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SAN FRANCISCO — Coming off a second-place finish in the Pac-12 last season, the Runnin’ Utes are predicted to finish eighth in the conference for the 2016-17 season.
The Utes, who made it to the Pac-12 Championship game and lost to Oregon last season, will be in a rebuilding season after losing several key players, including star Jakob Poeltl, who declared for the NBA after his sophomore season.
Oregon was voted as the conference favorite, which is the first time since the conference started preseason polls that the Ducks have been projected No. 1 overall. The Ducks, which returns four of its starters, received 23 first-place votes.
Arizona, which received the remaining four first-place votes, was projected to finish second, followed by UCLA, California and Colorado to round out the top five. The remaining teams finished as follows: Washington, USC, Utah, Oregon State, Stanford, Arizona State and Washington State.
Utah lost four players, including two starters, to graduation and Poeltl, who was drafted No. 9 overall by the Toronto Raptors in the 2016 NBA Draft. An additional seven players transferred from the program, including key backup player Brekkott Chapman, who decided to play closer to home at Weber State University.
This year’s roster includes five returning players, five transfers — including three from junior college — and five freshman. Sophomore Parker Van Dyke also returned from a full-time LDS mission. Two transfers, David Collette (Utah State) and Sedrick Barefield (SMU), are not eligible to play until the fall semester concludes.
The preseason poll has correctly picked the conference winner 14 out of the 24 seasons of predicting.
