UCLA Again Picked to Win Pac-12 Men's Basketball Title

Cal is picked to finished 11th in the Pac-12 in the media preseason Pac-12 men's basketball poll released on Wednesday.

UCLA is picked as the favorite fr the third consecutive year in the vote of 33 media members. The Bruins are ranked No. 8 in the preseason AP top-25 poll and received 26 of 33 first-place votes in the Pac-12 poll. The Bruins return four of their top seven scorers from a team that finished second in the Pac-12 regular season last year and was runnersup in the conference tournament.

Defending Pac-12 champion Arizona is ranked 17th in the preseason AP poll and is picked to finish second in the preseason Pac-12 pol.

Four McDonald’s All-Americans are set to join the Pac-12 this season in Oregon’s Kel'el Ware, UCLA’s Amari Bailey and Adem Bona and USC's Kijani Wright.

Cal received 69 voting points to finish ahead of Oregon State in the preseason poll. Last year, the Bears were picked to finish last.

The Bears lost their top three scorers from last year's squad, which finished 12-20 overall and 5-15 in the conference. Gone are Jordan Shepherd, Andre Kelly and Grant Anticevich. The Bears' top returning scorer is Jalen Celstine, but he will miss the start of this season season after having offseason knee surgery. That laves Joel Brown as the top returning scorer to start the season and he averaged 4.8 points per game.

Cal's offense will be aided by the addition of two transfers -- DeJuan Clayton, who was at Hartford last season, and Devin Askew, who played at Texas a year ago.

Cal plays an exhibition game against Chico State on Nov. 3 and faces UC Davis in its season opener on Nov. 7. Both games are in Berkeley.

Here is the men's preseason media poll:

Here is a list of the media's preseason predicted Pac-12 winners the past several years and how those teams fared..

Cover photo of Cal coach Mark Fox is by D. Ross Cameron, USA TODAY Sports

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