ARIZONA RETURNS AT NO. 1.

Byline: Associated Press 

Arizona, which ended last season at the top, will start the defense of its national championship at the same place.

With the top eight players returning from the school's first title team, Arizona was the No. 1 team Thursday in the Associated Press' preseason college basketball poll.

Pacific-10 rival UCLA was ranked sixth.

Arizona received 30 first-place votes and 1,708 points from the 71-member national media panel, edging Kansas, which received one fewer No. 1 vote and accumulated 1,684 points.

``My feeling about preseason polls is they're the best guess people can make. Really, that's where it is right now,'' Arizona coach Lute Olson said. ``It shouldn't be a case where we would be surprised, because we returned our top eight players from a year ago. So it's nice recognition, but it's not going to make any difference.''

The No. 1 ranking is the first for Arizona since 1988-89, when the Wildcats held it for four weeks, including the final three polls of the season.

Olson has told the team not be concerned with the rankings. ``I said don't worry whether someone has got you first or fifth or eighth or second,'' he said, ``just be involved with what your own team expectations are.''

Arizona is the first defending champion to be ranked No. 1 in the preseason poll since Arkansas in 1994-95.