Preseason media poll: CU men's hoops picked to finish sixth in Pac-12
On Wednesday, the 2021-2022 Pac-12 preseason media poll was released, comparing predictions from the 34 voting members that cover men's basketball around the league.
Colorado, entering its 12th season under head coach Tad Boyle, is predicted to finish sixth while UCLA was selected by the media to win the Pac-12 for the second straight season.
Oregon, which has captured two straight Pac-12 regular season titles, was selected to finish second in the league, with USC, coming off an Elite 8 appearance last March, receiving its second-best-ever preseason prediction landing spot at third.
The Oregon State Beavers, who topped Colorado in last year's Pac-12 Tournament championship en route to a cinderella run to the Elite 8, were tied at fourth with Arizona in its first year under Tommy Lloyd.
Behind the Buffs came Arizona State in seventh, Wazzu in eighth, Stanford in ninth, Utah in 10th and Washington in 11th.
Cal Berkeley, which went 9-20 overall and 3-17 in league play last year, was voted to finish in the cellar of the Pac-12.
The Buffaloes, who went 23-9 last year and advanced to the Round of 32 within the NCAA Tournament, lost six scholarship seniors from last season, most notably four-year starting point guard McKinley Wright IV, forward D'Shawn Schwartz and graduate transfer Jeriah Horne.
Looking to anchor the Buffs in 2021-2022 are the two seniors at Boyle's disposal, guard Eli Parquet and forward Evan Battey.
Battey shot 49.8% from the floor last year, averaging 10.1 points per game, was selected to the preseason All-Pac-12 first team Wednesday while Parquet returns to CU fresh off Pac-12 All-Defensive Team honors earned this past season.
Sophomore forward Jabari Walker, who had an explosive, if not exactly consistent true freshman campaign (7.6 points per game, 52.6% make rate from the floor) will look to factor into the equation even more this season.
He earned an All-Pac-12 honorable mention from the league's beat writers and media.
Fellow sophomore forward Tristan da Silva and guards Luke O'Brien and Nique Clifford will aim to provide further stability for the Buffs in an upcoming campaign that will require the team to replace roughly close to two thirds of its offensive production from last year.
Looking at the Buffs' 11 healthy scholarship players, four are freshman, five are sophomores and two are seniors.
Redshirt sophomore point guard Keeshawn Barthelemy, who averaged a little over 11 minutes per game in 2020-2021 playing behind Wright IV, could be poised to enjoy a breakout season.
Key to Colorado's success this upcoming season will be the ability of its true freshmen to make significant contributions.
Freshmen guards K.J. Simpson and Julian Hammond III are expected to play supporting roles to Barthelemy in the backcourt while Boyle has indicated that 7-foot center Lawson Lovering has positioned himself through the summer and preseason to see healthy minutes.
The Buffs did lose former four-star recruit Quincy Allen to season-ending hip injury recently, former limiting Boyle's options for a rotation after graduate transfer point guard Mason Faulkner abruptly left the program in August.
The final scholarship piece of the puzzle for Boyle to work with is guard Javon Ruffin, who has steadily been acclimating himself back into the swing of things after missing much of the summer due to a knee injury.
Fans can get a taste of the 2021-2022 Buffaloes at their annual Black and Golf scrimmage, to be held Saturday, Oct. 16, at 10:30 a.m. in the CU Events Center.
Admission is free to the public and the Buffs will wrap with time to spare before CU's football team is set to host Arizona at Folsom Field at 1:30 p.m.
Colorado will host Colorado Mines on Tuesday, Oct. 26, in the first exhibition match of the year.
The Buffs kick off their season formally with a home game against Montana State on Tuesday, Nov. 9.
