Utah Runnin’ Utes voted 10th in Pac-12 preseason poll

The University of Utah men’s basketball team is going to have to overcome perception this winter.

The Utes, 11-20 overall and 4-16 in the Pac-12 in head coach Craig Smith’s first year at the helm, were slotted 10th in the Pac-12 preseason poll, voted on by 33 media members and released Wednesday morning ahead of the conference’s annual media day in San Francisco.

Smith, fifth-year senior guard Marco Anthony, and fourth-year junior center Branden Carlson will represent Utah at Pac-12 media day. Utah’s media day press conference, which will feature Smith and both players, will air on Pac-12 Insider at noon. They will then appear on Pac-12 Network’s media day show at 3 p.m.

Carlson, an All-Pac-12 second-team selection last season despite missing eight games due to a combination of health-and-safety protocols and an appendectomy, was the only Ute named to the preseason All-Pac-12 first team on Monday.

Buoyed by the return of seniors Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Tyger Campbell, UCLA is the prohibitive favorite to win the Pac-12, picking up 26 out of the 33 first-place votes and 386 points.

Arizona, which loses a ton of high-end talent off last season’s regular-season and Pac-12 Tournament winner was second, receiving three first-place votes. No. 3 Oregon grabbed three first-place votes, and No. 5 Stanford received one.

Utah will host Division II Westminster on Nov. 2 for an exhibition at the Huntsman Center (6 p.m., Pac-12 Networks), with the regular-season opener vs. first-year head coach Rod Strickland and LIU to follow on Nov. 7 (9 p.m., Pac-12 Mountain).

Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.

The Tribune will update this story.