![\"Luka](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SUT-L-azhoop-1014-026.jpg\")
Luka Skoric of San Diego State poses for a photo during San Diego State\u2019s basketball media day on campus Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nThe promoter for the Bill Walton Classic, the Nov. 7 basketball game at Pechanga Arena matching San Diego State and Colorado, came to Aztecs practice Thursday and passed out tie-dye headbands and T-shirts in honor of the legendary center who passed away in 2024.<\/p>\n
The Aztecs hope they can channel some of his 6-foot-11 mojo, particularly on the boards.<\/p>\n
Ready or not, they open the exhibition season Friday night at Arizona (7 p.m., ESPN+). The Wildcats are favored to win the Big 12 (ahead of, yes, Houston and Kansas) and expected to be in the top five when the Associated Press poll is released next week.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a tall task, literally: The Wildcats return 7-2 Lithuanian giant Motiejus Krivas, the Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year, in addition to other five guys 6-10 or taller on the roster. In last season\u2019s 68-45 win against the Aztecs in Phoenix, they held a 52-28 edge on the glass thanks to a staggering 20 offensive rebounds.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a tall task, figuratively: The Wildcats went on a summer tour, played an intrasquad scrimmage in front of fans and already have an exhibition game under their belt, Tuesday\u2019s 24-point win against a capable USF team.<\/p>\n
The Aztecs?<\/p>\n
They didn\u2019t have enough healthy or eligible players for 5-on-5 practices this summer and ended workouts a week early because of dwindling numbers. This is their first outing in front of fans with a roster that returned only two rotation pieces (and both were true freshmen). Croatian forward Luka Skoric has been ruled out with a groin injury, and guard Latrell Davis will play limited minutes while recovering from a shoulder issue, essentially reducing them to 9\u00bd available scholarship players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll have five games under their belt, and we\u2019re trying to get five guys out on the floor,\u201d SDSU coach Brian Dutcher said, only half-joking.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re making progress. I like my pieces, I like this team. But I\u2019m a little concerned we\u2019re not going to be quite where we need to be for a scrimmage of this magnitude in Tucson against a very good Arizona team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dutcher keeps reminding himself that it\u2019s just an exhibition, that it doesn\u2019t count in the standings, that the bigger picture demands getting healthy for the Nov. 3 season opener against a more manageable opponent (Cal State Fullerton) in more friendly confines (Viejas Arena).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve tried to be careful not to rush them back too early, understanding that these are exhibition games,\u201d Dutcher said of Skoric and Davis, both potential starters. \u201cIf this was a regular-season game, I\u2019m sure they\u2019d all be on the floor. I\u2019ve got to walk the fine line of wanting to be competitive, wanting to be put up a good effort, with trying to stay healthy for the opening of the regular season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luka Skoric of San Diego State poses for a photo during San Diego State\u2019s basketball media day on campus Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old Skoric, pursued by Kansas before last season, hasn\u2019t practiced in nearly three weeks after impressing in September practices. Davis separated his shoulder during the summer, tweaked it two weeks ago and only returned to live drills in the past few days.<\/p>\n
Dutcher initially said he was \u201cleaning\u201d toward holding Davis out Friday night, then changed his mind after seeing how well he practiced Wednesday and Thursday, although the 6-3 guard from England isn\u2019t expected to start or play more than 15 or so minutes.<\/p>\n
Another concern is the game\u2019s format. Coaches are permitted to tinker with the rules in closed-door scrimmages, most notably the five foul limit. Against UCLA a few years ago, a Bruins player had nine.<\/p>\n
Teams are now allowed to hold exhibitions against Division I opponents in front of paying fans but with the NCAA mandate that they operate under normal game rules. That means five fouls and you\u2019re out.<\/p>\n
Dutcher\u2019s fear: Sacramento State transfer Jeremiah \u201cBear\u201d Cherry picks up a couple early against the massive Krivas, and he doesn\u2019t have the bench depth up front to compensate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if it was up to (Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd) and me, we\u2019d give guys extra fouls so we\u2019re not rotating based on fouls,\u201d Dutcher said. \u201cSay one of his better players gets two fouls right away and he wants to see a combination together, I think he should be allowed to just leave that guy in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this was a closed-door scrimmage, we could say: \u2018Let\u2019s play a guy with seven fouls, it really doesn\u2019t matter. We want to play certain guys with certain combinations. We\u2019ll worry about the fouls when the season starts.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Schedule updates<\/p>\n
The Pac-12 announced its nonconference schedule last month but without tip times or broadcast assignments. That came this week.<\/p>\n
The big takeaways: All 16 SDSU games will be aired on linear TV (and not exclusively web streams), and there are no 8 p.m. Pacific time starts.<\/p>\n
The Aztecs will be on USA Network nine times, CBS Sports Network four times, The CW (available locally on KUSI) twice and big-boy CBS once for the Feb 27 game at Gonzaga.<\/p>\n
Most games tip between 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., although there are five in the afternoon, including 1:30 p.m. for Gonzaga at Viejas Arena on Saturday, Feb. 6.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the full conference schedule (all times Pacific):<\/p>\n
Jan. 6: at Oregon State (USA Network, 7 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Jan. 9:\u00a0Fresno State (CBS Sports Network, 7:30 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Jan. 14: Colorado State (USA Network, 6 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Jan. 17: at Washington State (CBS Sports Network, 1 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Jan. 20:\u00a0Texas State (USA Network, 7 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Jan. 23:\u00a0at Boise State (CBS Sports Network, 7 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Jan. 30:\u00a0at Colorado State (USA Network, 3:30 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Feb. 4:\u00a0Utah State (USA Network, 6 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Feb. 6:\u00a0Gonzaga (USA Network, 1:30 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Feb. 11:\u00a0at Texas State (CW, 5 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Feb. 17:\u00a0at Utah State (CW, 5 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Feb. 20: Washington State (USA Network, 1:30 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Feb. 25:\u00a0Oregon State (CBS Sports Network, 7:30 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Feb. 27: at Gonzaga (CBS, 1 p.m.)<\/p>\n
March 3:\u00a0at Fresno State (USA Network, 7 p.m.)<\/p>\n
March 6:\u00a0Boise State (USA Network, 7:30 p.m.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The promoter for the Bill Walton Classic, the Nov. 7 basketball game at Pechanga Arena matching San Diego…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1327,181,74,76,75,305,127,1696],"class_list":["post-497537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-college-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sdsu-aztecs","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}