Jul. 29—GRAND FORKS — The UND men’s basketball team will play international games for the first time since 2024 this November.
The Fighting Hawks are one of eight men’s teams that will participate in this year’s Cancun Challenge. The Hawks will open tournament play against Detroit Mercy on Nov. 24 at the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya in Cancun, Mexico.
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UND will play either Northern Colorado or Southeastern Louisiana in the same venue on Nov. 25. The Hawks will wrap up the challenge against UTEP on Dec. 5 in El Paso, Texas.
All games played in Mexico during the tournament will be streamed on FloHoops.
There are two separate divisions for the participating teams. UND, Detroit Mercy, Northern Colorado and Southeastern Louisiana make up the Mayan Division, while the Riviera Division includes Charleston, Eastern Michigan, Kennesaw State and UTEP.
This will be the Hawks’ second appearance at the Cancun Challenge. UND beat Loyola Marymount and suffered losses to Bethune-Cookman and Southeastern Louisiana in 2024.
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Detroit Mercy and UTEP will be first-time opponents for the Hawks. If they face Northern Colorado, it’ll be the program’s 72nd meeting.
The Cancun Challenge was established in 2005 and featured only women’s teams. The men’s tournament was introduced in 2008.
Previous editions of the tournament have featured some of the top programs in the nation, including Kentucky, Purdue, Auburn and Illinois.
UND has yet to release its full 2026-27 schedule.
This year’s Summit League slate will look a bit different, though. Denver left the conference this offseason to join the West Coast Conference.
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The Hawks will enter this season with an overhauled roster. Guard Zach Kraft, center Josh Jones and Karson Ouse are the only players returning from the 2025-26 season.
UND’s offseason attrition includes its top three scorers. Breakout redshirt freshman guard Greyson Uelmen transferred to Northern Iowa, while Eli King and Garrett Anderson both graduated.
Forward George Natsvlishvili and guard Anthony Smith III, both strong contributors off the bench, transferred to Winthrop.
UND added six players through the transfer portal in the offseason. The Hawks will also bring in four freshmen and an international player, Andrija Radojevic of Kruševac, Serbia.
