The UNC Bears men’s basketball team plays at CU this weekend in its final nonconference game of the season.
UNC (9-3) visits the Buffs at 1 p.m. Sunday at the CU Events Center in Boulder. Tickets are available at www.gofevo.com/event/UNCO. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and available on Pirate Radio, 93.5 FM out of Fort Collins.
The game will be the 10th meeting between the schools since January 2003. CU has won all of the previous nine games, all played in Boulder, including a 90-88 double-overtime win last season. The series between CU and UNC dates to 1917, according to the Buffs’ online records. The Buffs lead the overall series 25-18.
The Bears return from a holiday break looking to snap a 2-game losing streak. UNC lost its last game, 86-79 to the University of Denver at home Dec. 20.
PHOTOS: UNC men’s basketball fall to Denver 86-79
UNC starts Big Sky Conference play next week. The Bears open with a New Year’s Day game at Montana State in Bozeman. The team then meets Montana on Saturday, Jan. 3 in Missoula.
CU beat Montana State 84-78 in the Buffs’ second game of the season in early November.
“I know we have CU after the break, but we’re moving into league play and our league is really good,” Bears head coach Steve Smiley said after the Denver game. “If we don’t have the right approach … don’t think because we have the best record right now (among Big Sky teams), we’re just going to show up and win the league. We have to hit the reset button a little bit.”
UNC and Montana shared the conference regular-season title in 2024-25. Montana beat UNC in the conference tournament championship last March in Boise, Idaho.
CU (10-2) also lost its game before the holidays. Stanford beat the Buffs 77-68 at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Series on Dec. 20 in Phoenix. The UNC game is also the last nonconference game of the season for CU. The Buffs jump into their Big 12 Conference schedule Jan. 3 at Arizona State.
UNC has dealt with injuries in the latter part of the nonconference schedule. After the Denver game, Smiley said he hoped to see the injured players return “sooner rather than later.”
One of the guys who’s been out is guard Quinn Denker. A graduate student from San Jose, California, Denker suffered a hand injury Dec. 6 against South Dakota. He remains the Bears’ leading scorer through 10 games, averaging 17.3 points. Brock Wisne, a senior forward from Thornton, is the second-leading scorer (16.8 points) and top rebounder at 6.2 per game.
Denker’s absence is a void on the court for the Bears. Smiley said Denker is a “high-level extroverted leader.”
“In a good way, he can drag the team … like this isn’t happening,” Smiley said. “It’s his points and his assists, but it’s his leadership.”
University of Colorado men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle, left, stands with University of Northern Colorado athletic director Darren Dunn during Boyle’s induction into the UNC Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024 at the University Center at UNC in Greeley. Boyle, a Greeley native, coached UNC from 2006-10 in his first Division I head coaching job, turning around the program as it transitioned from Division II. (Courtesy: Woody Myers/University of Northern Colorado).
CU’s leading scorer is freshman guard Isaiah Johnson. Johnson’s averaging 14.8 points per game off the bench. He’s played in all 12 games but has not started a game. Junior forward Bangot Dak is the leading rebounder (6.9). Dak is also averaging 11.1 points.
Buffs coach Tad Boyle is from Greeley and had a stellar scholastic career at Greeley Central before playing college basketball at Kansas. He coached UNC for four seasons as the program was transitioning to the Division I level. Boyle was inducted into the UNC Athletics Hall of Fame in September 2024.