This summer will be a learning experience for the University of Northern Colorado men’s basketball team, and the lessons will extend beyond a seven-day trip to Portugal.
It’s time for the Bears to figure out who they’ll be in the 2025-26 season. There’s a lot for UNC to discover with eight new players and eight guys returning from last year’s team — one of the best in the school’s Division I era.
Summer workouts begin next week. UNC head coach Steve Smiley said he thinks the Bears have the pieces to again compete for Big Sky Conference titles. UNC (25-10) shared the conference regular-season title last year and reached the Big Sky tournament championship.
The 25 wins are the second most in a single season in Division I program history. The Bears played in the NIT for the first time after losing out on the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with a loss to Montana in the conference tournament final.
University of Northern Colorado head mens basketball coach Steve Smiley directs his team while playing against Idaho at Bank of Colorado Arena on Saturday Feb. 22, 2025.(Jim Rydbom/Staff Photographer)“I’m as curious as anyone else to see what it looks like,” said Smiley, starting his sixth year as head coach. “We need a couple of guys to be good because we lost production, and we need guys in house. There are a lot of questions.”
The team will spend a week in Portugal in early August for three games against European clubs. The trip will also benefit team chemistry.
“You can’t put a price tag on team bonding and the experience,” Smiley said.
Some of the questions come from the fact UNC lost its top three scorers and conference honorees: Isaiah Hawthorne, Langston Reynolds and Jaron Rillie. Hawthorne and Rillie exhausted their eligibility. Reynolds transferred to Minnesota of the Big Ten. Also out of the program via the transfer portal from last year are Marcell McCreary and Taeshaud Jackson.
Offense was the team’s strength last year. The Bears averaged Big Sky bests with almost 81 points per game and close to 51% shooting from the field.
Let’s start with what we know. The Bears essentially have three starters returning. Forward Brock Wisne and guard Zach Bloch started all 35 games. Guard Quinn Denker saw plenty of time off the bench in 33 games. At times, Denker’s offense was game changing. Smiley sees Denker as a starter.
The team is also looking to Wisne to be the best big man in the conference this year, Smiley said.
University of Northern Colorado's Quinn Denker shoots over a defender during UNC's 76-52 win over Weber State Sunday, March 9 in Boise, Idaho, during the second round of the Big Sky Conference Tournament. (Courtesy/Big Sky Conference)Listed at 6-foot-9 and 245 pounds, Wisne is a senior from Thornton. He is the Bears’ top returning scorer and rebounder from a year ago. He averaged 10.4 points and 4.3 boards, which were behind Hawthorne, Reynolds and Rillie.
Bloch, a member of the Big Sky Conference All-Defensive Team, is returning for a fifth year in the program and fourth as a player. He redshirted his second season. Bloch, now a graduate student, has a chance to be the winningest player in UNC basketball history in the Division I era. The Bears have won 66 games in his previous three seasons.
“No one has had a run that Zach has had,” Smiley said.
Bloch’s 157 attempted 3-pointers were second most on the team last season. He hit 57 of those 3s for a solid 36%, and certainly showed an ability to make 3s on consecutive possessions, which can be tough to take for a defense. Bloch averaged 6.2 points per game. As with Wisne, the team needs more from Bloch this year, Smiley said.
“He’s always going to be a glue guy, and he wants to expand his role,” the coach said. “He’s a guy we need him to take another step in production.”
University of Northern Colorado's Zach Bloch places the Bears into the championship round of the Big Sky Tournament bracket following a 72-45 win over Montana State in the semifinals of the Big Sky Conference Tournament Tuesday, March 11 at Idaho Central Arena in Boise, Idaho. (Courtesy/Big Sky Conference)Other players returning within the program are forward William Humer, a 6-10 senior from Sweden, and center Egan Shields, a 6-10 sophomore from Ashland, Oregon. Both guys played last year.
A trio of sophomores in the program last season could see court time for the first time this season: 6-4 guard Ariik Mawien from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 6-8 forward Walker Asp from Colorado Springs and 6-10 center Hunter Caldwell from Parker.
Smiley said Caldwell has a chance to be a special player for the Bears, citing Caldwell’s rapid development in the post. Caldwell can shoot from 3-point range and score from inside.
The new players are guard Will Dixion, a redshirt freshman transfer from Simpson College; guard Vincent Delano, a sophomore transfer from the University of Portland in the West Coast Conference; forward Ring Nyeri, a sophomore transfer from the University of Missouri-Kansas City; wing Ibu Yamazaki, a native of Japan and junior transfer from Radford; freshmen guards Tanner Braketa (Ralston Valley High and Arvada) and Steven Ramirez from Fort Worth, Texas; guard Kaden Erickson, a junior transfer from the junior college ranks, Eastern Arizona College; and guard Chancellor White, a junior transfer from Louisiana Lafayette.
Smiley said the 6-2 Delano is “really, really talented.” He played in all 32 games for Portland last year, and though he averaged only 5.3 points, he turned in six games in double digits in scoring. Delano’s season high was 18 against Denver in early December 2024. He scored 12 in one game against Gonzaga, a school that’s been the class of the WCC for a long time.
Smiley said he wants Delano to fill Rillie’s spot in a guard rotation used last year with Denker and Bloch.
“The tricky thing is re-creating the magic every year,” Smiley said. “Who is the next Saint (Thomas) or Zay (Hawthorne)? I don’t know.”
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