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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)

NAU

4 G Oakland Fort (5-10 senior)

5 F Zack Davidson (6-9 sophomore)

11 G Ryan Abelman (6-4 junior)

44 G Arne Osojonik (6-8 junior)

3 F Traivar Jackson (6-7 senior)

Key reserves

7 G Brennan Peterson (6-0 freshman)

9 F Karl Poom (6-8 sophomore)

22 G Kavon Bradford (6-1 sophomore)

12 F Diego Campisano (6-6 senior)

How they match up

The series: Arizona leads its second most frequently played instate opponent 101-27 and hasn’t lost to the Lumberjacks since 1968-69. But the teams haven’t met since 2021-22, largely because UA coach Tommy Lloyd didn't want to coach against his son, Liam, who was playing for NAU before joining the Wildcats last season.

Game agreement: The third and final game of the last contract NAU and Arizona signed in 2019 was scheduled to pay the Lumberjacks $90,000 for appearing during the 2022-23 season. While that game was never played, NAU is receiving $90,000 from Arizona instead for appearing this season at McKale.

NAU overview: Once a well-regarded coach at Mesa High School, NAU’s Shane Burcar led the Lumberjacks to their first winning season since 2020 in 2024-25 but wound up just like pretty much everybody else. That is, he lost all but three players for this season. But Burcar's three veterans include two part-time starters in guard Oakland Fort and forward Ryan Abelman, and he pulled in several key transfers.

NAU has particularly rebuilt its frontcourt, with Montana transfer Zack Davidson, Eastern Michigan transfer Arne Osojnik and Grand Canyon transfer Traivar Jackson. The Lumberjacks’ backcourt has been fluid. Freshman walk-on Brennan Peterson, who played for Glendale Dream City, has started at point guard in part because of his ballhandling but Fort, a product of Phoenix Sunnyslope, is a returning part-time starter who is expected to return to the lineup.

The Lumberjacks shot a respectable 34.4% from 3-point range last season and took care of the ball, turning it over on only 15.2% of possessions, the 44th lowest rate in Division I. So far this season, they have played only one Division I opponent, Drake in a 77-71 loss on Nov. 3 in a South Dakota event, but shot 41.7% and turned the ball over on only 8.7% of possessions.

Key players

NAU

Zack Davidson

Little used at Montana last season, Davidson became the first Big Sky player ever to transfer to NAU.  So far he’s averaged 25.0 points while shooting 64.7% and playing an average of 31.5 minutes a game.

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Evan Nelson

The Wildcats’ graduate transfer from Salpointe via Harvard didn’t play against Florida and logged only five minutes against Utah Tech. But UA coach Tommy Lloyd said he’s been emphasizing the development of younger players and that he didn’t think Nelson was far from getting more time.

Sidelines

Wildcat substitutes

Burcar says facing a high-level team like Arizona is mostly about preparing for the Big Sky season and the chance to earn an NCAA Tournament berth by winning the conference tournament.

But without the ability to play the Wildcats over the past few seasons, Burcar had to get creative, daring to replicate the experience.

In 2022-23, NAU opened the season by playing at Michigan State while the following season the Lumberjacks opened at UConn — on the same night that the Huskies unfurled their 2023 NCAA championship banner.

Instead of looking away or staying in the locker room during that potentially intimidating ceremony, Burcar and his guys stayed on their bench to soak it up.

“C’mon," Burcar said. "We’re playing basketball. We’re not fighting a war.�

NAU lost to Michigan State by 18 and UConn by 43 and then, in its first Division I game last season, lost by 26 at Stanford before going on to its 18-win season.

Lumberjack connections

A two-time junior college all-American at Pima College, NAU's Jackson is one of five players with in-state ties.

A product of Anchorage, Alaska, Jackson spent the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons in Tucson before playing with Tarleton State in 2023-24 and Grand Canyon last season. The senior played only in 11 games at Grand Canyon but has started both of NAU’s first two games this season.

Fort is in his fourth season with the Lumberjacks after arriving from Phoenix Sunnyslope High School, while NAU also has two former Glendale Dream City players (Peterson and Osojnik) along with former Glendale Millennium guard JT Amundson, the son of ASU assistant coach Ty Admundson and a former Millennium teammate of new UA commit Cameron Holmes.

On the coaching side, Arizona has a number of NAU ties: Associate head coach Jack Murphy spent seven seasons as the Lumberjacks’ head coach, while assistant coach Brandon Chappell was a GA at NAU under Murphy, and Arizona GA Liam Lloyd was a Lumberjacks player for two seasons.

In addition, Burcar won 277 games at Mesa High School — and he later tried to get UA assistant coach TJ Benson to play for him at Fort Scott (Kansas) Community College out of Tempe Corona Del Sol High School.

Benson instead played for Mesa Community College and then Weber State.

“He would have been great for us,� Burcar said.

Hanging in there

Having missed summer workouts because of a visa issue and then struggling with knee issues in the preseason, UA freshman forward Sidi Gueye didn’t play in the Wildcats’ season opener against Florida and logged only three minutes last Friday against Utah Tech.

But he made the most of them, hitting the only field goal he tried while also pulling down two rebounds.

“Sidi and I have a plan and we know the plan is in the future for him,� Lloyd said. “Sidi’s gone through a lot of changes in his life in the span of a couple months. I don't think any of us could do what he's doing. I think we'd all be back home already, so I'm really proud of how he's hanging with it.

“I can't wait to get on the court with him a little bit more individually here coming up, and now that he's getting sustained practice time, I think he's going to be a really great asset to this program in the future.�

Numbers game

3: NAU players who have spent at least three years at the school: Oakland Fort, Diego Campisano and Ryan Abelman. Only five other current Big Sky players have been at their schools as long.

11.5: Senior Tobe Awaka’s rebounding average over UA’s first two games.

24.0: Freshman Koa Peat’s scoring average over his first two college games.

— Bruce Pascoe