Utah Men’s Basketball Picked To Finish Ninth In Pac-12 Preseason Poll
Oct 8, 2019, 10:07 AM
Utah Utes forward Timmy Allen (20) celebrates dunking the ball against the UCLA Bruins at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, March 9, 2019. (Silas Walker, Deseret News)
(Silas Walker, Deseret News)
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – The University of Utah men’s basketball was predicted by the media to finish ninth in the Pac-12 preseason poll ahead of Media Day.
The defending tournament champion Oregon Ducks were selected as the favorite to win the conference regular season.
Colorado was predicted to finish second, followed by Washington (third), Arizona (fourth), USC (fifth), Arizona State (sixth), Oregon State (seventh), UCLA (eighth), Stanford (10th), Washington State (11th) and California (12th).
Utah finished the regular season last year in third place, when they were picked to finish eighth by the media and outperformed their projection for the eighth consecutive season.
In one of the closest votes in preseason poll history, @OregonMBB edged @CUBuffsMBB to earn #Pac12Hoops favorite status for the second straight year.
Read here: https://t.co/ANWvUuK2fF pic.twitter.com/uxarNAbw1I
— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) October 8, 2019
The All-Pac-12 Preseason Teams were announced and Utah sophomore forward Timmy Allen was named to the second team.
He joins N’Faly Dante from Oregon, Stanford’s Daejon Davis, Josh Green from Arizona and Oregon State’s Ethan Thompson.
Allen averaged 12.2 points per game and shot 57 percent from the field last season.
The inaugural #Pac12Hoops preseason All-Conference Teams feature seven returning All-Pac-12 honorees and five highly touted freshmen!
Read here: https://t.co/25zR4CpV9s pic.twitter.com/PnLT5j2dq8
— Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) October 8, 2019
Utah returns three starters in Allen, Riley Battin and Both Gach. Their only senior is Marc Reininger and their only junior is Alfonso Plummer. Allen, Battin, Gach and Brooks King are the sophomores on the roster. Eli Ballstaedt, Jaxon Brenchley, Branden Carlson, Brandon Haddock, Rylan Jones, Mikael Jantunen, Luc Krystkowiak, Hunter Mecum, Lahat Thioune, Matt Van Komen and Brendan Wenzel are all coming in as freshmen.
The Utes will open their season on the road on Tuesday, November 5 at 8:30 p.m. against Nevada. The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
