South Dakota State (7-7) at No. 1 Arizona (12-0) | McKale Center | 7 p.m. | ESPN+ | 1290-AM, 92.5-FM (Spanish)

Probable starters

0 G Jaden Bradley (6-3 senior)

5 G Brayden Burries (6-4 freshman)

18 F Ivan Kharchenkov (6-7 freshman)

0 F Koa Peat (6-8 freshman)

13 C Motiejus Krivas (7-2 junior)

3 F Anthony Dell’Orso (6-6 senior)

30 F Tobe Awaka (6-8 senior)

2 F Dwayne Aristode (6-8 freshman)

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14 G Jaden Jackson (6-0 sophomore)

3 G Joe Sayler (6-3 sophomore)

10 F Kalen Garry (6-3 junior)

11 F Matthew Mors (6-7 senior)

35 C Alec Squires (6-10 freshman)

34 C Damon Wilkinson (6-10 sophomore)

2 G Luke Haertle (6-3 junior)

12 F Bubz Alvarez (6-5 sophomore)

How they match up

The series: Arizona beat South Dakota State 71-64 at McKale Center early in the 2019-20 season during the only previous meeting of the two programs.

Game agreement: Arizona will pay South Dakota State $105,000 for making a one-time appearance at McKale.

South Dakota State overview: Despite losing former Cochise College center Oscar Cluff to Purdue — and head coach Eric Henderson to Drake — the Jackrabbits otherwise have a heavy core of returners who are expected to help them challenge for the Summit League title. So far this season, South Dakota State has won two of four true away games, at NAU and Ball State, but lost at Oregon and Northern Iowa. It also lost to Utah Valley and UC Irvine at a multi-team event in Mexico.

The Jackrabbits get much of their production from a smaller perimeter that includes point guard Jaden Jackson and wings Joe Sayler and Kalen Garry, with Division II transfer Luke Haertle coming off the bench. Jackson leads the team in scoring (12.8) while Garry, a preseason all-Summit pick, leads SDSU in assists (2.8) while posting a 2.3-1 assist-turnover ratio. Garry is also a 41.7% 3-point shooter, while Jackson and Sayler are both hitting long-range shots at a 35.8% rate.

But the Jackrabbits have high-major size inside with Damon Wilkinson and freshman Alec Squires, who are both about 250 pounds. Wilkinson has a defensive rebounding percentage of 21.0 that ranks 166th nationally, and he collects SDSU’s missed shots at a 10.9% rate. At power forward, Matthew Mors is a 61.1% two-point shooter who blocks 4.2% of opponents’ two-point shots when he’s on the floor.

He said it: “Those three guards are good players — Jackson, Sayler and Garry — and they know the system. Any one of those guys will bring the ball up in transition and depending on where they see some matchups that they can take advantage of, they’ll look to manipulate the pieces a little bit within their sets and their actions. But (Jackson) is the main guy … and Wilkinson comes off the bench, even though he plays like a starter.

“The biggest thing with them is they have a style of play, and they stick to the plan. It’s not always easiest to play against. (Defensively), they really like to pack the paint, be in the gaps, go under ball screens and drop coverage.

“We have guys who are capable shooters, but our strength is with our interior and obviously the paint. So I think the easiest way for a team to combat that is to be in the gaps and try to build a wall to keep us out of that. 

“At the end of the day, having guys that have been in your program for multiple years is tough (to get) nowadays, but when you can get that, especially at the mid-major level, in a situation that South Dakota State has, it always helps.” — UA assistant coach TJ Benson, who scouted the Jackrabbits

Key players

Damon Wilkinson has a defensive rebounding percentage of 21.0 that ranks 166th nationally.

South Dakota State athletics

A walk-on two years ago who averaged just 10 minutes last season, Wilkinson now leads the Jackrabbits in rebounding (6.1) while averaging 12.3 points a game. Along with starting center Squires, he gives the Jackrabbits the sort of bigger post presence the Wildcats haven’t seen from mid-major opponents this season.

Arizona Wildcats forward Sidi Gueye during a game against the Denver Pioneers, Nov. 24, 2025, in Tucson.

Darryl Webb, Associated Press

The Wildcats’ long freshman from Senegal has flashed his long-term potential and high motor increasingly this season, and he might get a final chance to do so Monday before the Wildcats open Big 12 play on Saturday at Utah.

Sidelines

Just in case the Wildcats felt a little groggy after taking three-plus days off for Christmas, their coaches put them back to work almost immediately afterward.

Arizona players reassembled Friday and had a long workout that evening — then went through another one at 11 a.m. Saturday.

“It a little sluggish and slow to start,” Benson said of the Saturday workout. “But I think that’s probably to be expected after a longer practice (Friday) night, trying to get the guys back into the swing of things.”

Still, Benson indicated the Wildcats didn’t exactly get out of shape over the break.

“I thought our practice was good (Friday) night,” Benson said. “I don’t really look into it too much because I think every single one of those guys found a way to get in the gym. … I think we have a relatively mature group.”

Usually, after a Christmas break, college basketball teams will take extra time to prepare directly for conference play or host a lower-level opponent for something of a warmup.

In Sean Miller’s first season as UA coach in 2009-10, the Wildcats did neither. So he made sure that never happened again.

The Wildcats returned from the 2009 Christmas break to prepare on short notice for an unranked and underrated BYU team that visited Tucson on Dec. 28 and smacked the Wildcats 99-69, setting a McKale record for the biggest victory margin by an opponent. Prolific shooting guard Jimmer Fredette had 49 of those points to set new BYU and McKale individual records, too.

BYU’s Jimmer Fredette, who scored 49 total points, shoots during the game against UA in the first half at McKale Center.

Dean Knuth, Arizona Daily Star file

“It was looking real big,” Fredette said of the baskets that night.

Miller never again scheduled the Wildcats for a game between Christmas and conference play, and until this season, the Wildcats have always gone straight from the holiday break into conference openers that have started between Dec. 30 and Jan. 4.

This season, the Wildcats aren’t scheduled to open Big 12 play until Jan. 3, meaning they would have 12 total days after their Dec. 22 game with Bethune-Cookman if they didn’t pop South Dakota State into the schedule.

That long a break “can go either way,” said Benson, who assists with nonconference scheduling. “You can either be really fresh and excited, or you can be a little rusty.”

Benson said it was the first time in seven years of working with schedules that he felt an extra nonconference game was needed after Christmas.

UA coach Tommy Lloyd said he wasn’t overthinking it.

“It’s just the way the schedule broke,” Lloyd said. “I didn’t want to wait 10 days without a game before the Big 12. Sometimes it’d be great to play on the 20th against San Diego State, then go home. But we’re just fitting the games in where we have to.

“I’m OK playing a nonconference game after we get home from Christmas to get ready for conference.”

With 365 teams in Division I, maybe some repetition is inevitable. But Arizona’s schedule has brought things to a different level this season.

Immediately after facing another “UA” in Alabama on Dec. 13, the Wildcats began a string of six games in which half of the opponents are also known as “Wildcats” (Bethune-Cookman, Abilene Christian and Kansas State).

Bethune-Cookman guard Jakobi Heady, top right, blocks a shot by Arizona forward Ivan Kharchenkov (8) during the first half, Dec. 22, 2025, in Tucson.

Rick Scuteri, Associated Press

Now, with South Dakota State comes the second team UA has faced that’s known as “SDSU,” after UA faced San Diego State on Dec. 20 — and also the second team sometimes referred to as “Jacks,” after UA hosted the NAU Lumberjacks on Nov. 11.

Numbers game

4: Games in which Tobe Awaka has had 15 or more rebounds this season, despite playing no more than 23 minutes in any of them.

12: South Dakota State’s national ranking in minutes continuity, a Kenpom metric measuring what percentage of a team’s minutes are played by the same player from last season to this season.

14.0: Average points per game this season from freshman guard Brayden Burries, who became UA’s leading scorer on Dec. 22 when he scored 20 points against Bethune-Cookman.

Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at bpascoe@tucson.com. On X(Twitter): @brucepascoe

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