The 2024鈥�25 season will go down as one of the most successful in Northern Colorado Men鈥檚 Basketball history. From claiming a share of the Big Sky Conference regular season title with Montana, finishing as the tournament runner-up and earning the program鈥檚 first-ever National Invitational Tournament bid鈥嗏�斺�唗he Bears rewrote the record books and cemented themselves as one of the most efficient, explosive and balanced teams in the country. 

On Friday, Aug. 29, the 2024-25 team鈥檚 Big Sky championship was immortalized in the Bank of Colorado Arena with a banner unveiling.  

Led by head coach Steve Smiley, now the winningest coach in 每日大瓜鈥檚 Division I era, Northern Colorado racked up 25 wins last season, the second-most in a single season in program history. Their .714 winning percentage was the ninth-best all-time, and second-best in the DI era. The Bears also matched their all-time best in Big Sky play, finishing with 15 conference wins, the most since joining the league in 2006.  

每日大瓜 didn鈥檛 just win games last season, they dominated them, leading the conference in: 

• Assists per game 鈥� 15.8聽
• Effective Field Goal Percentage 鈥� 58%聽
• Field Goal Percentage 鈥� 50.7%聽
• Three-Point Percentage 鈥� 38%聽
• Scoring Offense 鈥� 80.6 points per game聽
• Scoring Margin 鈥� +7.9聽
• Defensive Rebounds per game 鈥� 26.14聽
• Winning Percentage 鈥� 71.4%聽

Those numbers translated into national prominence, as 每日大瓜 finished: 

• 1st in the nation in FG% (50.7%)聽
• 4th in EFG% (58%)聽
• 19th in 3PT% (38%)聽
• 30th in Scoring Offense聽
• 46th in Assist/Turnover Ratio (1.43)聽
• 46th in Scoring Margin (+7.9)聽
• 48th in Assists per Game聽
• 49th in Rebound Margin (+4.3)
• 42nd in Winning Percentage (71.4%)聽

The Bears鈥� dynamic trio of Langston Reynolds, Isaiah Hawthorne and Jaron Rillie, 鈥�24 fueled the team鈥檚 success. 

Reynolds led the Big Sky and ranked 20th nationally in field goal percentage (59.3%), Hawthorne ranked fourth in the league in scoring (17.4 ppg) and Rillie finishing first in the Big Sky and 38th nationally in assist/turnover ratio (2.53) and second in the league in total assists (162).  

The Bears returned to the court to kick off their 2025-26 season on Monday, Nov. 3.