Pac-12 Basketball: Top 10 returning players for the 2017-2018 season
By Connor Hope
Despite losing a ton of talented players, including two projected Top 3 picks, the Pac-12 has a great pool returning players for the 2017-2018 season.
With the transfer window slowly coming to a close and the NBA Draft approaching, analyzing returning rosters has taken a back seat in the NCAA basketball landscape. The Pac-12 has experienced this trend, as the conferences returning players have flown under the radar for of the last few months.
With all eyes on Lonzo Ball and Markelle Fultz in the NBA Draft, it is easy to see why Pac-12 fans have waited to hype returning players.
Considering the Pac-12 has two or three players that could make initial NCAA Player of the Year watch lists, there is reason to believe the conference will remain competitive. It will be hard to top last season’s excitement, but the list of returning players is strong enough to be excited.
While teams like Arizona, USC, and Stanford keeping a lot of their talent, others like UCLA and Oregon trying to reload depleted rosters.
When determining the best returning players, only players that played significant minutes during last season’s conference play were considered. This left Oregon State’s Tres Tinkle out of consideration, even though he could potentially be an All-Pac-12 level talent.
The players on this list are those that impressed us last season and should continue to improve going into this season. In an attempt to get all fans excited for the upcoming season, each Pac-12 has at least one representative in either the Top 10 or Honorable Mentions.
It is time to find out who was named in the Top 10 returning player of the Pac-12.