including 13 first-place votes. Arizona was right behind at 404, and with 11 first-place votes.
The rest of the poll includes the Huskies fourth, Oregon fifth, Stanford sixth, USC seventh, Arizona State eighth, Oregon State ninth, Washington State and Colorado tied for 10th, and Utah 12th.
The Huskies return two starters but will be without their top three scorers from the 2010-11 team that won the Pac-12 title. Among the players UW lost was guard Isaiah Thomas, who hit the game-winning shot in the conferent tournament finals.
