Coach: Lute Olson, 22nd season, 519-157; 32nd overall, 711-249

Players to watch: Channing Frye, sr., center; Hassan Adams, jr., guard; Salim Stoudamire, sr., guard.

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Outlook: Pity Lute Olson. He lost another big-name lottery pick in Andre Iguodala. However will the Wildcats recover? Ah, here's how: the deepest roster in the Pac-10. Olson has his other four starters back, and just one of them didn't average double-digit points last season. That player, guard Mustafa Shakur, hit 51.9 percent of his shots from the field. Frye is an athletic center who can run with the Wildcats and Adams led the team in scoring last season at 17.2 points a game. Arizona's 20 wins last year was its worst total since 1986-87, but it's tough to imagine anything but a return to 22-plus victories.

Coach: Rob Evans, 7th season, 90-89; 13th overall, 176-170

Players to watch: Ike Diogu, sr., forward; Steve Moore, sr., guard.

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Outlook: The Sun Devils have the conference's most dominant player in Diogu, a monster in the low post who even stepped outside to hit 14 3-pointers last season. But unfortunately for Evans, they appear to have little else going for them, as evidenced by last season's bottom-of-the-barrel finish in the conference. Evans called the 2003-04 team the worst defensive group he had ever coached and is determined to change that this season. Tyrone Jackson was a JC All-American last season at point guard and he'll most likely be called on immediately to help spark a turnaround.

Coach: Ben Braun, 9th season, 153-94; 28th overall, 486-329

Players to watch: Richard Midgley, jr., guard; Marquise Kately, so., forward; David Paris, jr., forward.

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Outlook: Cal has been hit by a developing — and disturbing — trend in the conference this season. The Bears lost their best player, sophomore forward Leon Powe, for the season due to a knee injury. Powe averaged 15.1 points and 9.5 rebounds as a freshman, and with Cal's other inside presence, Amit Tamir, graduated, the Bears are now dangerously thin inside. Instead of focusing on the inside game, Braun will turn to his smaller players and, if they are to be successful, depend on a more guard-oriented offense.

Coach: Ernie Kent, 8th season, 135-81; 14th overall 225-161

Players to watch: Malik Hairston, fr., guard; Ian Crosswhite, jr., forward.

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Outlook: The Ducks lost a lottery pick to the NBA, the best 3-point shooter in school history and a double-digit scoring sixth man. So why are they still expected to be an upper-echelon Pac-10 team? Freshman Hairston out of Detroit has been turning heads in preseason practices and has Kent drooling. Plus, the Ducks can throw multiple 7-footers on the court at once, and in a guard-oriented conference, they may be able to dominate in the low post.

Coach: Jay John, 3rd season, 25-31; 3rd overall

Players to watch: David Lucas, sr., forward; Lamar Hurd, jr., guard.

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Outlook: Another injury alert — this time, it's Lucas. The returning All-Pac-10 forward had toe surgery after getting hurt in September, and he could miss the first half of the season. The Beavers hope to have him back in time for the conference season, and they're certainly counting on his team-leading 17.2 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. Without him, guard Lamar Hurd, who tallied 138 assists in 2003-04, will need to find other players to get involved, a task made easier since OSU's entire starting lineup is back.

Coach: Trent Johnson, 1st season; 6th overall 79-74

Players to watch: Chris Hernandez, jr., guard; Rob Little, sr., center.

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Outlook: The loss of NBA draft pick Josh Childress certainly doesn't help, but no one is feeling sorry for Johnson, a former Stanford assistant who was most recently the head man at Nevada. The Cardinal still has three returning starters from last season's Pac-10 champs. Hernandez is the league's best 3-point threat (46-100 last season), but health has always been a concern for the guard. Little is 6-foot-10 and a beefy 260 pounds, so he should be able to throw his weight around in the paint to give Hernandez and the other Stanford guards some room to roam on the perimeter.

Coach: Ben Howland, 2nd season, 11-17; 179-116, 11th overall

Players to watch: Dijon Thompson, sr., guard; Ryan Hollins, jr., center.

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Outlook: The Bruins are yet another team to lose a top returning player. Cedric Bozeman was UCLA's second-highest scorer back form last year, but a knee injury ended his senior year before it began. That shifts more of the pressure in Howland's second year in Westwood to Thompson, a 6-foot-7 swingman who shoots well and can also get a rebound or two. Howland will continue to preach his tough, aggressive defense that led to success at Pittsburgh, and if the Bruins can improve on the 70 points a game they allowed last year, they could do some damage.

Coach: Henry Bibby, 10th season, 130-117; 10th overall

Players to watch: Jeff McMillan, sr., forward; Lodrick Stewart, so., guard; Errick Craven, sr., guard.

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Outlook: Catching on to the trend yet? Injury hasn't taken Rodrick Stewart away from the Trojans, but academic ineligibility would have forced him out for much of the season. Instead, the Rainier Beach product decided to transfer, leaving Bibby with just one of the Stewart twins, brother Lodrick. Lodrick scored more than Rodrick last season despite coming off the bench, and he joins three other returning starters as the key figures for USC this year. Bibby has taken a lot of heat in Los Angeles lately, and he probably needs a good season to make it to year No. 11.

Coach: Lorenzo Romar, 29-29, 3rd season; 9th overall, 122-117

Players to watch: Nate Robinson, jr., guard; Will Conroy, sr., guard; Brandon Roy, jr., guard.

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Outlook: The Huskies were picked near the basement last season, but a stunning winning streak down the stretch last year and the return of all five starters this year has Romar's team at or near the top of the Pac-10 on every preseason list. Robinson is the conference's — and maybe the nation's — most electric player, and the Huskies will have to run teams off the floor every game since they don't have a solid inside presence. (No player is taller than 6-9.) But UW scored 82 points a game last year, and there's no reason to believe they won't do just as well if not better this season.

Coach: Dick Bennett, 2nd season, 13-16; 27th overall, 467-273

Players to watch: Thomas Kelati, sr., guard; Jeff Varem, sr., forward; Derrick Low, fr., guard.

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Outlook: The Cougars enter Bennett's second year without an all-around scoring threat, so they'll most likely try to spread the scoring burden as thinly as possible while — surprise, surprise — playing a slow-down game with defense as a top priority. Defense, by the way, will also be the second, third and fourth priorities. The biggest problem as the season progresses should be the lack of size, as 6-10 freshman Robbie Cowgill could play big minutes despite his 200-pound frame. The five other scholarship freshmen will also factor heavily in the mix.