USC not picked to win Pac-12 championship in preseason basketball media poll
The 2024 Pac-12 basketball preseason media poll came out on Wednesday morning. The USC Trojans were not picked to win the conference championship in the Pac-12’s last season of college basketball.
The Arizona Wildcats were picked to win the league. This might be upsetting for USC basketball fans, but this also gives the Trojans fresh motivation for the upcoming season. A little bit of doubt from the outside world will hopefully fire up the Trojans and get them extra focused for the Kansas State season opener on November 6.
This is one of the most anticipated and important seasons in USC basketball history, if only because these kinds of seasons don’t come around very often. USC very rarely enters a season with a top-20 ranking. The Trojans will be a top-20 team when the USA TODAY Poll and the Associated Press Poll come out. USC rarely has a legitimate chance to win its conference title in college basketball, but this is a year when the Men of Troy really could pull it off. Letting Arizona wear the target on its back could be a very good thing for USC, but frankly, all that matters is that the Trojans put it together on the court.
Here is the full preseason media poll for Pac-12 men’s basketball, heading into the 2023-2024 campaign:
OREGON STATE -- 42 POINTS
Memories of Oregon State’s Elite Eight run in 2021 are very distant. That was just two years ago? Feels like 10.
CAL -- 67 POINTS
Mark Madsen should give a big lift to Cal basketball … but not this season. This will be a year of growing pains, a total rebuild for the Golden Bears.
WASHINGTON STATE -- 94 POINTS
Losing D.J. Rodman to USC is a crusher for Washington State. Departures from the program will greatly lower the Cougars’ ceiling.
WASHINGTON -- 108 POINTS
There are two Pac-12 basketball coaches squarely on the hot seat entering this season. Mike Hopkins of Washington is one of them.
STANFORD -- 131 POINTS
Jerod Haase is the other Pac-12 hot seat coach this season. Stanford inexplicably retained him instead of firing him and hiring Mark Madsen, an alumnus, to replace him.
UTAH -- 139 POINTS
Most people who follow Pac-12 hoops think Craig Smith has the Utes headed in the right direction. Does he have enough quality players, however, to make an NCAA Tournament run this year? We’ll see.
ARIZONA STATE -- 148 POINTS
All three times Bobby Hurley has made the NCAA Tournament at Arizona State, the Sun Devils have gone to the First Four in Dayton, meaning they were one of the last four teams in the field every time. If ASU didn’t make a 55-foot heave against Arizona last season, the Devils would not have gotten in. Hurley needs to make the NCAA Tournament without Selection Sunday drama. That would tell us ASU is truly heading in the right direction.
COLORADO -- 210 POINTS
As Buffaloes Wire has noted, Colorado landed TCU transfer big man Eddie Lampkin in the portal, a huge pickup for coach Tad Boyle. You will note that Colorado is way ahead of ASU for fifth place in the poll. The Buffs are fully expected to make the NCAA Tournament, whereas ASU is a 50-50 shot. Colorado is one of five Pac-12 teams expected to make the Big Dance next March. There is a big gap between the top five in this poll and the lower seven.
OREGON -- 228 POINTS
Dana Altman has shockingly missed each of the last two NCAA Tournaments. He is not on the hot seat, but Oregon fans are very upset and expect a return to the brackets this season.
UCLA -- 249 POINTS, 4 FIRST-PLACE VOTES
Mick Cronin has done a very good job at UCLA. His program, however, has squandered two great chances to make the Final Four. UCLA has lost in the Sweet 16 each of the past two seasons as the higher-seeded team in its matchup.
Cronin has brought in a number of international recruits who make the Bruins mysterious this season. If those recruits max out, UCLA is fully capable of winning the league.
USC -- 264 POINTS, 4 FIRST-PLACE VOTES
Andy Enfield has done a very good job at USC. Fans who think he has underperformed in recent seasons have absolutely no appreciation for the fact that USC was not in good shape when Enfield arrived, and that the Trojans do not have a rich history as a college basketball program when compared to the hugely successful programs in the Pac-12 or elsewhere in the United States. USC has not had Cadillac talent for most of Enfield’s tenure. He had Evan Mobley in 2021, but not elite players surrounding him. USC has never had a team which entered a season looking like a top-15 team or a top-four NCAA Tournament seed. Enfield really has done as good a job as one could hope for under the circumstances over the past four years. He hasn’t underachieved because he hasn’t had an elite roster.
Now, though, everything changes.
This is a genuinely strong and deep roster, even with Bronny James unlikely to play in the first several weeks of the season as he recovers from his cardiac arrest episode. USC has one of the best backcourts in the country. D.J. Rodman and Josh Morgan look like very good frontcourt defenders and rebounders. If Kijani Wright and Oziyah Sellers can provide solid bench minutes and become reliable role players, this team is going to be very strong even without Bronny. Assuming Bronny can join the team in mid-January (as Vince Iwuchukwu did last year after his cardiac arrest episode) and become a significant part of this team’s rotation, USC will finally have a roster capable of doing special things.
It’s the biggest season of Enfield’s career, because he finally has the roster which can do something special if it all comes together.
ARIZONA -- 303 POINTS, 18 FIRST-PLACE VOTES
Should Arizona be the preseason pick? Speaking as objectively as possible, yes.
We all want USC to win the Pac-12 title, but Arizona has been USC’s kryptonite in recent years. Moreover, Tommy Lloyd has shown he can take transfers and smoothly integrate them into his lineup and his preferred playing style. USC hasn’t won the Pac-12 (10) regular-season basketball championship since 1985. Of course Arizona should get the benefit of the doubt.
That’s fine. USC doesn’t have to wear the target. Arizona does. The Trojans will hopefully gain motivation from this and become the best team they can possibly be. That’s what matters, not a preseason media poll.
