Next Week

College basketball moves to center in the annual Special Issue. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED scouts the top teams, picks Bill Bradley as best in the nation, analyzes zone defenses.

Win with rookies? Not a chance, according to the old pros of football. This year's crop has proved them wrong, as demonstrated by pictures of the best youngsters in action.

A charming weasel, the ferret, has almost vanished—a pity, writes Bil Gilbert, who fancies the wiggly little hunters and recently visited their onetime capital in Ohio.