It is the reconstituted beauty of Arizona basketball that strikes you first. You watch the Wildcats flow and share and play so efficiently, KenPom's analytics might as well be their machete, cutting out opponents' hearts. But also, look closer. You'd also swear they're almost smiling while doing it. 

"It's the style of play, the unselfishness," first-year coach Tommy Lloyd said this week as the Cats prepare for the Pac-12 Tournament. "It's not hard to get guys to play unselfish because it becomes fun. They see the fun and the sharing and the joy."

Hallelujah! 

Arizona basketball only seems like a tent revival these days. The basketball world sees the No. 2 Wildcats soaring to their first NCAA Tournament berth in four years, a probable No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in eight years. The desert dynasty that Lute Olson birthed and Sean Miller sustained is back so quickly from the hangover of a still-ongoing NCAA investigation it can't help but be noticed from all angles.

"What we've done so far has been done at Arizona," Lloyd said sternly. "So let's not act like we're doing something here that's never been done."

But let's act like we can talk about Arizona again without feeling like we need a shower. In these early days under Lloyd, the program has become a piece of Gonzaga excellence broken off at the root and replanted in that desert. But it's more than that. Lloyd was Gonzaga coach Mark Few's top assistant for two decades and made his bones recruiting internationally. 

It was only a coincidence that Lloyd inherited a roster of players from seven countries. But there was definitely a reason Miller had peppered his team with imports.