Cal Women's Basketball: Bears Picked to Finish 11th in Pac-12 Polls

Stanford a unanimous pick in both preseason polls to repeat as a conference champion

Cal's women's basketball team was picked to finish 11th in the Pac-12 in both the coaches and media preseason polls released Tuesday.

Stanford was a unanimous choice in both polls to win the Pac-12 title again after winning the regular-season conference championship the past two seasons. The Cardinal went unbeaten in conference play a year ago and was the national champion two years ago.

The Bears return three starters from last season team that finished 11-13 overall and 2-10 in the Pac-12, finishing in 11th place.

Jayda Curry returns after leading the conference in scoring at 18.6 points per game. Also returning as starters are Leilani McIntosh, who begins her fourth season as the Bears starting point guard after averaging 6.7 points and collecting 97 assists last season, and Evelien Lutje Schipholt, who averaged 9.3 points and 6.9 rebounds a year ago.

Jazlen Green, the team's second-leading scorer last season, returns as do Karisma Ortiz and Jadyn Bush.

Bush started 11 of the 12 games she played last season before suffering a season-ending injury, and Ortiz missed the entire 2021-22 season after transferring from Texas because of an injury.

Charmin Smith begins her fourth season as the head coach at Cal, which plays an exhibition game against Vanguard on Nov. 3 and faces CSUN (Cal State-Northridge) in its regular-season opener on Nov. 7. Both games are in Berkeley.

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Cover photo of Cal coach Charmin Smith is by Darren Yamashita, USA TODAY Sports

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