Summer basketball workouts continue at San Diego State this week, and the good news is coach Brian Dutcher has enough to play a game against someone else.

Five starters and one sub.

He had seven, but Sacramento State transfer Jeremiah “Bear” Cherry pulled a calf muscle and is rehabbing it for the next week or so.

Returning starter Elzie Harrington is rehabbing leg surgery, Rice transfer Nick Anderson is still in Houston rehabbing major knee surgery, and the three European pros are still awaiting NCAA clearance.

Or put it this way: They’re playing a lot of 3-on-3.

“Obviously, I’d like to have everyone here learning,” Dutcher said, “but I also know I coached in the day when you couldn’t start (official practice) until Oct. 15 and they were just working out on their own. I’ve been through every era. And guess what? The teams that started on Oct. 15 still found a way to be pretty good.

“Coaches selfishly would like everybody here now for the teaching part of it, but I also know it’s a long time to March.”

For the time being, that is returnees Tae Simmons, Latrell Davis and Thokbor Majak, transfers Chance Gladden and Isaiah Sy and incoming freshman Zach White.

Croatian wing Luka Skoric arrived over the weekend. Italian guard David Torresani was scheduled to arrive Wednesday night, while fellow Italian pro Luca Vincini is still awaiting a visa appointment and might not get here until early August.

Skoric was introduced to the team before practice Monday morning, but is only able to stand on the side and watch. Any workouts in the facility must be done alone until the NCAA formally clears him.

SDSU is not alone. Only players from lower-level European pro leagues have received NCAA approval to practice and play as it decides how strictly to enforce its “actual and necessary expenses” provision for foreign pro eligibility. A guidance emailed to athletic departments in May, after most teams had already signed the latest wave of European pros, indicated the NCAA intends to take a harder line.

Skoric played for the top team in Croatia. Torresani and Vincini both played in Italy’s Serie A, regarded as one of the top leagues in Europe.

“The upper-division European players are still in the process, which is they want their contracts, they want their receipts, they want to get them as close to necessary living expenses as possible,” Dutcher said. “The question is, are they going to do as they’ve done in the past and maybe sit them a game or have them pay back the difference?”

When might the NCAA decide?

“We send everything they want, we continue to send things in, and we’re waiting for rulings,” Dutcher said. “Hopefully, we get them this summer. But if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. I just hope we get them.”

Until then, he’ll work with six or seven.

It’s a sea change from this time a year ago, when Dutcher had close to a full roster for summer workouts — one that included numerous returnees familiar with their system. Of the players on the floor this week, only Simmons played significant minutes for the Aztecs last season.

“It’s different, and it’s supposed to be different,” Dutcher said. “When you have a veteran team back, they’ve done a lot of this and they know it. Maybe their urgency isn’t as great, but it’s the summer, so how high do you want the urgency? With all these new guys, their urgency is higher.

“I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I don’t want to say, ‘Well, the team with all the returners went slower.’ I don’t want to make it look like last year’s team, because they weren’t urgent in the summer, they weren’t ready to go. They can go slower, they already know the system. But new guys, they come with a sense of urgency because it’s all new to them, which I like.”

SDSU currently lists 13 players on its roster, 12 on scholarship plus walk-on Raymar Gonzales from Eastlake High School. The maximum for men’s basketball under new regulations from the House settlement is 15.

And there could be veteran players available, given the recent court injunction allowing fourth-year seniors from 2025-26 a fifth season of eligibility — at least until the case is adjudicated, however long that might take.

“We’ll wait and see where it all settles,” Dutcher said. “If all the Europeans get cleared, we have enough players to be really good. If all of a sudden they don’t clear one of my guys or two of my guys, then talent-wise we wouldn’t be short-handed, but depth-wise we would be.”

Summer league update

A look at how players with local ties are faring in the various NBA summer leagues:

Reese Waters (SDSU): He appeared in two games for the Golden State Warriors in the California Summer League in early July, averaging 6.0 points and 3.0 rebounds in 19 minutes. He was not on the Warriors’ roster for the Las Vegas Summer League that runs from July 9-19.

Nate Mensah (SDSU): He’s played three games in Las Vegas for the New Orleans Pelicans, averaging 1.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.7 blocks.

Nick Boyd (SDSU): He got to do with the Warriors what he never did at SDSU, playing alongside Reese Waters (who was injured during Boyd’s only season on the Mesa). He averaged 12.0 points and 7.5 assists in 25.5 minutes in two games in the earlier league, then 9.0 points and 3.5 rebounds in two games in Las Vegas.

Hayden Gray (UCSD): Signed by the Utah Jazz late last season, he’s averaging 1.0 points, 2.5 assists and 2.0 steals in two Las Vegas games.

Kobe Sanders (Christian High School): The Los Angeles Clippers’ second-round pick last year from Nevada is averaging 13.0 points and 5.3 rebounds in 30 minutes in three games in Las Vegas.

Brandon Angel (Torrey Pines High School): He’s averaging 1.5 points and 3.0 rebounds in 13.5 minutes for the Phoenix Suns in two games in Las Vegas.