USC Men's Basketball Picked To Finish Fourth In Pac-12 Preseason Poll
The USC men's basketball team which went 26-8 last season to advance to the NCAA Tournament and tie the school's single-season win mark, has been picked to finish fourth in the 2022-23 Pac-12 season in a poll of media which cover the conference, it was announced at Pac-12 Media Day in San Francisco, Calif. today (Oct. 26).
The Trojans were picked to finish third in the 2021-22 preseason poll and finished third with a 14-6 record in Pac-12 games. USC has received a preseason Pac-12 preseason ranking within the top four for the second consecutive season and for the first time in back-to-back seasons since being picked third in both the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons.
USC received 300 votes and was predicted to finish fourth in the conference behind UCLA (386), Arizona (352) and Oregon (336). The remainder of the predicted finish and votes are as follows, Stanford (239), Colorado (207), Arizona State (193), Washington State (158), Washington (158), Utah (102), California (69) and Oregon State (47).
The 2022-23 Trojans will be led by a strong returning core of guards in Boogie Ellis (12.5 ppg), Drew Peterson (12.4 ppg) and Reese Dixon-Waters (4.8 ppg). In addition, USC returns scholarship players Harrison Hornery (F), Kobe Johnson (G), Joshua Morgan (F) and Malik Thomas (G). The 2022-23 Trojans will also feature the No. 7 ranked freshman class of forward Vincent Iwuchukwu, Iaroslav Niagu and Kijani Wright and guards Tre White and Oziyah Sellers.
Earlier in the week, guards Ellis and Peterson were named to the 2022-23 Pac-12 Men's Basketball preseason All-Conference team. It is the fourth consecutive season that the Trojans have had at least one player named to the preseason All-Conference team, joining Isaiah Mobley (2021-22), Evan Mobley (2020-21) and Nick Rakocevic (2019-20).
USC's, men's basketball team will begin the 2022-23 season hosting FGCU at the Galen Center on Nov. 7 at 6:30 p.m. Fans can purchase tickets at USCTrojans.com/tickets.