Arizona picked to finish 4th in Pac-12 preseason media poll

The Arizona Wildcats were picked to finish fourth in the Pac-12 by the conference’s media members on Tuesday.

Oregon, Colorado, and Washington are all ahead of them in that order, though not by much. Arizona received a pair of first-place votes.

The media has correctly picked the winner 16 times in 30 tries. Arizona freshmen Nico Mannion and Josh Green made the preseason all-conference team, while Chase Jeter was an honorable mention. Mannion is a first-team selection; Green is second team.

Washington (Jaden McDaniels, Isaiah Stewart) and Colorado (McKinley Wright IV and Tyler Bey) each had a pair of first-team selections.

Here is the full preseason media poll:

Arizona coach Sean Miller said at local media day that the Pac-12 will be “really strong” this season, citing the depth in the middle of the conference. It was notoriously weak last season.

“There are times when we’ve had a very good upper tier or couple of teams that really could challenge deep into the NCAA Tournament, but maybe the bottom team or a couple teams at the bottom almost acted as an anchor against all of us,” Miller said. “But this year, I don’t believe that’s the case. I think the middle has never been stronger. It’s hard to differentiate maybe between the very top teams and maybe four through eight, four through nine.”