Sean Joyce

Yogi Berra once said, "It's like dŽjˆ vu, all over again."

You gotta love Yogi, and you gotta love this UA basketball team.

Two years ago, I took the train from New Jersey straight into the heart of New York City - Madison Square Garden - to watch my unknown Wildcats tip off against Notre Dame.

It's hard to root for Arizona in the Garden because most of the people there think UA's mascot is a Sun Devil.

Anyway, after a pre-game romp through some of NYC's finer establishments, I was ready to see UA try to give Notre Dame a game. At the time, Notre Dame's roster was led by forward Troy Murphy, a New Jersey native and one of the top players in the country. Arizona sent Loren Woods and a bunch of unknown freshmen and sophomores onto the court.

Well, it didn't take long for the entire country to take notice of this bunch of freshmen and sophomores.

Jason Gardner and Gilbert Arenas took advantage of the New York spotlight and established themselves as future stars of college basketball. So too did future NBA first-round draft pick Richard Jefferson, who could win rookie of the year this year, and Michael Wright.

Now come back to fall 2001, when Arizona basketball made its return to New York. Two years and one trip to the Final Four later, the Arizona basketball program was once again off the map.

There was no mention of them in any preseason poll or on the "Dick Vitale Slam Jam Preview," as if that surprised many Arizona basketball fans. While I watched Dick Vitale rant and abuse the art of alliteration, fear began to creep into me when he talked about the talent levels of the "PTPers" at Maryland and Florida, Arizona's two eventual opponents in the tournament.

There was no mention of a junior Rick Anderson, who would make the clutch shot to win the game against Florida. Nor was there even a mention of "diaper dandies" - freshmen in Vitale jargon - Will Bynum or Salim Stoudamire.

Well, Dicky V and the rest of the country sure did learn a lot about this Arizona team.

A backcourt of Bynum and Stoudamire has the potential to be one of the country's elite. Even the current backcourt, with Gardner and Bynum (both my height, not good for a basketball player), is a nightmare for anyone to defend.

At one point in the game, the Wildcats had four freshmen on the floor alongside Gardner. Isaiah Fox, who looks like a solid power forward in the making, and Channing Frye, a shorter Loren Woods, joined Stoudamire and Bynum on the floor as one of the most dynamic groups of freshmen since Michigan's "Fab Five" of the early 1990s.

With the reinstitution of the Pacific 10 Conference tournament in March, this basketball season should be a little more exciting than most. Before the Cats even face a Pac-10 team, they have three more tests against powerhouses No. 15 Michigan State, No. 3 Illinois and No.7 Kansas.

Right now, the Wildcats are a young team with a tremendous amount of talent, but by the end of the season, much like two years ago, this team will be mature and ready to make a push for the Pac-10 and national titles.

Get ready for another year of Arizona basketball, and in the words of Dicky V, "It's going to be awesome with a capital 'A.'"