But remember, this is Arizona, which doesn’t have the word “rebuild” in its dictionary.

The Wildcats will be fine, as usual. They’ll be athletic and fast, with shooting guard Salim Stoudamire, wing Hassan Adams and forward Andre Iguodala. They’ll rebound and block shots, thanks much to the incredible improvement of center Channing Frye. They’ll defend tenaciously, with Iguodala leading in that department with 47 steals and 18 blocked shots last season.

Oh yes, the Wildcats appear to be well on their way to their 11th Pacific-10 Conference title under Olson. And as far as a freshman point guard is concerned, there may be a lot of guards leading the show, without a true one at the point.

That doesn’t mean freshman Mustafa Shakur won’t be running things as he gets accustomed to the level of play Olson demands. It means he will get ample help.

“It’s going to be a case of us having to play players, and not ‘this guy’s a one, two, three, four, five,’” Olson said. “We are really going to be a team without numbers. We have players, and we’re going to utilize those players.”

Oh, Olson has players, all right. The elite flock to a program that, in the past 20 seasons, has won one national championship, has gone to four Final Fours, has won 10 conference championships, has the nation’s best winning percentage in the last 16 seasons (80.9 percent) and has gone to the NCAA Tournament 19 straight times.

Stanford can almost approach Arizona’s excellence, with nine straight 20-win seasons and nine NCAA Tournament appearances in a row. Coach Mike Montgomery has a deep, talented squad that returns four starters from last year’s 24-9 team.

The front line is solid, with veterans Justin Davis (10.3 ppg., 7.3 rpg.), Rob Little (8.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg.) and Josh Childress (14.1 ppg., 8.1 rpg.).

Senior guard Matt Lottich knocked in 79 3-pointers last season and has carried that over into the pre-season.

The question for the Cardinal is at point guard, where Montgomery has to replace Julius Barnes, who started all 33 games and averaged 16.1 points and 3.8 assists a game.

Chris Hernandez has been the guy, but he has a history of injuries. If he goes down, the job may go to Carlton Weatherby, used little as a freshman last year.

“There are times when we look pretty good,” Montgomery said. “But we’re going to have to get much better if we want to get where we want to be.”

California has young talent to surround all-Pac-10 forward Amit Tamir (14.9 ppg., 6.5 rpg.). Most noteworthy is freshman forward Leon Powe, who has three 20-point games already.

Coach Ben Braun has to replace big scorers Joe Shipp and Brian Wethers, but Powe, along with freshmen Marquise Kately, Dominic McGuire and Ayinde Ubaka make up one of the nation’s top freshmen classes.

USC recruited Rainier Beach twins Lodrick and Rodrick Stewart and coach Henry Bibby is high on both. Watch for them to team up with senior forward Desmon Farmer (18.7 ppg.) and make the Trojans simply lethal on offense.

The Trojans return their top six scorers from a year ago, 85.4 percent of their scoring output last year.

An intriguing team is Washington, that is, if the young Huskies can get out of their own way. Coach Lorenzo Romar started as many as five freshmen last season, and they, predictably, took their lumps.

It’s not that Washington has no talent. The Huskies probably have the deepest set of guards in the conference, with Nate Robinson (13.0 ppg.), Will Conroy (12.7 ppg.), Curtis Allen (9.7 ppg.) and JC transfer Tre Simmons. Up front, the Huskies are young but athletic with starters Hakeem Rollins and Mike Jensen. Off the bench, Bobby Jones is an irritating defender and a dogged rebounder. Center Anthony Washington has shining moments.

But, as games against Gonzaga, Wyoming and Houston have shown, the Huskies don’t yet have the maturity to stop bad streaks before they become ridiculous. They have yet to establish themselves on the road. And, as last season’s home loss to Arizona showed, they can’t consistently close out close games.

“We have to mature and win the close games we didn’t win last year,” Romar said. “In order to do that, we’ve got to rebound better, we’ve got to defend better, we’ve got to take care of the ball and take better shots.”

Perhaps only time is the factor.