The Two Man Game – August 27, 2026 – The return of Langston Reynolds, the Puerto Rico trip, and more

The Two Man Game – August 27, 2026

In just over 48 hours, the University of Northern Colorado men’s basketball team flew to Puerto Rico, played two games against professional and semi-professional competition, and flew back—all before classes started Monday morning. For head coach Steve Smiley, the condensed trip was less about tourism and more about a calculated, low-cost way to solve a problem every mid-major program faces: getting the whole team together for real practices and real games before the season starts.

The trip’s primary purpose was to get Australian guard Campbell Blog, who couldn’t be in Greeley over the summer, onto the floor with his new teammates. Under updated NCAA rules, teams can now take a foreign trip every year instead of once every four years, but most schools still lack the budget. Northern Colorado had not been raising money for a 2026 trip; they had been saving for a larger international trip in 2027. When the Puerto Rico opportunity emerged through connections at the Jump Facility—a new, multi-sport training complex modeled after what Future Legends was supposed to be—Smiley and his staff had to scramble. The Jump Facility was using the Bears as a “beta test” for future quick-hit foreign trips, and the team’s donors and supporters stepped up to cover costs. The result was a trip that Smiley described as “quicker than a Big Sky road trip” but one