Women's Basketball Picked Fifth In Pac-12 Preseason Polls

Photo by: Nick Grace

Women's Basketball Picked Fifth In Pac-12 Preseason Polls

10/25/2022 8:30 AM | Women's Basketball

The Utah women’s basketball team was picked to finish fifth in the Media and Coaches Polls

SAN FRANCISCO – The University of Utah women's basketball team was picked to finish fifth in the Media and Coaches' Pac-12 Preseason Polls as voted on by the leagues Media and Coaches.

This is the highest the Utes have been picked to finish since joining the league. Utah earned its first ever first place vote in the coaches' poll and tallied 84 points, while they earned 226 points in the Media Poll.

Under the direction of head coach Lynne Roberts, the 2022-23 season Utah brings back eight players from last year's squad, including Isabel Palmer, Gianna Kneepkens, Kennady McQueen, Jenna Johnson, Inês Vieira, Dasia Young, Kelsey Rees and Peyton McFarland.

Utah will have five new faces to the team in 2022-23 as Alissa Pili joins the squad from USC. Néné Sow comes to Utah after two years at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College. Freshmen Lani White, Naya Ojukwu and Teya Sidberry round out the newcomers.

During the 2021-22 season, head coach Lynne Roberts led the Utes to a 21-win season for the first time since 2018-19 and the 29th 20-win season in program history. The Utes advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011 after making an incredible run in the Pac-12 tournament, winning three games in three nights to earn a spot in the championship game for the first time in program history.

Utah was the highest-scoring team in the Pac-12 (17th NCAA), averaging 75.9 points per game, which is the fourth-highest figure in school history and the highest since 1980-81. Utah also led the Pac-12 in three-pointers made (7th NCAA; school-record 312), three-point attempts (7th NCAA; 876), assists per game (39th NCAA; 15.3), free throws made (18th NCAA; 469), and free throw attempts (43rd NCAA; 602).

Coaches' Preseason Poll			Media Preseason Poll
Rk.	Team (1^st-Place Votes)	Points	Rk.	Team (1^st-Place Votes)	Points
1.	Stanford (11)	121	1.	Stanford (28)	336
2.	Oregon	101	2.	Arizona	291
3.	Arizona	100	3.	Oregon	275
4.	UCLA	91	4.	UCLA	237
5.	Utah (1)	84	5.	Utah	226
6.	Oregon State	62	6.	Oregon State	181
7.	Washington State	61	7.	Washington State	170
8.	Colorado	55	8.	Colorado	145
9.	USC	50	9.	USC	105
10.	Washington	28	10.	Washington	78
11.	California	21	11.	California	71
12.	Arizona State	18	12.	Arizona State	69

Up Next
The Utes will open the season on Thursday, Oct. 27, with their fifth annual Future-Scholars game against Northwest Nazarene, with tip happening at 11 a.m. from the Jon M. Huntsman Center.

Season Tickets
Season tickets for the 2022-23 season are now available. Floor seats are priced at $100, while general admission tickets at $25. With you, we can reach our goal of 2,022 season tickets! The Utes also have a season ticket package with the Crimson Craze. For $50, you can get the premium Crimson Craze Packet, which comes with a Crimson Craze T-Shirt, exclusive program newsletter, and pre-game chalk talks for Pac-12 games, plus one GA season ticket. Call the Utah ticket office at 801-581-UTIX or visit www.UtahTickets.com.

Follow the Utes!
Fans can follow along on social media (Twitter: @UtahWBB | Instagram: @UtahWBB | Facebook: Facebook.com/UtahWBB).