South Dakota State is a familiar opponent to Wichita State basketball coach Paul Mills

South Dakota State hasn’t come to Wichita since 2017, but Saturday’s opponent for the Shockers is a familiar one to head coach Paul Mills.

The former Oral Roberts coach has fully scouted South Dakota State and its star player Zeke Mayo, a Lawrence native, from their years battling in the Summit League.

While South Dakota State doesn’t bring the marquee name from a power conference that typically headlines the annual downtown game, Mills will make sure the Shockers are prepared for the high-powered Jackrabbits in a 6 p.m. game Saturday at Intrust Bank Arena. The game is not available to watch on television or streaming.

“Zeke can really score it and he’s kept me up at night many times,” Mills said. “And the fact that they have bigs who can make 3s, they didn’t have that in the past, so it’s going to be more of a challenge than in previous years when you were trying to stop him.”

Mayo, a 6-foot-3 guard, leads South Dakota State in scoring (17.9), rebounding (6.7) and assists (3.0). In four previous games against Mills’ teams at Oral Roberts, Mayo is averaging 9.8 points.

South Dakota State is off to a 4-5 start, but all five losses have come to teams ranked inside the top-110 on KenPom. The Jackrabbits are ranked No. 133 by KenPom’s adjusted efficiency metrics, led by an offense that features a pair of stretch bigs in 6-foot-8, 240-pound Luke Appel (8 of 17 on 3-pointers) and 7-footer Nate Barnhart (6 of 14 on 3-pointers).

While SDSU doesn’t move the ball the same way as Liberty, the two teams both have bigs who can stretch the floor against WSU’s big lineups when Kenny Pohto and Quincy Ballard share the court.

“They have versatile bigs who can really shoot 3s and they’re going to keep you stretched,” Mills said. “We haven’t really seen a whole lot of that. It forces you into rotations and then you have a really good guard in Zeke Mayo who can throw it out to them. If you’re putting two on the ball, they have the guys who can make you pay.

“Hope isn’t a strategy. You can’t just sit there and hope they miss. We’re going to be forced into rotations and we have to get those rotations right. That’s where the challenge is going to be on Saturday.”

When WSU (7-2) suffered its first loss of the season, it came back after 48 hours and clobbered Saint Louis 88-69 to conclude the Myrtle Beach Invitational.

The Shockers will be looking for a similar bounce-back performance from their second loss, an 82-72 defeat at Missouri that came six days ago.

Mills said the team will treat Saturday’s trip downtown like it would a postseason event.

“This is kind of what an NCAA tournament game would feel like,” Mills said. “We’re only going to get to practice one or two times in the arena, but the good thing is that we get to sleep in our own beds. But we’ll approach it that way because South Dakota State is like one of those teams that you would see in the NCAA tournament who is good enough to beat you.”

Any hopes of added depth in the form of Ronnie DeGray III are still delayed.

WSU doesn’t expect DeGray, a second-time undergraduate transfer from Missouri, to receive a waiver from the NCAA, but Mills was clearly perturbed by the fact that the team has still not received an official word from the NCAA on DeGray’s status a month into the season.

“Don’t get me started,” Mills said on Tuesday. “I can’t believe it’s taking this long.”

South Dakota State vs. Wichita State basketball preview

Records: SDSU 4-5, WSU 7-2

When: 6 p.m. Saturday

Where: Intrust Bank Arena (15,004), Wichita

Television: None

Radio: KEYN, 103.7-FM (Mike Kennedy and Dave Dahl)

KenPom says: WSU 77, SDSU 72

Series history: WSU leads 3-0 (3-0 in Wichita)

Projected starting lineups

Wichita State Shockers (7-2)

Coach: Paul Mills, first season, 7-2

South Dakota State Jackrabbits (4-5)

Coach: Eric Henderson, fifth season, 91-40