Utah State men’s basketball picked 9th in preseason poll, women 11th – Cache Valley Daily

FILE PHOTO: Big Blue gets the crowd excited during a Utah State men’s basketball game in the Spectrum. Photo by Lorene Hale.

LAS VEGAS — Utah State basketball did not get many votes of confidence in the preseason predicted order of finish or in preseason accolades. The Aggies likely didn’t even sniff any accolades and had its men’s team picked to finish ninth in the conference and the women 11th, dead last.

For the men, it’s only the third time since joining the conference in 2013 that they’ve been picked to finish ninth or worse — in 2014-15 USU was picked 10th but finished fourth and in 2018-19 where the Aggies earned a share of the regular season conference title and won the conference tournament.

For the USU women it’s the fourth straight time the team has been picked to finish last. In the 2020-21 and 2022-23 seasons the Aggies did finish last and in 2021-22 they finished ninth.

It’s not too much of a surprise that either have not received any credit yet as both the men’s and women’s squads replace nearly all or entirely all of its rotation. The women’s team returns just one rotation player while the men’s team has famously been tasked with replacing all production from last year’s NCAA Tournament roster.

MW Preseason Women’s Poll

1. UNLV (24) – 284
2. Colorado State (1) – 245
3. Wyoming (2) – 237
4. Boise State – 201
5. San Diego State – 183
6. New Mexico – 168
7. Air Force – 128
8. Nevada – 111
9. San Jose State 93
10. Fresno State – 89
11. Utah State – 43

MW Preseason Men’s Poll

1. San Diego State (25) – 333
2. Boise State (4) – 299
3. New Mexico (1) – 278
4. Nevada (1) – 240
5. Colorado State – 218
6. UNLV – 199
7. San Jose State – 124
8. Fresno State – 115
9. Utah State – 105
10. Wyoming – 74
11. Air Force – 61