SAN FRANCISCO — Faster than anyone imagined, Mick Cronin revitalized the once-dormant UCLA juggernaut into a national powerhouse that competes for NCAA championships and carries the banner of a West Coast conference that had been overlooked and dismissed prior to his arrival in 2019.
Folks used to say, if the Bruins were good, then the Pac-12 (or Pac-10 way back in the day and perhaps once again in 2024) was relevant.
Well, the No. 8-ranked Bruins are good. Very good. And they’re tabbed as favorites for the third straight year to win the Pac-12 men’s basketball regular-season title.
Led by first-team preseason All-Pac-12 picks Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Tyger Campbell, the Bruins claimed 26 of 33 first-place votes from media who cover the conference for 386 points.
Washington (158 points) was picked 9th in the league poll released Wednesday morning before the Pac-12 media day at the conference’s San Francisco headquarters.
Defending regular-season and Pac-12 tournament champion Arizona picked up three first-place votes and is second in the poll with 352 points. The 17th-ranked Wildcats return All-Pac-12 forward Ązuolas Tubelisas well as guards Kerr Kriisa and Pelle Larsson who were preseason second-team All-Pac-12 picks.
No. 21 Oregon also collected three first-place votes and is third in the preseason poll with 336 points followed by USC (300 points), Stanford, which received the last first-place vote and Colorado (207).
The bottom half of the poll includes seventh-place Arizona State (193), Washington State (185), UW, Utah (102), California (69) and Oregon State (47).
Washington, which was picked 11th in the 2021-22 preseason poll, surpassed expectations and tied for fifth in the conference at 11-9. The Huskies finished 17-15 overall following a loss in the Pac-12 tournament quarterfinals.
This story will be updated.