Now, that's not everything that has gone on, but it's some of the important stuff. We're ready to get this thing started.

In April and May, all of us who are completely invested (OK, obsessed) with college ball have to reacclimate to society and try to fit into normal life again. It isn't easy.

There are some positives, of course. You might clean out your car, for instance, and find that lingering dead-banana-skin smell ... really is a dead banana skin.

You get wild urges to do impossible things, like try to kill every dandelion in your yard. One day in April, I woke up at like 5:52 a.m. and thought, ''I can't stand the way that flower trellis has fallen apart behind the house. I have to tear that apart and put up a new one. Today.''

So when I woke back up around noon, that's just what I did. The trellis had been in this pathetic condition since around 1998, but suddenly it had become a matter of extreme urgency.

The garage -- a horror show eight years in the making -- was the designated ''big project'' and it's now about three-fourths ''clean'' ... that last fourth is always the trickiest part.

During this short-lived surge in efficient use of time, I discovered a box containing some articles, including one I'd written just after the 1993 Women's Final Four.

It lamented that there was no women's pro basketball league in the United States, that we'd just watched how truly great Swoopes was but wouldn't see her again until the 1996 Olympics. If she decided to keep playing that long.

Now, 11 years later, the WNBA lets us go back into ''I can't; there's a basketball game'' mode so much more quickly -- no waiting until November. Hah!

As for Swoopes, she'll be going for her third Olympic gold medal. The WNBA stop in action for the Athens Games lasts the month of August; the impact of the Olympics and the rookies are the two biggest stories in the league this season.

The 2000 Olympics started in mid-September, after the WNBA season. So this break is uncharted water for the league, which this year will have its finals from Oct. 8-12.

WNBA president Val Ackerman said of the break, ''It's unusual, but given that so many players expect to be involved, including all of the U.S. team, it's an enormous opportunity for us as a league. The Olympics deliver a platform that is unreplicated in sports.

''And what we plan to do locally is that the (non-Olympic) players will be allowed to take a bit more than a week off, then they'll return to their team cities. They'll be available for practice and community activities. It's our intent that the WNBA stays active during that time. Whether it's through watch parties of the Olympics or camps or meet-and-greets, it's an opportunity to have players available to fans and our (corporate) partners. Then once the schedule resumes, we hope to hit the ground running.''

As for the rookies, Ackerman said, ''I think the intrigue about how well they are going to do is well-placed. They'll have a 'honeymoon' period, but at some point, they're going to have to live up to the hype, or the interest level in them won't stay the same. I think they understand that, and that they have a lot to learn from the veterans.''

There are some other changes in the league this season. The 3-point line has been moved from the college distance of 19-9 to the international distance of 20-6 1/4. The lane is now the NBA width of 16 feet instead of 12. The 30-second shot clock will be reset to 20 seconds when a defensive foul/violation occurs with less than 20 seconds remaining and is unchanged if that happens with 20 seconds or more left.

These changes were made with the intent of increasing offense, so we'll see if that indeed happens.

Also the schedule is set up so that every team plays every other team at least twice, home and home.

''That means this year, unlike what's happened the last few years, every team's fans will get to see a Lisa Leslie or Diana Taurasi in their building,'' Ackerman said.

The playoff schedule is the same, although the finals will change to best-of-five next season.

There has never been more anticipation of new faces in the WNBA, and that's no slight to the veterans. It's just the kind of thing any sports league needs.

''We've got a vibrant high school game in this country. The college game is growing in popularity every year,'' Ackerman said. ''And we are at the apex of all of that.''

Mechelle Voepel of the Kansas City Star is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. She can be reached at mvoepel@kcstar.com.