Northern Michigan University’s Dolapo Olayinka, left, knocks down a jumper over Michigan Tech’s Owen White during the first half on Jan. 26 at the PEIF gym in Marquette. (Journal photo by Ryan Stieg)

MARQUETTE — Last weekend was good in more ways than one for the Northern Michigan University basketball teams.

The NMU men (8-8) pulled off a home sweep of Davenport, which lifted them into seventh place in the GLIAC overall standings. Actually, four teams with .500 records — either 8-8 or 7-7 — are tied for sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth place right now. Among the teams tied with the Wildcats is this weekend’s opponent, Purdue Northwest.

Seventh place would translate into a first-round home game Tuesday in the conference tournament. The Nos. 5 through 8 seeds host Nos. 9 to 12 in that round, with the four teams above them getting a bye.

NMU head coach Matt Majkrzak credited his team’s defense with getting the win Sunday after the Wildcats rang up 100 points on the Panthers the day before.

Needless to say, he felt pretty positive in Monday’s Zoom interview.

“I’m happy,” he said. “It’s always good when we can win two games relatively easy. There aren’t very many easy ones in the league. So it’s kind of our last five at home really have been fairly easy in the grand scheme of basketball. They’ve all been double-digit wins and it’s been nice to have some ones where it’s not in doubt going into the last media timeout.

“We’ve been able to get some (substitutes) in, too. So it’s been great to be able to win big.”

The Northern women (8-8) stumbled in their first game against Davenport, then rebounded to earn the split. That also puts them in seventh place and on semi-secure footing for a home berth to open their tournament.

Despite the split, Wildcats head coach Troy Mattson had mixed feelings about his team’s performance.

“We made progress on Saturday,” he said about the weekend’s second game. “Sometimes your program has to hit rock bottom to get the attention of people.

“We weren’t doing what I had asked them to do and it’s not very difficult. We need to pass the basketball and we had a great meeting on Saturday morning after Friday’s loss, where we were just abysmal in everything that we were doing. People were doing things out of character and not doing what coaches want them to do to be successful.

“I think we responded on Saturday, but as one of my best friends says, ‘They’ll probably forget by Tuesday.’

“We need to continue on the path of understanding that the pass is probably going to be the most important thing in our program right now. We just don’t have a lot of people that can create shots and create opportunities. So passing the ball to open teammates is really, really important to us.

“And then on the defensive end, obviously, we held them down into the 40s, could’ve been in the 30s, and that’s something where we were the past couple of years’ defensively we were able to shut people down by doing things right.

“Again, we had a great meeting on Saturday morning, talked about their roles on the defensive end, their assignments that they weren’t doing properly, again doing stuff because they thought they wanted to do it and not what the coaches wanted. I think they listened on Saturday and we had a great defensive performance also.

“So now our job is to continue in that direction in that we are focusing on doing things right, and if we do that, we’ve got a chance to keep improving.”

If either Wildcat team sweeps the weekend from Purdue Northwest, it should all but guarantee at least home court to open the tournament. In the women’s case, they have an outside shot at getting to the fourth and final bye of the first round.

Majkrzak said the Pride (8-8) is a “very, very talented” team and that they’ve improved a lot over the past few seasons.

“They’ve been at the bottom of the league the last couple of years and played some young guys,” he said. “Now those guys are older. They’ve brought in some really good recruits. Actually, their best guard right now played for me in junior college, so I coached him a couple years ago. They just keep getting better and keep getting more talented.

“They’re very, very big. Talent-wise, I would say they’re right after Grand Valley (State) and Ferris (State) just with raw talent. So it’s going to take a really good effort. We’re going to be undersized and we’re going to have to get back to defending the way we did on Sunday. They do give you shots and we’ve got to make those shots.”

The women might have an easier task as the Pride have struggled badly at 4-12 and are 11th in the conference. However, Mattson said PNW won’t be a pushover.

“They return just about everybody from last year,” he said. “They’re a very dangerous team. They have a couple of great guards. They just beat Ferris State this past weekend, which is always a difficult task.

“So we’ve got to be prepared. If we are (last) Friday’s team, we’re going to get beat this weekend. If we’re Saturday’s team, we’ve got a chance to win a couple games and put ourselves in a decent position in the conference race.”

It may be tempting to look past Purdue Northwest and focus on the upcoming tournament, but both coaches say they’re trying to resist that.

“I think we’re a little focused on it just because we’re heading down there (downstate) on Thursday and we might pack all our stuff and just stay down,” Majkrzak said of this weekend’s road trip. “It’s possible we could play at Purdue, the conference tournament (finals are) at Purdue. There’s a scenario where, best case, we could just spend about two weeks in Hammond, Indiana, everyone’s dream.

“I think we’ve got to be ready to play down there. We might have to stay down there and play Ferris in another scenario. So in that sense, I think we’re thinking of the conference tournament. The flip side of it is the best thing we can do for ourselves to try to host a game is to go down there and win two, or at least win one and give ourselves a chance.

“So for us right now, it’s very much so focused on Purdue and just trying to get wins. That 8-8 number is, by definition, it’s average, and I think in some ways, it keeps you hungry because you know you’re one bad weekend away from finishing here with a losing record and you’re one good weekend away from guaranteeing a winning record. So just trying to take care of business.”

The women tip off at 2 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday in the PEIF, while the men’s times are still being determined.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.