Cougars picked to finish seventh, Huskies last in Pac-12

The Washington women’s basketball team, which completed the greatest three-year run in the history of the program, was picked to finish last in the Pac-12 by conference coaches in a preseason poll.

The league coaches tabbed Washington State, which tied seventh in the Pac-12 last season, to finish seventh – its highest position in the preseason poll since 2011.

UCLA, which returns All-American candidates Jordin Canada and Monique Billings who led the Bruins to a second-straight NCAA Sweet 16 last season, is picked to finish first in the Pac-12 for the second straight year.

Oregon, which has all five starters coming back, including the national freshman of the year Sabrina Ionescu, from a team that advanced to the program’s first-ever NCAA Elite Eight, was tabbed to finish second.

Pac-12 Tournament champion Stanford was picked third followed by Oregon State, the three-time Pac-12 regular-season champion.

California and Arizona State were picked to finish fifth and sixth respectively.

After WSU, the bottom half of the preseason poll includes (in order) USC, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and UW.

Following the exodus of many of the key players and the coach responsible for lifting the team to the top of the Pac-12, the Huskies are expected to crash to the bottom of the conference.

Washington, which finished 29-6 last season while advancing to its third straight NCAA tournament and setting UW attendance records that included the program’s first sellout at Alaska Airlines Arena, lost four starters.

The Huskies will be hard pressed to replace guard Kelsey Plum, the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer and the consensus national player of the year, center Chantel Osahor, the most prolific rebounder in UW history, two-year starter Katie Collier and freshman guard Aarion McDonald, who would have been UW’s leading returning scorer, transferred to Arizona.

New coach Jody Wynn replaces Mike Neighbors, who left for Arkansas after compiling a 98-41 during the past four years.

Wynn compiled a 137-119 record during the past eight years at Long Beach State. She led the 49ers to a 23-11 finish last season, which included the 49ers’ first trip to the NCAA tournament since 1992.

UW’s leading returning scorer is senior sharp-shooter Natalie Romeo who as fourth on the team last season while averaging 9.3 points. No other returning Husky averaged more than four points.

Meanwhile, the Cougars are seeking to build on a strong finish in last season’s postseason that included an unexpected run to the WNIT Final Four. WSU won four straight games in the tournament and finished an injury-plagued season at 16-20.

Washington State s expected to return its top five scorers, including sophomore forward Borisla Hristova, a 2016 Pac-12 All-Freshman first team guard who averaged 14.7 points in nine games before suffering a season-ending foot injury.

Sophomore guard Chanelle Molina, who averaged 12.8 points also missed the second half of the season due to a knee injury.