SAN FRANCISCO - Oregon is the media's pick to win the Pac-12 men's basketball championship, which means close to zip to the Ducks.
"I guess it's cool," junior guard Payton Pritchard said Thursday at Pac-12 media day. "But it really doesn't mean anything. It's not like they give you a trophy."
It's quite a leap for a program that a year ago didn't make the NCAAs and finished only two games above .500 in conference play. Four players who averaged double-digit minutes in 2017-18 return, but it's a star-studded freshman class, led by 7-foot-2 Bol Bol and forward Louis King, that is driving the hype.