INDIANAPOLIS — Northern Iowa men’s basketball player Tristan Smith has been selected to the watch list for the Slam Dunk Championship as part of the 2026 State Farm College Slam Dunk and 3-Point Contest as announced Thursday.

The event, which invites a collection of the nation’s elite men’s and women’s college basketball players to compete for slam dunk and 3-point shooting bragging rights, will be held on Friday, April 3, at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis — site of this year’s NCAA Men’s Final Four. The event will be broadcast on ESPN on Sunday, April 5.

Smith is in his first season with the Panthers after a breakout NAIA career at Concordia University in Nebraska. In 17 games for UNI this season, he has averaged 9.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.8 blocks per game in his first year at the Division I level, helping bring a spark to the Panthers on both ends of the floor.

Prior to his arrival at UNI, Smith was a three-time All-Great Plains Athletic Conference selection at Concordia, as well as the GPAC’s Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in 2024-25.