Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Media Day Open Thread

The Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Media Day takes place today at Pac-12 headquarters. This will be your place to come for any news and updates throughout the day. You can follow along live here as well. Coach Hopkins is slated to take the podium at 11:20a with UW representatives David Crisp and Matisse Thybulle right after him at 11:25a.

UW Picked 10th in Media Poll

The Washington Huskies were selected 10th in the Pac-12 preseason media poll. Arizona finished first although one smart voter picked USC to finish ahead of them. USC returns essentially their entire roster from what was already a good team. Arizona certainly has the most talent but we’ll see how much of a distraction the ongoing scandal is plus one of their key starters in Rawle Alkins will reportedly miss several months.

The preseason poll is usually a reflection of where teams finished the previous year with a cursory glance at who teams lost and added. Cal and Wazzu were obvious picks to finish at the bottom. Both teams were gutted from last season and weren’t all that good to start with. Cal added a new coach but neither team looks to have a roster stacked with Pac-12 talent at the moment.

In my opinion there are arguments for UW to be placed ahead of Colorado, Utah, and Oregon State. However, you certainly can’t fault people for thinking that a team that finished 2nd to last in the conference and lost the #1 pick in the NBA draft and their head coach isn’t going to be very good. Coach Hopkins is going to have to prove it on the court for this team to be taken seriously as a contender for an NCAA spot and I’m sure he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Larry Scott Press Conference Notes

• The players and coaches from Oregon and Oregon State are late due to travel problems with the wildfires. Oregon State was supposed to go right before UW so Washington may be moved up a slot.
• Spent beginning talking about milestones such as 3 teams reaching 30 wins and Oregon making the Final 4.
• Pac-12 has more televised games than any other conference. About 70% of them will be on Pac-12 networks.
• Finally getting around to the scandal after about 10 minutes. Larry Scott supportive of creation of national college basketball committee yesterday.
• Larry Scott announces creation of Pac-12 task force on integrity of student athletes to support and supplement the NCAA committee. Will provide recommendations to schools and specific proposals for all of NCAA to adopt. Will have 10-12 members. 5 already been decided upon. Includes ex-Cal and Stanford coach Mike Montgomery. Consider me skeptical.

UW at the Mic

• No mention of Nate Pryor from Coach Hop. He no longer lists himself as a UW commit. He will not be on the roster this year. Apologies to those who thought he would end up being All Pac-12.
• Michael Carter III again being described as a point guard by Hopkins. I expect that he’ll be the backup to David Crisp at least to start. That’s a large role for a player who didn’t have another Power-5 offer.
• Every year there is something that every broadcast crew brings up for every game that by the end of the year you’re sick of hearing about. Last year it was the fact that Markelle didn’t play Varsity his sophomore year. This year expect it to be that Jay-Z is Nahz Carter’s uncle. The Pac-12 network guys spent maybe 20% of the interview on it.
• Matisse Thybulle and David Crisp were asked to throw out some specifics about what has changed under Coach Hopkins. Matisse answered that everyone is bought in to being a part of the team and they aren’t worried about their personal agendas.
• They also were asked if the media and on court attention that Markelle Fultz got last year made it difficult for them. David Crisp had Fultz’s back saying that Fultz did care deeply about the team and that he got a bad rap for the losing.

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