GREELEY — Langston “Lang” Reynolds is a 22-year-old throwback.

He’s old school at a hoops school.

Northern Colorado’s star wing doesn’t need a 3-point line to give you 20 points. He takes coaching from his Mom, a “basketball junkie” who loves to critique his defensive stance, before anyone else.

And — get this! — he’s been at the same college program for three years. Is that still legal?

“Say what they want about Greeley,” Reynolds tells me. “It’s the best decision I ever made.”

That’s Northern Colorado action ball, the hottest program in the state and a farm system for pros in more ways than one. After watching a UNC practice this week, it’s hard to say which was more poignant: the Greeley whiff or the level of ball being taught by coach Steve Smiley.

“He’s going to hold you accountable,” says forward Isaiah Hawthorne, a graduate student and the team’s leading scorer at nearly 18 points per game. “Or you’re not going to play.”

Let’s call roll on the former Bears now drawing a paycheck as professionals: Dalton Knecht (a Lakers teammate of Luka Doncic); Jonah Radebaugh (only the second Big Sky alum to be a starter in the Euroleague); and almost a dozen others making money and memories overseas.

Signing on with the Bears comes with an understanding: you can get there from here.

“Smiley, he coaches you how to be a pro,” says Reynolds, who played his prep ball at Denver East and Colorado Prep. “That’s his whole message — how to act and play like a pro.”

UNC (16-6 overall, 8-1 Big Sky) hosts Montana (15-8, 8-2) in a big one Thursday at Bank of Colorado Arena. Tickets start at $5. The Bears are off to their best league start since joining the Big Sky in 2006 and are the state’s best bet for an NCAA Tournament berth in March.

“Yeah, long ways away. We need to get better,” Smiley says. “But maybe you get there and shock the world and go get a couple wins out of it, too.”

What’s most impressive about the UNC program is how it has sustained success despite one serious hurdle: Their player development is so strong their good players become great players and leave for high-major programs enriched with “name, image, likeness” money.

Knecht is the famous example. After two years at Northern Colorado, the Thornton native moved on to star at Tennessee and become a first-round draft pick of the Lakers. Saint Thomas spent one year at Northern Colorado before leaving for the Big Ten and Southern Cal.

Missing out on the best seasons of players you recruited and developed can be a painful twist.

“Yeah, you hate it,” Smiley allows.

But the new world of college ball has agents and opposing teams sliding into their DMs. So the Bears emphasize one rule when it comes to players considering a transfer: transparency.

“We’re going to have man conversations. We’re going to be honest. And if you leave, you leave,” Smiley says. “We just can’t be blindsided by it.”

UNC thought it might get Knecht back for his senior year or lose him to the NBA draft — until the North Carolinas and Tennessees came calling. Finally, “It was too attractive,” Smiley says, and Knecht entered Smiley’s office for a goodbye hug. In the case of Thomas, a top-20 scorer in the country, he told the staff during the season he planned on pursuing high-major offers.

Can’t blame ’em, and those departures tickled.

But at least UNC could plan for it.

One cheat code for the NCAA transfer portal is a Division I coach with junior college roots. Smiley had seven years at Sheridan (Wyo.) College, a Region IX outpost where flipping almost a whole roster between seasons was not unusual. That experience showed how it can be done.

The result: UNC entered this season with nine new players yet now finds themselves atop the Big Sky.

“We know our spring’s going to be busy (with the NCAA transfer portal). But it’s better than being busy in August, which is how it was with juco ball,” Smiley says. “It’s still a downgrade from five years ago, but it’s an improvement from 10 years ago. It is what it is. You adapt.”

Despite early exits of top players, the Bears lean into a robust offensive system that’s produced a top-75 offense (out of 360-plus teams) in four of the past five seasons. It’s action ball. This season only 23 teams in the country show a better effective field-goal percentage than UNC.

Considering the Bears were forced to replace eight players, how do they score so well?

“It’s Jeff Linder’s stuff,” Smiley says.

Linder turned four seasons at UNC into the job at Wyoming, where he coached the Pokes to the NCAA Tournament. Now he’s coordinating a top-10 offense at Texas Tech. His reputation as an offensive guru extends worldwide, to the point then-Arizona coach Sean Miller flew him to Tucson to pick Linder’s brain for a week. His offense stems mostly from scouting Europe since “he doesn’t waste time stealing from college or the NBA,” Smiley says with a laugh.

“He’s nationally and maybe internationally known as one of the best offensive minds in basketball,” Smiley says.

Rule No. 1 of the UNC offense: “If you’re going to take bad shots, you will not play,” he says.

Rule No. 2 (or somewhere high on the list): Skip the drills and play a ton of 5-on-5 ball during the summer, expediting the transition for a new roster that looks nothing like the last one.

“If we get 480,000 possessions of 5-on-5 in the summer and the other guy gets 40,000, who’s going to be more together?” Smiley says.

It helps to have a Langston Reynolds, the engine of the first-place Bears. But like Daylen Kountz … and Dalton Knecht … and Saint Thomas before him … “Lang” didn’t just happen.

He waited. He developed. Then, boom, he’s a leading candidate for Big Sky Player of the Year.

“I had that full college experience,” Reynolds says. “And I’m only talking about the basketball experience. I learned what it was to not play at all, to barely play, to grind and earn my shot.”

The Denver native is a 6-foot-4, 205-pound throwback who’s built like an NFL tailback who could run the rock for Sean Payton. And don’t be fooled by Reynolds’ chilled-out demeanor or the sweet grin he flashes to his Mom seated in the third row. This is one competitive son of a gun who will throw down a nasty dunk on your head.

“Lang’s growth and development … wow,” Smiley says.

His first season, Reynolds struggled to finish plays. Now he’s shooting 66% on 2-pointers since New Year’s — while launching fewer than two 3-pointers per game. His second season, he shot 51% from the foul line. Now he’s going 11-for-11 from the line against Idaho.

“His growth and development is extraordinary,” Smiley said. “I hear, ‘He’s not skilled.’ That’s been the knock. But he’s extremely skilled. He’s one of the best passers I’ve ever been around.”

Shhh. Don’t say so too loud. The big boys with deep pockets might read this.

Knowing the path of UNC’s previous stars, I asked Reynolds if this is his final run in Greeley.

“That’s so far down the line,” he says. “This is how I look at it: people don’t like losers. They like winners. If we win here, obviously, that’s going to be a different conversation.

“But right now I’m just doing the best I can and being present. I’ve been here for three years. I want to get that championship ring. This place has a special place in my heart, you know?”

He’d have to run it by Mom first, and Shaunta Reynolds prefers her son an hour from Denver.

“She loves me in Greeley,” Lang says. “I don’t think she’d let me leave.”