Cal Sports Report

Cal Women Picked to Finish 14th in Preseason ACC Basketball Poll

Notre Dame and North Carolina State picked to finish first and second; Stanford picked seventh

Jake Curtis

Cal head coach Charmin Smith
Cal head coach Charmin Smith / Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images
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Cal did not get much love in the women's basketball ACC preseason poll and the preseason all-ACC team.

The Golden Bears were picked to finish 14th in the 18-team ACC in the media poll in the Bears' first season in the ACC. Coach Charmin Smith's Bears finished 19-15 overall and 7-11 in the Pac-12 last year, and the Bears barely missed earning a berth in the NCAA tournament.

"I think Cal will finish higher than 14th," Kelly Gramlich said on the ACC Network's show to announce the polls.

Notre Dame was picked to finish first, with North Carolina State second, but it was interesting to see Stanford not in the top five. The Cardinal was picked to finish seventh in their first season without coach Tara VanDerveer. Kate Paye is Stanford's head coach this season.

Just as surprising is that no Stanford player was named to the preseason 10-player all-ACC list. Cal does not have any players on the preseason all-ACC team either.

Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo was named the preseason ACC player of the year.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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