Denver (2-3) at No. 4 Arizona (5-0) | McKale Center | 8:30 p.m. | CBS Sports Network | 1290-AM
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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0 F Jeremiah Burke (6-7 senior)
20 G Carson Johnson (6-1 sophomore)
5 F Logan Kinsey (6-6 senior)
8 G Julius Rollins (6-7 senior)
32 C Gabe Oldham (6-8 junior)
7 G Zane Nelson (6-4 senior)
1 F Shaun Wysocki (6-7 sophomore)
4 G Corleone Dandridge (6-5 freshman)
How they match up
The series: Arizona is 3-1 against Denver but hasn’t faced the Pioneers in 40 years, when the Wildcats won 63-54 at McKale Center.
Game agreement: Denver is appearing as part of the “Wildcat Classic” multi-team event, in which Arizona will face the Pioneers and Norfolk State (Saturday) while Denver will face Arizona and Wyoming (Wednesday).
Denver overview: Having left Division II Minnesota State-Moorhead to take over Denver after the Pioneers fired Jeff Wulbrun last spring, 34-year-old Tim Bergstraser already picked up his first big D-I win on Friday. The Pioneers won at Colorado State 83-81, with four players scoring in double figures, including guard Zane Nelson, who had 22 off the bench while making 3 of 4 3-pointers and getting to the line to make 7 of 8 free throws. Former Pima College center Gabe Oldham added seven points and seven rebounds.
Bergstraser put the Pioneers together by bringing in four players from Moorhead and surrounding them with six other transfers, three returners and a freshman who had signed with Wulbrun’s staff. Then he took them on an ambitious schedule that included road games at Seattle, Washington, Montana State and Colorado State; Denver lost at Seattle, at Washington and in a home game to UTSA, but none by more than 14 points.
The Pioneers are good 3-point shooters (39.6%), taking 38.4% of their shots from beyond the arc, and average from 2-point range (51.7). Defensively, they rank just 352 so far among Division I teams in efficiency, with teams shooting 55.8% from two-point range inside and 38.9% from 3.
While Nelson led the Pioneers in scoring Friday, Denver has three starters averaging in double-figure points and all of them are legit 3-point threats: Point guard Carson Johnson (18.6 ppg, 37.9% 3FG), power forward Jeremiah Burke (17.0 ppg, 48.1% 3FG) and wing Logan Kinsey (13.8 ppg, 60.0% 3FG).
He said it: “They’re older, they’re bigger, and they have some talent in their guards. They’re going to put you in some unique situations. They can play a small-ball lineup without a true center. Their two through five are all between 6-6 and 6-8.
“They have a few key guys and those three are kind of the key to them. When Burke is there, he’s super aggressive. He’s making a lot of catch-and-shoot 3s. He can post you up. He’ll play the small-ball five, he’ll play the four, he’ll play the three some. They’re going to move him all around. He’s really talented, really skilled, so we have to be ready to guard him all over the court.
“Johnson and Kinsey played for coach Bergstraser at Moorhead, so they’re familiar with the system. Johnson’s an elite jump shooter. Shoots it really well off the dribble, catch and shoot, and he can create his own shot. They play him in isolation, so we’ll have to be ready to guard him.
“Kinsey is a really good athlete. He’s shooting at a really high percentage. He’s not shooting a high volume, but he’s another one of those guys like Burke that you have to guard inside and out. He’s gonna apply pressure on the rim, and the shots on the rim, he can rise up and dunk it.
“(Julius) Rollins is a really good athlete. He can shoot it from 3, but he can he can dunk on you pretty quick. He can offensive rebound, and he’s really good at catch and shoot.
“Oldham is a big-time offensive rebounder, high energy. We’ve got to box him on every possession. He scores around the rim and he plays really hard defensively.
“They’re gonna run a good amount of sets. They run a bunch of different actions. But offensively, if they have a hot hand, they’re going to keep going to that. If someone makes a shot, we’ve got to be ready to guard him again, because they do a good job of finding the guys who are feeling it, whether that’s in the post, whether that’s an iso in the lane. It seems like they really trust their players to go and make plays, and they aren’t always relying on actions.” — UA assistant coach Evan Manning, who scouted the Pioneers
Key players
Guard Carson Johnson is the Denver Pioneers’ leading scorer.
A redshirt to begin last season as a freshman at Division II Minnesota State-Moorhead, Johnson ripped it off midway through last season and hasn’t stopped going since then. He was named a second-team all-region Division I pick and a conference tournament MVP while averaging 19.8 points a game. Moving up with Bergstraser to D-I this season, Johnson is the Pioneers’ leading scorer.
Arizona guard Brayden Burries (5) keeps pressure on NAU guard Kavon Bradford (22) at McKale Center, Nov. 11, 2025.
While fellow five-star freshman Koa Peat has mostly thrived in the Wildcats’ wins over ranked teams, Burries has struggled. He’s averaging 4.0 points while shooting just 21.1% from the field and has matched his five turnovers with five assists during those three games. Now he has a chance to reset before Auburn visits McKale on Dec. 6.
Sidelines
The “Wildcat Classic”
Wondering why the Wildcats aren’t off to Hawaii, the Bahamas, Las Vegas or some other exotic location this week for some multi-team “Feast Week” event?
They’re doing it right here this time. The Wildcats are hosting their own MTE this week, a tactic often used in college basketball so teams can still receive the maximum of 31 regular-season games when they can’t or don’t want to play in a more traditional event.
Some MTEs, such as the Maui Invitational, are limited to participating only once every four years, and UA went to Maui in 2022 and played in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas last season.
So, Arizona this year got together with Wyoming to solve the problem: Both the Wildcats and Cowboys will play Denver and Norfolk State at home, though UA and Wyoming won’t play each other. An MTE, at least by definition.
It will be officially called the Wildcat Classic. Though, not surprisingly, there is no mention of such a thing on the Cowboys’ official website.
Next season, though, this sort of exercise won’t be necessary. The NCAA Division I Council in June approved legislation that gives all teams a total of 31 games (plus conference tournament games) to play, regardless of whether they are in an MTE.
The rule change gives teams the flexibility to play in MTEs or more one-off neutral site games, some of which pay schools well, while still allowing teams to schedule plenty of home games to generate gate receipts.
Still, UA needed an NCAA waiver to make the Wildcat Classic play out exactly as it wanted.
NCAA rules mandate that MTEs in which teams play twice each must be completed within five days. Arizona had scheduled Denver for Monday and Norfolk State for Nov. 29, which would have fit — except Wyoming technically opened the “Wildcat Classic” by hosting Norfolk State on Sunday.
UA could have played the Norfolk State game within five days of Sunday, but that was tricky, too. Norfolk State is actually returning home for a game Tuesday between its “Wildcat Classic” games, so playing at McKale on Wednesday wasn’t feasible — and UA didn’t want to play Norfolk State on Thanksgiving, nor on Friday because UA’s volleyball team is hosting Cincinnati while the Wildcat football team is playing at ASU that evening.
But UA received the waiver earlier this fall, allowing it to stretch its “MTE” over six days. That allowed it to schedule Norfolk State for Saturday, thus completing the event and being able to play the full 31 games.
With a reéumé that includes wins over Florida (No. 6 in Kenpom rankings), UCLA (20) and UConn (9), Arizona is in the conversation for the No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 poll that will be refreshed Monday.
But the Wildcats, ranked No. 4 before beating the No. 3 Huskies, will have to pass by No. 1 Purdue and No. 2 Houston.
The Boilermakers (6-0) could be tough to jump, especially after beating Texas Tech on Friday in the Bahamas. Their résumé includes a win at Alabama (ranked 17th in Kenpom) and wins over Memphis (72) and Texas Tech (30) in the Bahamas, plus home wins against Evansville (265), Oakland (171) and Akron (71).
By comparison, No. 2 Houston (5-0) has a résumé that includes a 73-72 win over Auburn (22) at Birmingham plus four home wins over teams rated 136-337 in Kenpom.
Numbers game
4: Turnovers Denver committed in its win at Colorado State on Friday.
10: Arizona’s Kenpom rank in both offensive and defensive efficiency as of Saturday.
360: Arizona’s rank in 3-pointers taken as a percentage of overall shots taken (25.6%)
Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at bpascoe@tucson.com. On X(Twitter): @brucepascoe
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