UC Davis men’s basketball picked to finish seventh in Big West

UC Davis won the Big West Conference men’s basketball regular-season championship during its history-making run last season.

But media members who cover the nine-team league don’t see the Aggies repeating in the 2015-16 season.

UCD has been selected to finish tied for seventh with Northridge in the preseason media poll released Wednesday.

For the third consecutive year, UC Irvine is favored to claim the title. The Anteaters return three starters from last season’s squad that won the Big West tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.

Coach Russell Turner’s Anteaters received 198 total points and 19 of 23 first-place votes.

UC Santa Barbara finished second in the poll with 161 points and two first-place selections.

Hawaii was third (133), Long Beach State fourth (128), UC Riverside fifth (120) and Cal Poly sixth (117, two first-place votes).

UCD and Northridge each had 70 points and ninth-place Cal State Fullerton received 37.

The six-man all-Big West preseason team is comprised of UC Irvine’s 7-foot-6 junior Mamadou Ndiaye and Luke Nelson; UC Riverside’s Jaylen Bland and Taylor Johns; Hawaii’s Aaron Valdes and UC Santa Barbara’s Michael Bryson.

Bryson, an All-Big West first-team selection last season, graduated from Foothill High School.

Women’s basketball – UCD was picked to finish sixth in the Big West by a media panel, which released its preseason poll Tuesday.

Aggies senior center Alyson Doherty, a Lake Forest native, was selected to the preseason All-Big West team.

This story was originally published October 28, 2015 at 4:40 PM with the headline "UC Davis men’s basketball picked to finish seventh in Big West."