Another opening, another show. But before we wiggle down with Wilbur Wildcat, muss up Lute Olson's silver coif and anoint Arizona the brand-new Desert Storm, is it entirely possible that this whole feel-fine thing is simply too good to be true? All that grace and class, the hair, the blazer, the photogenic family. All those fun players, the hot sun, the No. 1 ranking, The Lutester in the Hall of Fame. So how does that explain … Tom Arnold? Hey, Cats, you're stocked with enough veteran heads and fresh bodies to finish the season as the first team in more than a quarter-century to go undefeated. And yet you bust out in front of 11,000 hard-wired fanatics at a Midnight Madness show hosted by … Tom Arnold? Was Bob Crane dead or something? At least Duke (Kevin Costner) and Kentucky (Ashley Judd) know from celebrity hangers-on. What's the best damn hoops team period doing hanging around with the clown of the Best Damn … oh, never mind.

	The Cats have their N'awlins hopes riding on Gardner.

As if that weren't enough reason to begin another season rooting against another Lord of the Rims -- remember locked-and-loaded Duke last year and smack-talking Zona the year before? -- there are others. Specifically: Luke Walton and Jason Gardner, not one but two Player of the Year candidates on the same squad; a second tier of ridiculously skilled reserves that the normally reticent Olson says could be ranked on their own; and the oversaturation of Kelly Clarkson and the Osbournes combined. (More than half of Arizona's 27 games will be nationally televised.) In short, we won't be able to get away from the Cats, which places us in the same sneakers as the recruits Olson keeps stealing away with, as if America were some giant Saks Fifth Avenue and Lute were Winona Ryder. Already Zona has signed up two of next year's potentially best freshmen: guard Mustafa Shakur from Pennsylvania and forward Ndudi Ebi from Texas. The symbolism of Ebi's signing bodes ill for Duke and the capitals of basketball back East. The day before Ebi announced, Mike Krzyzewski spent two hours at his house, where the nimble Nigerian forward supposedly had a Blue Devils cap perched on the antenna of his car.

Want more evidence that the center of gravity in college hoops now tilts West? Balance in the Bluegrass shifts (along with movin' Marvin Stone) from Lexington to Louisville. The breakout star in the Big Ten figures to be from that league's western-most outpost: Minnesota's 6'11" Rick Rickert, a guy who originally verballed to … Arizona. The key recruit at Florida is also from the West, albeit Western Europe: wing Christian Drejer of Denmark. And consider some of The Mag's other picks to click: Kansas, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh (well, it's west of Jersey), Texas, UCLA, Western Kentucky, Oregon and Gonzaga, which might as well be Godzilla what with Zach Gourde (he of the painted toenails … don't ask) and a front line that could turn the Big Dance into Cinderella's Monsters Ball.

Finally, a public service message to the NBA-blinded loonies who think the college game has been decimated by defections to the pros: Give it up. After all, a senior-dominated squad from some place like Tulsa could wind up playing against a rookies-influenced collection from some place like Villanova for the national surprise championship; one of two previously obscure yet massive talents, Erwin Dudley from Alabama or David West from Xavier, could wind up as Player of the Year; and the most wide-open season yet may very well be decided among teams located in the wide open spaces.

So mark April 7 on your calendar, when the last act plays out on the ultimate stage, the Louisiana Superdome. You know, that big thing west of the French Quarter.

This article will appear in the November 25 issue of ESPN The Magazine.