The Arizona women's basketball team is the league coaches' pick to finish second in the Pacific 10 Conference this season, the Pac-10 announced yesterday.

The Wildcats picked up 72 points ÷ including two first-place votes ÷ to trail only defending Pac-10 champion Stanford, who picked up 80 points and eight first-place votes in the preseason poll.

Arizona head coach Joan Bonvicini said her team is good enough to prove the voters right, but that it will take a lot of hard work to get there by the end of the season.

"I think the big thing is that this is early," Bonvicini said. "I know this is coach-speak, but we just want to go a game at a time," Bonvicini said. "It's a long season, but it's nice to get recognized like this."

The Wildcats were picked to finish fifth in the conference last season, but surprised fans and critics around both the Pac-10 and the nation, finishing in a tie for second in league play with a 13-5 record. That earned the team the third seed in the Pac-10 tournament and No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Arizona bowed out of the NCAA tournament early after being upset by 11-seed Notre Dame in Manhattan, Kan. Bonvicini said the team would like to build on the disappointment of the early exit and turn it into motivation this season.

"Potentially, we will have a real good team, but we also have a very difficult schedule," Bonvicini said. "We felt like we were a lot better than the way we finished. I felt like we had a good team and a good season, but disappointed in the end."

Bonvicini said the most difficult change this season for her squad will be the loss of the team's two senior leaders from last season, forward Krista Warren and guard Julie Brase.

"I think we have pretty good leadership, but I think the biggest question mark on our team is who is going to take (Warren's) spot," Bonvicini said. "We have some good returning players, but it should be interesting."

Preseason All-American sophomore Shawntinice Polk returns to lead a team that has just one senior returning ÷ guard Aimee Gryzb. Polk led the Wildcats last season by averaging 17.4 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. Junior guard Dee-Dee Wheeler, the 2002 Pac-10 freshman of the year, returns to pace the UA backcourt after averaging 16.2 points per game as a sophomore.

Washington came in third on the list with 61 points, while Oregon and Arizona State rounded out the top five with 48 and 47 points, respectively.