Zona's plan to pair top recruits and a solid returning corps won titles for UK, Duke

The Wildcats' blueprint for this season looks similar to title runs for Kentucky in 2012 and Duke in 2015

Let me preface everything I'm about to write by stating that team recruiting rankings only go back so far -- specifically to 2003 over at 247Sports. So it's possible another program did what Arizona is about to do sometime in the 1980s or 1990s. I just can't say for sure because I'm limited to the data available. But this much I can say for sure: Arizona is about to become the first college basketball program in modern history -- and maybe ever -- to add a top-three recruiting class to a roster that's returning three of its top four scorers from a team that won at least 32 games in the previous season.

That's the byproduct of the past two days' developments.

First, on Sunday, Rawle Alkins announced that he's withdrawing from the NBA Draft -- meaning the Wildcats are now assured to return their leading scorer (Allonzo Trier), third-leading scorer (Alkins) and fourth-leading scorer (Dusan Ristic). Then, on Monday, five-star wing Emmanuel Akot announced he's reclassifying from 2018 to 2017 -- which jumped Arizona's recruiting class from fifth to third, according to 247Sports. So Arizona is now A) coming off of a season in which it won 32 games, B) returning three of the top four scorers from that team, and C) enrolling a top-three recruiting class. And I can't find any evidence that any team has met each of those three criterion in the same year since at least 2003 and possibly ever.

So, yeah, Arizona should be the preseason No. 1.

The Wildcats have a nice mixture of veteran contributors and heralded freshmen -- so much so that it's not a stretch to suggest they could end up having the National Player of the Year in Trier and the No. 1 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft in DeAndre Ayton. As I've said and written many times, it's teams built this way -- with rosters featuring both established contributors and heralded one-and-done candidates -- that are most ideal when it comes to chasing national championships. That's how 2011-12 Kentucky was built. That's how 2014-15 Duke was built. And that's how 2017-18 Arizona will also be built.

Consequently, Sean Miller's first Final Four is no longer the goal.

Or, at least, it shouldn't be.

Cutting nets on the first Monday in April is the new target.

And all of the pieces are now in place.