SAN FRANCISCO – At the end of the day, preseason rankings are meaningless. And for every coach whose team isn’t picked to win the conference, they’ll tell you as much. “We don’t pay attention to the preseason polls” is a typical response.

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But that’s not the sentiment in Salt Lake City. Utah was picked to finish 11^th in the Pac-12, and yeah, the Utes are definitely paying attention.

“It pissed us off a little bit,” Utah head coach Anthony Levrets said Wednesday at 2014-15 Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Media Day about the results. “We have good basketball players, we have a good freshmen class and we have one of the best leaders I’ve ever been around,” he explained.

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While the Utes finished 12-19 overall and just 4-14 in the Pac-12 last season, they were without Taryn Wicijowski, a double-double threat in the post who missed all of last year with an ACL tear. There are historical reasons to believe the Utes will be back in short order, as well: Utah has won 70 percent of its games all time and has made 17 NCAA tournament appearances.

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“We’re deep, and when you go through the nasty stuff we went through last year, there are two things that can happen. You can either jump ship or you can figure out what you’re doing is right,” Levrets said. “We really came together…we walked back into that gym [after two weeks off following the end of last season], and it has been unbelievable.”