(San Francisco, CA) Stanford has been selected as the preseason favorite to win the 2022-23 Pac-12 Women’s Basketball regular-season crown in separate votes by the league’s head coaches and 28 media members who cover the league.
The Cardinal garnered all available 11 first-place votes and totaled 121 points in the coaches poll, and each of the 28 first-place votes and 336 points in the media poll.
Oregon was picked to finish second in the coaches poll with 101 points, one point ahead of third-place Arizona. The teams switched spots in the media vote, with the Wildcats second (291 points) and Ducks third (275 points).
Team Nos. 4-12 were the same in both polls, with UCLA leading that group in fourth and followed by Utah in fifth. The Utes, last season’s Pac-12 Tournament runners-up, received the remaining first-place vote in the coaches poll. Oregon State was selected sixth to round out the polls’ top half.
Over the last seven seasons, the Pac-12 leads all conferences in Final Four appearances (7), NCAA Tournament wins (76), NCAA Tournament winning percentage (.685), regular-season, nonconference winning percentage (.793) and WBCA All-Americans (15).
Ten All-Conference, five All-Freshman, and two All-Defensive Team honorees are set to return for the 2022-23 season, including the league’s Player of the Year (Haley Jones, STAN), Defensive Player of the Year (Cameron Brink, STAN) Freshman of the Year (Gianna Kneepkens, UTAH), Sixth Player of the Year (Quay Miller, COLO) and co-Most Improved Player of the Year (Bella Murekatete, WSU).
Of the 24 women selected to play in the 2022 McDonald’s All American Game, a national-best 11 are on Pac-12 rosters this season in Arizona’s Paris Clark and Maya Nnaji, Oregon’s Chance Gray and Grace VanSlooten, Oregon State’s Raegan Beers and Timea Gardiner, Stanford’s Lauren Betts and Indya Nivar, UCLA’s Gabriela Jaquez and Kiki Rice, and USC’s Aaliyah Gayles.
Pac-12 programs signed 23 student-athletes from the 2022 espnW HoopGurlz Top 100 who are freshmen on campus this fall, including seven of the top 10 (#1 Lauren Betts, STAN; #2 Kiki Rice, UCLA; #6 Timea Gardiner, OSU; #7 Chance Gray, ORE; #8 Aaliyah Gayles, USC; #9 Maya Nnaji, ARIZ; #10 Raegan Beers, OSU). Six of the nation’s top 14 classes were put together by Conference programs, including each of the top three and five of the top eight – No. 1 UCLA, No. 2 Oregon, No. 3 Oregon State, No. 5 Stanford, No. 8 Arizona and No. 14 Washington.
2022-23 PAC-12 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PRESEASON COACHES POLL
Coaches may not vote for their own teams.
| Rank | Team (First-Place Votes) | Points |
| 1. | Stanford (11) | 121 |
| 2. | Oregon | 101 |
| 3. | Arizona | 100 |
| 4. | UCLA | 91 |
| 5. | Utah (1) | 84 |
| 6. | Oregon State | 62 |
| 7. | Washington State | 61 |
| 8. | Colorado | 55 |
| 9. | USC | 50 |
| 10. | Washington | 28 |
| 11. | California | 21 |
| 12. | Arizona State | 18 |
2022-23 PAC-12 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PRESEASON MEDIA POLL
| Rank | Team (First-Place Votes) | Points |
| 1. | Stanford (28) | 336 |
| 2. | Arizona | 291 |
| 3. | Oregon | 275 |
| 4. | UCLA | 237 |
| 5. | Utah | 226 |
| 6. | Oregon State | 181 |
| 7. | Washington State | 170 |
| 8. | Colorado | 145 |
| 9. | USC | 105 |
| 10. | Washington | 78 |
| 11. | California | 71 |
| 12. | Arizona State | 69 |
Press Release courtesy of the PAC-12 Conference
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