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Probable starters

ARIZONA

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)

Key reserves

3 F Anthony Dell’Orso (6-6 senior)

30 F Tobe Awaka (6-8 senior)

2 F Dwayne Aristode (6-8 freshman)

OKLAHOMA STATE

1 G Kanye Clary (6-0 junior)

5 G VyctoriUs Miller (6-5 sophomore)

9 F Anthony Roy (6-5 senior)

4 F Christian Coleman (6-8 senior)

22 F Parsa Fallah (6-10 senior)

Key reserves

0 G Jaylen Curry (6-1 junior)

21 F Isaiah Coleman (6-5 junior)

19 C Andrija Vukovic (6-11 sophomore)

72 F Lefteris Mantzoukas (6-9 freshman)

How they match up

The series: Arizona put away the Cowboys 92-78 at Stillwater last season to improve to 4-0 against Oklahoma State. Before meeting OSU in Big 12 play, Arizona last beat the Cowboys 79-78 in the 2005 Sweet 16 at Rosemont, Ill., when Salim Stoudamire hit a game-winning jumper in the final seconds. The teams have never played at McKale Center before.

Oklahoma State overview: After managing to steer the Cowboys into the NIT in his first year at Oklahoma State last season, coach Steve Lutz upgraded his roster again. Using what he referred to as the “golden window,� the time before the House settlement began scrutinizing NIL deals, he pulled in significant experience and talent from the transfer portal. The difference in talent is showing on the court, where the Cowboys moved toward NCAA Tournament consideration with a 99-92 win over No. 16 BYU on Wednesday in Stillwater. Oklahoma State shot 54.7% from the field and scored 21 points off 16 Cougar turnovers, while wing forward Anthony Roy hit 5 of 10 3-pointers and sank all seven free throws he took.

An East Bay product who is now playing for his sixth college, Roy is leading the Cougars in scoring with an average of 18.2 points and ranks 55th nationally by hitting 44.8% of his 3-pointers. Wing Vyctorius Miller is also a significant threat from 3-point range, shooting 42.0%, while the Cowboys shoot 35.0% as a team from 3. But Oklahoma State is even more efficient getting inside, shooting 54.7% from two-point range while running the 13th-fastest tempo in Division I.

Their size inside comes from Oregon State transfer Parsa Fallah, a 61.6% two-point shooter, along with 6-11 sophomore Andrija Vukovic, while the Cowboys also just received 6-9 freshman Lefteris Mantzoukas back against BYU after he missed eight games with an undisclosed injury. Listed as a freshman, Mantzoukas is actually a 22-year-old veteran of the Greek pro league.

Mississippi State transfer Kanye Clary, who averaged 16.7 points at Penn State in 2023-24 before missing most of last season with a lower leg injury, has been a steady presence at point guard. He is averaging 5.0 assists per game with a 2.4- assist-turnover ratio while shooting 38.4% from the field.

He said it: It’s about “tempo! They want to play fast and score in transition — (on a) make, miss or steal. They have talented guards all over the court who can really score the ball and create.

“Roy is maybe the best shooter we have played this season, and he is doing it in a very efficient way and taking tough shots. They run a ton of double drag ballscreens and are creative after timeouts with wrinkles.

"They’re an offensive-minded team but they play incredibly hard on defense. Their bigs are physical and can cause a lot of problems due to their effort and care factor.� — UA assistant coach Evan Manning, who scouted the Cowboys

Key players

OKLAHOMA STATE

Anthony Roy

Playing for a four-win Green Bay team, and sitting out nearly two-thirds of it with a significant ankle injury, left Roy a little under the radar last season. But he’s always been a bucket-getter, dropping 30 points on Ohio State last season and another 30 against BYU on Wednesday.

ARIZONA

Ivan Kharchenkov

The high-motor German/Russian freshman has been consistent on both sides of the ball all season, no matter what the stakes of the game, and Saturday he’ll likely have another three-way challenge: handling Roy defensively, scoring offensively and getting the Zona Zoo fired up.

Sidelines

Tough call

Because players from Arizona’s 2000-01 team will be honored at halftime Saturday, as the 25th anniversary of their Final Four appearance approaches, UA player relations director Jason Gardner was asked to appear at a news conference Thursday.

Not surprisingly, considering Gardner was the point guard and undisputed floor leader of that 2001 team, he was asked who would win if the 2001 and 2026 teams could somehow face each other.

“I think it's gonna be a really good game,� Gardner said, grinning. “I mean, obviously I would have to say us, because I was a player at the time, but it would be a very good game. This team has the physicality, the speed, the strength, the competitiveness …. it would be an awesome game.�

Both the 2001 and 2026 teams were balanced, with steady point guards (Gardner and Jaden Bradley), potent guard scorers (Gilbert Arenas, Brayden Burries) and 7-footers in the middle (Loren Woods, Motiejus Krivas), among other features — though Gardner said the environment they play in now is different.

“Going from the Pac-10 to the Pac-12 and Big 12 … at that time, I don’t think the Pac-10 was as physical as this,� Gardner said. “That's something that our group probably would have had to adjust to, which I think would have been an easy thing to fix. It was a pretty physical group, but the physicality is definitely different in the Big 12.�

Stillwater party 

In an NIL-fueled transfer portal era in which Roy’s journey through four Division I schools is not unusual, the old-fashioned things sometimes still mean something.

That happened Wednesday, when the Oklahoma State standout found fans spilling onto the court to celebrate the Cowboys’ 99-92 win over BYU.

“That was my first one,� Roy said, “and I hope it’s not the last.�

Maybe it won’t be. But Oklahoma State coach Lutz watched it all unfold calmly, saying afterward he had been fortunate to be a part of winning teams before, and also knowing how much work those sorts of wins require.

“That winning doesn't happen overnight,� he said Wednesday night. “That winning happens because you bust your tail every single day, you're a good person, and you do what is right.

“We’re going to enjoy tonight, but tomorrow morning, we have to get our head back on, our shoulders straight, and we have to get back to trying to figure out a way to beat Arizona and Arizona State on this road swing. I just try to instill in these guys that the hard work never goes away.�

Big 12 cites ‘inappropriate chants’

Some Oklahoma State fans, however, crossed a line that both BYU coach Kevin Young and Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark spoke out against after the game on Wednesday.

Like after Arizona’s loss to BYU at McKale last season, some fans were heard chanting “F—the Mormons.� Young said Wednesday he heard them come from the OSU student section.

“I think their fans should be proud, but it would be great if some class was warranted,� Young said. "I got four small kids at home, I'm a Mormon, and when I go home, they're going to ask me about it, the same way they asked me about it last year at Arizona."

Yormark issued a statement Thursday saying the conference was investigating “inappropriate chants� and that all parties had been notified.

“The conference has zero tolerance for behavior of this nature and will address the matter in accordance with Big 12 sportsmanship policies,� Yormark said in the statement.

Numbers game

22: Straight wins Kansas collected during the 1996-97 season, a Big 12 record that Arizona tied last week and can break Saturday.

51: Hours between the projected end of Arizona’s game Saturday at McKale and a game at Kansas on Monday.

332: Oklahoma State’s rank in minutes continuity, a Kenpom measure of how many of a team’s minutes are played by the same players as the previous season.

— Bruce Pascoe