Cal Basketball: Pac-12 Barely Registers in Preseason AP Top-25 Men's Poll

Gonzaga is No. 1 in the AP preseason Top-25 for the first time ever, but once again the Pac-12 Conference gets little respect.

For the third straight year, the Pac-12 has no team in the top-10 of the preseason poll.

Arizona State is the Pac-12’s highest-rated team at No. 18. The Sun Devils, who will visit Cal on Dec. 3 to open Pac-12 play, are joined in the Top-25 by two other conference rivals — Oregon at No. 20 and UCLA at No. 22.

A year ago, Oregon was the league’s highest-ranked team in the opening poll at No. 15. The Ducks were No. 14 in the 2018-19 preseason rankings.

Arizona’s 2017-18 team was the most recent Pac-12 team to crack the top-10 in the preseason poll, checking in at No. 3.

There was no NCAA tournament last season because of the COVID-19 pandemic and Oregon in 2017 is the only Pac-12 team to reach the Final Four since 2008. The most recent Pac-12 team to win the national championship was Arizona in 1997.

Gonzaga lost West Coast Conference Player of the Year Filip Petrusev but have a deep talent pool, including Corey Kispert and Joel Ayayi. Freshman guard Jalen Suggs, considered a potential one-and-done player, is the highest-rated recruit coach Mark Few has brought to Spokane, Wash.

"It's a great honor to be selected No. 1," Few said. "We understand that it is more a reflection of what our program has accomplished over the years and hope to play up to that standard as we start our season.''

The rest of the preseason top-5 is Baylor, Villanova, Virginia and Iowa.

Three of the sport’s blue bloods are a bit farther down the rankings — Kansas at No. 6, Duke at No. 9 and Kentucky at No. 10.

ASU is led by senior point guard Remy Martin, who averaged 19.1 points per game a year ago. The Sun Devils will also feature freshman Josh Christopher, one of the nation’s elite first-year players and younger brother to former Cal star Patrick Christopher.

Oregon is replacing Pac-12 Player of the Year Payton Pritchard but returns senior guard Chris Duarte (12.9 points) and junior guard Will Richardson (11.0).

UCLA will begin its second season under Mick Cronin, who was voted Pac-12 Coach of the Year in his debut a year ago. The Bruins, who won 11 of their final 14 games a year ago, have all five starters back, led by All-Pac-12 senior guard Chris Smith (13.1 points) and junior forward Jalen Hill (9.0 points, 6.9 rebounds).

Here is the complete preseason AP Top-25 poll (with first-place votes in parenthesis):

1. Gonzaga (28)

2. Baylor (24)

3. Villanova (11)

4. Virginia (1)

5. Iowa

6. Kansas

7. Wisconsin

8. Illinois

9. Duke

10. Kentucky

11. Creighton

12. Tennessee

13. Michigan State

14. Texas Tech

15. West Virginia

16. North Carolina

17. Houston

18. Arizona State

19. Texas

20. Oregon

21. Florida State

22. UCLA

23. Ohio State

24. Rutgers

25. Michigan

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

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