Pac-12 women’s basketball: Stanford Cardinal a contender as usual, but not picked to win conference’s final regular season title
The Pac-12 coaches and media made their preseason picks and Stanford, the 26-time regular season champs, received it's lowest ranking ever.
Stanford has dominated Pac-12 women’s basketball for nearly four decades and figures to be in the title hunt once again, but the Cardinal is not the favorite to win the conference’s final regular season championship.
The Cardinal has been picked by both the Pac-12 coaches and the media to finish third this season, behind Utah and UCLA.
This is the first time in four years coach Tara VanDerveer’s group hasn’t been picked as Pac-12’s preseason favorite by the coaches, and it’s just the sixth time it’s happened since the 2000-01 season. The Cardinal was the coaches’ preseason choice (often the easy one) for 15 straight years beginning in 2000-01, and then was No. 2 for five straight preseasons from 2015-16 through 2019-20.
Stanford has won 26 regular season titles and 15 conference tournament championships, by far the most of any Pac-12 team, but is coming off a season that saw the Cardinal miss the Pac-12 Tournament championship game for the first time since 2016. Stanford still reached the NCAA Tournament for the 35th straight season (the tournament was canceled in 2020 because of COVID-19) and received a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament but was knocked out in the second round, missing the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2007.
Stanford’s lowest-ever preseason ranking has a lot to do with the quality and depth of the teams in the conference, which, of course, is breaking apart after this academic year, with Stanford and Cal joining the Atlantic Coast Conference, Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington leaving for the Big Ten, and Utah, Arizona, Arizona State and Colorado headed for the Big 12.
The conference sent a league-record seven teams to the NCAA Tournament last season, and three Pac-12 teams reached the Sweet 16 for the sixth time in the past seven tournaments.
No conference has more teams ranked in espnW’s Way-Too-Early Top 25 poll, with UCLA (No. 3), Utah (No. 5), Stanford (No. 16), USC (No. 18), Colorado (No. 22) and Washington State (No. 25) making the preseason list.
Stanford split the Pac-12 regular-season title with the Utes last season. Utah earned seven first-place votes and 116 total points in the coaches poll, and 12 first-place votes and 298 points in the media poll.
UCLA, which beat Stanford in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals last season, earned three first-place votes and 109 points in the coaches selection and 10 first-place votes and 284 points from the media at the league’s annual Media Day in Las Vegas.
Stanford received 100 points in the coaches and 283 in the media, and Colorado was picked to finish fourth with 90 points in the coaches and 220 in the media.
The 5-8 spots also were the same in both polls, with reigning Pac-12 Tournament Champion Washington State picked to finish fifth and followed by USC, Arizona and Oregon. Washington was picked ninth in the coaches poll and 10th by the media, while Oregon State was selected 10th in the coaches and ninth by the media.
Cal and Arizona State were picked 11th and 12th in both polls.
2023-24 Pac-12 Preseason Coaches’ Poll
Rank School Points (first-place votes)
1. Utah 116 (7)
2. UCLA 109 (3)
3. Stanford 100 (2)
4. Colorado 90
5. Washington State 84
6. USC 70
7. Arizona 51
8. Oregon 49
9. Washington 46
10. Oregon State 43
11. California 22
12. Arizona State 12
Preseason Media Poll
Rank School Points (first-place votes)
1. Utah 298 (12)
2. UCLA 284 (10)
3. Stanford 283 (5)
4. Colorado 220
5. Washington State 202
6. USC 199
7. Arizona 160
8. Oregon 137
9. Oregon State 121
10. Washington 107
11. California 52
12. Arizona State 40