UCI men picked in middle, women last

The UC Irvine men’s basketball team was picked to finish fourth by the media and fifth by the coaches in preseason polls completed at Big West Conference media day Wednesday at the Irvine Marriott.

Coach Pat Douglass’ Anteaters return four starters from the 2006-07 season in which they posted a 15-18 record, 6-8 in conference.

UCI senior forward Patrick Sanders, who averaged a team-high 11.9 points and also chipped in 5.3 rebounds per game as a junior, represented the Anteaters on the six-player preseason all-conference team.

UC Santa Barbara was picked atop both polls, while Cal Poly San Luis Obispo was second in both polls.

Cal State Fullerton was third in the media poll and tied for third with Pacific in the coaches poll.

UCI totaled 109 points in the media poll, behind UCSB (152), Cal Poly (138), and Cal State Fullerton (114).

The remainder of the media poll was: Pacific (92), Cal State Northridge (76), Long Beach State (52), UC Davis (43) and UC Riverside (34).

UCSB received 13 of 18 first-place votes. Cal Poly and defending champion Long Beach state received two first-place votes each and Cal State Fullerton received one.

In the coaches’ poll, UCSB obtained four of nine first-place votes and 58 combined points. Cal Poly (52 points), received one first-place vote. Pacific and Cal State Fullerton (48 points each) got three and one first-place vote, respectively.

The remainder of the coaches poll was as follows: UCI (42), Northridge (31), Long Beach State (14) and UC Riverside (11).

Alex Harris and Chris Devine (UCSSB), Anthony Brown (Pacific), Scott Cutley (Cal State Fullerton), and Dawin Whiten (Cal Poly) joined Saunders on the preseason all-conference team.

The UC Irvine women were No. 8 in the media poll and tied for eighth in the coaches’ poll.

Coach Molly Tuter’s squad, which lost conference Defensive Player of the Year Angie Ned, then a senior, after an injury-riddled 6-24 mark last season, 3-13 in the Big West, returns six players who started at least 64% of the games they appeared in last season.

Among the returners is fifth-year senior Stephanie Duda, redshirt sophomore Kelly Cochran and redshirt senior Christina Zdenek.

Duda averaged 12.5 points, 11.1 rebounds and a conference-leading 2.4 steals last season.

Cochran, a member of the Big West All-Freshman team in 2005-06, averaged 12.4 points and 5.2 rebounds before suffering a season-ending leg injury after five games last season.

In nine games before tearing a knee ligament, Zdenek averaged 8.1 points.

No UCI women were on the six-player preseason all-conference team.

Defending champion UC Riverside was picked atop both polls, followed by UC Santa Barbara. Riverside received nine of 10 first-place votes in the media poll and eight of nine in the coaches’ poll. Santa Barbara received one first-place vote in each poll.

The media poll went as follows: UC Riverside (89), UCSB (81), Cal Poly (56), Long Beach State (53), UC Davis (53), Cal State Fullerton (43), Northridge (30), UCI (25) and Pacific (20).

The coaches poll was as follows: UC Riverside (64), UCSB (57), UC Davis (44), Cal Poly (41), Long Beach State (37), Cal State Fullerton (24), Pacific (23), UCI (17) and Northridge (17).

The UCI men play an exhibition game Nov. 6 against Cal Baptist at Crawford Court, while the women play Cal Baptist in an exhibition game Nov. 1 at Crawford Court.

The UCI men are scheduled to open the regular season Nov. 9 against Loyola Marymount, at 7:30 p.m. at Crawford Court.

The UCI women’s opener is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 9 against New Mexico State at Crawford Court.

— Barry Faulkner