Arizona tabbed 1 by media

The ARIZONA Wildcats are picked to finish first in the 2012-13 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball race, according to a poll of media members who cover Pac-12 men's basketball.

Arizona, led by senior All-Conference forward Solomon Hill (12.9 ppg/7.7 rpg), tallied 15 first-place votes and just narrowly edges out UCLA. The Bruins, guided by redshirt-junior forward David Wear (10.2 ppg/6.3 rpg), earned 16 first-place votes and is tabbed for second. CALIFORNIA rounds out the top three, while earning three first-place votes.

Reigning NIT champion STANFORD is slotted fourth in the poll, while reigning Pac-12 regular season champion WASHINGTON was ranked fifth. COLORADO, the defending Pac-12 Tournament champion, is picked sixth.

The second half of the poll is led by OREGON, with OREGON STATE grabbing the eighth spot. USC and WASHINGTON STATE were voted ninth and tenth place respectively. The poll was rounded out by ARIZONA STATE in 11th and UTAH in 12th.

Media have correctly picked the Conference winner 12 times in 20 tries. Arizona has correctly been selected in seven of the previous 11 times it has been slated to capture the league crown.

The 2012-13 season gets underway for the Pac-12 with six games on Friday, November 9. Five of those games will be aired on the Pac-12 Networks, with one game televised by Fox Sports Net.

THE 2012-13 PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL MEDIA POLL

Team--Pts.

1. Arizona (15) 403

2. UCLA (16) 402

3. California (3) 325

4. Stanford 296

5. Washington (2) 278

6. Colorado 262

7. Oregon 217

8. Oregon State 166

9. USC 163

10. Washington State 111

11. Arizona State 107

12. Utah 78

First place votes in parentheses