News and notes from Pac-12 preseason media day Thursday:
Washington announced that guard Erik Stevenson received a waiver to play immediately this season, after transferring from Wichita State, giving the Huskies a better chance to compete in the Pac-12 race.
"Heβs a proven player at the highest level," Huskies coach Mike Hopkins said. "He's an exceptionally talented player with a high IQ and he's a competitor. You can see it in our practices the level of competition that he's brought."
Stevenson averaged 11.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists as a sophomore last season for the Shockers, who suffered a wave of transfers last season before coach Gregg Marshall was investigated for allegations of verbal and physical abuse.
Despite having lost his do-everything son, Tres, and shot-swatting whiz Kylor Kelley, Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle brushed off the Pac-12 media poll that picked the Beavers last.
"It doesn't bother me because you guys are rarely right," Tinkle said. "But hopefully it puts a chip on their shoulders. They're gonna use that as more fuel for the fire so to speak. ... I promise you we won't finish 12th."
Working under what might be the most health-restricted city in the Pac-12, Cal coach Mark Fox made a bet with Bears football coach Justin Wilcox he might regret.
βWeβve been talking a couple times a day, seems like for months now, and Iβve got great respect for coach Wilcox and what theyβre going through,β Fox said. βHe keeps saying `Youβre going to play a game before I do. I thought I was going to win until the last 10 days.β
While, the Bearsβ entire football season is up in the air, Foxβs basketball team has missed a week of practice because of COVID and is still feeling the effects of the layoff.
βIt wasnβt a lot of fun to be honest,β Fox said. βNobody had the spring in college basketball, most teams had the fall, and we didnβt really have anything that was normal. Then we got only got six in and then we were shut down. The stoppage was a challenge. Weβre not playing particularly well because weβre just behind.β
Maybe it wasnβt a surprising, considering he returns almost everybody from a second-place team, but UCLA coach Mick Cronin hardly welcomed having his Bruins picked to win the Pac-12.
βThat stuff doesnβt matter,β Cronin said. βIt gives you reference points. They voted me coach of year last year when we were picked eighth and finished second. You gotta have publicity, right? So we appreciate the coverage but it doesnβt mean youβre right.
βIt makes my job harder because it kind of takes the hunger away a little bit from the guys if theyβre not mature enough to understand. It does help their opponents. (Opposing coaches will say) βyou better be ready to play β theyβre picked to win the league.β
While the return of forward Chris Smith from the NBA Draft pool created considerable offseason buzz, Cronin spoke of how critical it was that UCLA returned its starting point guard, Tyger Campbell.
UA coach Sean Miller said the Wildcats' fifth-place prediction in the Pac-12 preseason media poll was "much higher than I would have anticipated" because of the team's heavy losses.
The Wildcats return only three reserves from last season, although they have the conference's top rated recruiting class, including transfers that include a former Big East Freshman of the Year (guard James Akinjo) and a McDonald's All-American (forward Jordan Brown).
"Thereβs only been maybe a couple of seasons where our preseason pick has been off," Miller said. "I donβt mean identical, but itβs been very accurate. We haven't been off much.
"I donβt really know. The standard answer is we'll find out how much but I would say fifth would be much higher than I would have anticipated. We lost 10 scholarship players, all five starters, seven of our top nine players and replaced quite a few of them in the spring. The one thing you learn about your team, you get a sense of their work ethic. We've had good consistency so far. We've been good in that area."
Guard Jemarl Baker said he wasn't concerned about the selection.
"I donβt really care what people think," Baker said. "I know we have a talented group. Everybody in our circle knows we have a talented group. We're gonna work to continue to get better every day. Iβm confident that if we're doing whatever we have to do weβre capable of beating anybody."
Even as his players were forced to practice outside in 90-degree heat late last summer, USC coach Andy Enfield says he is appreciative of the strict health restrictions in Los Angeles -- but heβs also somewhat haunted by it.
βWe live in a conservative state (for handling COVID-19), so our rules have been different than the rest of the country,β Enfield said. βI sit around sometimes late at night and wake up in the middle of the night, thinking `Well what happens if one person gets it? Does that mean weβre done as a program for 14 days?β
Stanfordβs Oscar da Silva has timed the coronavirus situation pretty well.
Da Silva opted to return home to Germany over the summer, when his native country had low numbers, then returned to Stanford as local conditions improved after a heavily restricted period.
βItβs said that weβre seeing these spikes againβ in Germany, da Silva said. βBut over the summer did a decent job of managing it so life was closer to normal than I think it is right now. Gyms and bars open, the summer was actually quite fun at home.β
But there were still restrictions in Santa Clara County, forcing Stanford to open fall practices outside. Coach Jerod Haase said they made the best of it.
βOur serve and volley game is on point,β he said jokingly. βI think it was 212 days between being on a hardwood floor. When we were outside guys took advantage of it. They were in good spirits. We played under the lights, 70 degrees and one advantage is appreciation. I the guys appreciated being together.β
Picked to finish second a year ago β and finishing the season with five straight losses β Colorado was picked only seventh this time.
βWe donβt think we deserve to be seventh but it is what it is,β guard McKinley Wright said. βIβm almost 100 percent sure we wonβt be seventh when itβs all said and done.β
Thatβs the sort of attitude coach Tad Boyle is looking for.
βIf thereβs not a chip on their shoulder, there should be today,β Boyle said, referring to the pollβs release Thursday morning. βThatβs up to them to answer. β¦ I know from being at Colorado weβre usually at our best when people are sleeping on us and I think people are sleeping on us a little this year.β
More than anybody in the Pac-12, Washington State players are used to playing in front of small home crowds.
Now the playing field is leveled. The Pac-12 wonβt allow any fans until at least January, but guard Isaac Bonton said it wonβt necessarily be an advantage.
βWe definitely have gotten used to playing with less of a crowd,β Bonton said. βBut I feel everybody has the same type of drive. Itβll be more of an open gym kind of thing. I donβt think itβs too much of an advantage. We gotta have to maintain it all year.β
But WSU coach Kyle Smith said the COVID-19 situation could be an advantage, since the Cougars live in a small-town campus environment.
βHonestly it gives us a chance to be good,β Smith said. βThereβs a built in culture and awareness of each other and weβve been able to handle that pretty well. Weβre kind of year-round in a bubble. Thatβs what makes it a special college atmosphere.β
Meanwhile, Smith confirmed that freshman point guard Jefferson Koulibaly has suffered an unspecified season-ending upper body injury.
The Utah football team is one of many across the country to have games cancelled due to COVID-19 and/or contact tracing, which sits close to home with Larry Krystkowiakβs basketball team.
βI think thereβs something to be learned. I donβt think any of us are invisible,β Krystkowiak said. βA lot of the state comes into play. I feel badly for that football squad but I donβt know if anybodyβs tried to keep a group of 80 or 100 kids totally safe. Itβs really hard.
βWeβve got a small group that I feel comfortable with. Weβre keeping our fingers crossed. The moral of the story is youβve gotta put your guard down, keep your mask up and control what you can control.β
Krystkowiak said he told his players months ago to assume everyone they came into contact with had the virus, a message Utah standout Timmy Allen apparently has internalized.
βWeβre basically in quarantine 24/7,β Allen said. βFacemask all the time, take all the precautions you can, be as consistent as you can. Cases are rising so you canβt do much outside schoolwork and get back to the gym and play basketball.
βOne case can shut everybody down. β¦ Itβs really crazy how everything spreads so fast. We canβt afford to miss multiple games. One case for (a football team) is one game. For us, it can be two to possibly four so we cannot afford that. The best way you can help your team is to be available."
The close voting at the top of the Pac-12 basketball race was no surprise to Oregon coach Dana Altman, whose team was picked to finish third, just behind UCLA and ASU.
βUCLA β theyβve got so many guys back and the depth this year could be a bigger factor,β Altman said. βIf anybody gets sick youβre going to have to get other players to step in. ASU is really talented, Stanford has a lot of people back. You know with Arizona, Sean (Miller) will get them playing. Theyβll be very competitive.
βI like Colorado, USCβs got some good freshmen, Larry (Krystkowiak) is always tough in Utah. Cal, Washington, Washington State, and then Oregon State's always given us fits over there so it'll be a very competitive year. I think we always prepare for that. We know how tough it is to win week in, week out.β
Saying his return to ASU from the NBA Draft poll was βone of the best fallbacks you could have,β ASU guard Remy Martin said the team heβs returning to have a lot of strengths with the addition of five-star guard Josh Christopher and Marcus Bagley.
βIt looks great because we all feed off each other,β Martin said. βEverybody has something to bring to the table.β
ASU coach Bobby Hurley called the Sun Devils a βwork in progressβ but said scoring won't be a problem.
βThereβs plenty of points of emphasis that weβre focusing on but one of them doesnβt appear to be the ball going through the basket,β Hurley said. βI think thatβs probably the most important thing and basketball in its simplest form you have to be able to score points and I feel very confident about our ability to do that.β
Arizona did not have any players among the 15 selected for the Pac-12's preseason all-league teams released Thursday, though point guard James Akinjo was named honorable mention for receiving at least four votes.
Ten players were named to the first team and five players to the second team, in a format that mirrors the Pac-12's postseason all-league teams. Voting for the preseason teams is done by media who regularly cover the league while voting for the postseason teams is done by the league's 12 coaches.
Here's the full all-conference teams:
First team
Timmy Allen Jr. F Utah
Matt Bradley Jr. G California
Oscar da Silva Sr. F Stanford
Chris Duarte Sr. G Oregon
Remy Martin Sr. G Arizona State
Evan Mobley Fr. F USC
Will Richardson Jr. G Oregon
Chris Smith Sr. G UCLA
Ziaire Williams Fr. F Stanford
McKinley Wright IV Sr. G Colorado
Second team
Isaac Bonton Sr. G Washington State
Tyger Campbell R-So. G UCLA
Josh Christopher Fr. G Arizona State
Ethan Thompson Sr. G Oregon State
Alonzo Verge Jr. Sr. G Arizona State
Honorable mention (received at least four votes): James Akinjo (Jr., Arizona), Evan Battey (Jr., Colorado), Quade Green (Sr., Washington), Jalen Hill (R-Jr., UCLA), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (So., UCLA).
Arizona was picked to finish fifth in the Pac-12 men's basketball race while UCLA edged out ASU and Oregon atop the conference's annual preseason poll released Thursday in advance of its media day.
In a poll of media members who regularly cover the league, ASU was finished second, followed by Oregon, Stanford and then Arizona. The Wildcats return only three reserves from a team that tied for fifth place last season, but have the conference's top-rated recruiting class.
The media has correctly predicted the winner in five of the past seven seasons, counting a prediction of Oregon winning in 2016-17 when the Ducks wound up tied with Arizona for first place.
The full results of the poll, with total points received and first-place votes in parentheses:
1. UCLA (9) 251
2. ASU (5) 246
3. Oregon (7) 241
4. Stanford (1) 209
5. Arizona 173
6. USC (1) 154
7. Colorado 149
8. Utah 131
9. Washington 85
10. California 65
11. Washington State 54
12. Oregon State 36
The Pac-12 is expected to release its preseason all-conference teams later Thursday morning and then hold 30-minute virtual interviews with the head coach and a selected player from each team.
The Pac-12 preseason poll, and the conference's weekly awards are voted on by media while the Pac-12's postseason awards are voted on by the league's 12 head coaches.
