Men’s Basketball
Branden Carlson Named Preseason All-Pac-12 Runnin’ Utes selected seventh in the Pac-12 Conference Preseason Poll
Wilguens Jr. Exacte (3.6 ppg) and Keba Keita (3.0 ppg, 3.4 rpg). The Utes also bolstered their depth with eight newcomers on the squad that include veteran transfers: Hunter Erickson (BYU/ SLCC), Cole Bajema (Michigan/ Washington), Deivon Smith (Mississippi State/Georgia Tech) and Lawson Lovering (Colorado). Utah also added a quartet of freshmen in Jayden Teat, Jake Wahlin, Ayomide Bamisile and Jerry Huang. Carlson enters his fifth season with the Runnin’ Utes program and had one of his best seasons in 2022-23 by averaging 16.4 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.0 with a .496 shooting clip. Meanwhile, his 63 blocks were tops in the Pac-12 and 27th overall in the NCAA while his 2.03 blocks per game was good for second in the league and 22nd in the country. His 63 denials last season also tied him with Jakob Poeltl for most blocks in a single-season at Utah. The South Jordan, Utah, native also closed out last season with a 22-game double-digit scoring streak – including three-straight double-doubles.
The Runnin’ Utes were picked to finish seventh by the league’s media the Pac-12 Conference announced ahead of the start of media day on October 11 in Las Vegas. The Runnin’ Utes finished Pac-12 play last season 10-10 – which was good for seventh in the league and the highest finish in the Craig Smith Era. Arizona, who repeated as the Pac-12 Tournament Champions last year, was picked to win the league with 18 first-place votes for a total of 303 points while USC (264) and UCLA (240) each garnered four first-place votes to check in at second and third,
respectively. Oregon was pick to finish fourth (228) with Colorado (210) and Arizona State (148) rounding out the top six. Utah checked in with 139 points for seventh followed by Stanford (131) and Washington (108) while Washington State (94), California (67) and Oregon State (42) rounded things out. Utah returns 64.7-percent of its offense from last season anchored by 2023-24 Pac-12 Preseason Men’s Basketball All- Conference First-Team honoree Branden Carlson. He’s joined by Gabe Madsen (11.6 ppg), Rollie Worster (8.6 ppg, 5.0 apg), Ben Carlson (4.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg),
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CRIMSON CLUB MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2023
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