Men's Basketball Picked Second In Big West Preseason Polls

Men's Basketball Picked Second In Big West Preseason Polls

USU returns three starters from last year's NCAA tournament team.

UC Santa Barbara was announced Wednesday at the conference's media day as the favorite to win the Big West Conference men's basketball title according to both the league's coaches and media, while Utah State is picked second in both polls.

UC Santa Barbara, which won the league's regular season title a year ago, received 78 points in the coaches poll including six first place votes. Utah State received 74 points and three first place votes, while UC Irvine was third in the poll with 67 points and one first place vote. Cal Poly (50) and Idaho (40) rounded out the top five.

In the media poll, UCSB had 22 first place votes and 271 points, with the Aggies receiving four first place votes and 246 points. UCI had 224 points with three first place votes, while Cal Poly was fourth with 192 points and UC Riverside was fifth with 132 points.

"Preseason predictions are just that," said USU head coach Stew Morrill, "they're something fun to talk about and often times they don't mean a whole heck of a lot. We have a lot of unanswered questions, but if we can get better defensively we have a chance to be a solid basketball team."

Last year, Utah State won the Big West Tournament championship after finishing third in the league during the regular season with a 12-6 record. UC Santa Barbara won the regular season championship with a 14-4 record, but lost to Cal Poly in the semifinals of the conference tournament. (Full story)