The Irvine Valley men's basketball team is ranked eighth in Southern California and No. 15 in the state in the Preseason California Community College Poll, which was released earlier this week.
Citrus, the defending state champions, has been tabbed as the 2008-09 favorite.
The Owls, who defeated Fullerton in last year's final in Stockton, received eight first-place votes.
Fresno, which received five first-place votes, is ranked No. 2, followed by Antelope Valley, Yuba and Ohlone colleges.
San Francisco, Riverside, Mt. San Jacinto, Fullerton and Diablo Valley round out the top 10.
Rounding out the top 20 are Foothill, San Jose City, Bakersfield, Los Angeles Trade Tech, Irvine Valley, Chaffey, San Joaquin Delta, Sequoias, Saddleback and Santa Rosa.
Irvine Valley had 174 points in the poll. It was 13 points behind No. 14 Los Angeles Trade Tech and one point ahead of No. 16 Chaffey.
Four Orange Empire Conference teams are ranked in the initial state poll with Riverside seventh, Fullerton ninth, IVC 15th and Saddleback 19th.
Irvine Valley had its best season in program history last year. IVC finished with an overall record of 27-5.
The team was second in the Orange Empire Conference and reached the regional finals of the Southern California Regional Playoffs, losing at Trade Tech.
The Lasers return two key players from last year's team - shooting guard Jeff Ledbetter and forward Brandon Hucks. They also get back forward Carlos Pinto, who was the leading scorer on the 2006-07 squad, but sat out last year.
Several newcomers also figure to play big roles, including sophomore center Matt Ballard and sophomore forward Jon Reed. Ballard was at UC Irvine and Reed played at Pepperdine last year.
IVC opens the season next Friday with a non-conference game at Palomar at 2 p.m. and then plays the following day at Miracosta at 6 p.m.