It’s never too early to start to look ahead to next season. During the coming weeks, we will examine what comes next for each team in the Power 5 conferences and also those outside the Power 5 who could make noise on the national stage. Today: the Arizona Wildcats.

When Kentucky marched out seven players for their final farewell, it was easy to see exactly what the Wildcats were losing.

Arizona’s news came more like a slow bleed, a news conference to announce Stanley Johnson was leaving after his freshman season, another to say Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was going as well, and a news release announcing Brandon Ashley’s decision to turn pro.

It didn’t necessarily ease the sting because the Wildcats, so tantalizingly and heartbreakingly close to the Final Four again in March, are essentially back to square one. With T.J. McConnell graduating, the only starter returning for coach Sean Miller is center Kaleb Tarczewski.

That, of course, is the price of doing business among the elite programs and that is the push/pull for Arizona now that Miller has officially elevated the Wildcats back among the elite.

Cynics, of course, will see that word – elite – and snicker, quick to point out that Arizona hasn’t been to a Final Four since 2001, and that Miller is now 0-for-4 in Elite Eight games. They’d also be wise to remember that before Miller there was upheaval, chaos and two second-weekend berths in six years.

The reality is, the NCAA tournament is a wild card. The best team doesn’t always win the championship, let alone a game, and the best games often come down to matchups. Wisconsin was a lousy matchup for Arizona and the Badgers weren’t exactly a shabby team.

So the loss stings, and it stings even more now that the Wildcats have essentially said goodbye to a starting lineup that went 34-4 this past season.

But the real definition of elite, especially in this era of turnover, is what happens to a team when its roster is depleted by early defections and graduations. Does it crumble or reload?

Arizona is reloading.

What the immediate future holds: Let’s start with who is back for the Wildcats: Tarczewski likely could have been a first-round pick, but the 7-footer wanted to get his degree (he would be the first men's basketball player to graduate from the business school), attempt to become the school’s winningest player (he’s 18 wins away from that), and improve his game. Already one of the top defensive big men, he averaged 9.3 points and 5.2 rebounds on a team that had plenty of offensive options.

Not exactly a bad guy to build around.

And Miller has plenty of pieces with which to build.

Arizona’s reloading plan includes yet another top recruiting class, this one ranked fourth by ESPN, of four players. All are ranked in the ESPN 100, with three in the top 40: shooting guard Allonzo Trier (No. 18), small forward Ray Smith (No. 29), point guard Justin Simon (No. 37) and center Chance Comanche (No. 91). There’s also San Francisco graduate transfer Mark Tollefsen, who is at once a strong outside shooter and a highlight-reel dunker, plus junior college transfer Kadeem Allen and Boston College transfer Ryan Anderson.

Trier is, needless to say, the headliner. The Jordan Brand game MVP and McDonald’s All American can score from just about anywhere on the floor and is exactly what has been absent from the defensive-minded Wildcats for a few years – a bona fide, go-to scorer.

But he’s not the only guy who can help infuse some offense into an occasionally offensively-challenged team.

Tollefsen shot 38.9 percent from behind the arc at San Francisco. Before leaving Boston College, Anderson averaged 14.7 points per game.

As many coaches who have gone through the changeover would attest, though, the most critical players aren’t the new ones; they are the guys coming back. How players who were accustomed to playing bit parts react and adjust to bigger roles really is the difference, and Arizona has more than a few of them.

At point guard there’s Parker Jackson-Cartwright, McConnell’s understudy, who played sparingly but more than well, with a solid 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Gabe York and Elliott Pitts will be every bit as critical on the wing as Trier. York had the memorable game against Ohio State, coming off the bench for 19 points and 5-of-9 shooting from behind the arc, to prove exactly what kind of weapon he can be. He needs to be that -- if not all of the time -- most of the time this season for the Wildcats.

Tarczewski is the sure thing in the middle and he’ll be assisted by Dusan Ristic, another 7-footer coming off a good freshman campaign. The tag team, in fact, should be so strong that Comanche might have to wait his turn.

In all, the way it lays out makes for a team that is young, but bolstered by enough experience and so much talent that it’s hard to imagine Arizona not being the pick to win the Pac-12.