Actually, some of the awards were announced even before the championship played out as GLIAC season honors came out on Friday.

And some of the honors include more work for this NMU team — like the honor of qualifying for the NCAA Division II tournament.

Matchups and brackets were announced late Sunday night by the NCAA as three GLIAC teams earned a spot in the 64-team field.

Along with the Wildcats earning the league’s automatic bid as conference tourney champion, regular-season champ Wisconsin-Parkside made the field as did Ferris State, which shared second place with Northern during the regular season.

Northern Michigan University's Dylan Kuehl, top, reaches above Ferris State defender Mykel Bingham to make a dunk in their GLIAC basketball game played at the Berry Events Center in Marquette on Dec. 9. (Photo courtesy NMU)

NMU (24-7) got the highest seed, though, among this trio in the Midwest Region, No. 5 among the eight competing teams as the Wildcats will face former GLIAC member and No. 4 seed Hillsdale (23-6) in the opening round at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

That game will be played in Indianapolis as the University of Indianapolis not only gained the No. 1 regional seed but the right to host this part of the national tourney.

Northern played at Hillsdale on Nov. 20 as the Chargers handed NMU its first loss, 74-53, after a 4-0 start.

The winner advances to the regional semifinals to face host Indy or No. 8 seed McKendree on Sunday, to be followed by the regional title game on Tuesday.

The other half of the Midwest bracket includes No. 6 Ferris, which opens against No. 3 Ashland, another former GLIAC school, and No. 7 Parkside, which goes up against No. 2 Missouri-St. Louis in the first round. The winners of these two matchups meet in Sunday’s other regional semifinal.

The Midwest Regional winner joins seven other regional winners advancing

to the Elite Eight in Evansville, Indiana, for the final three rounds of the national tournament on March 21, 23 and 25.

Back at the GLIAC Tournament, conference scoring champion and Wildcats senior Max Bjorklund captured the tourney MVP after averaging 19.7 points per game in the event, scoring 23 points in both a quarterfinal win over Saginaw Valley State and a semifinal win at Ferris, along with 13 points in the title game vs. Michigan Tech.

Bjorklund, who had been named GLIAC Preseason Player of the Year back in October, finished the season at 20.2 ppg, just ahead of Davenport’s Marcedus Leech Jr. at 20.0. No other league player was higher than 18.0 ppg.

With Bjorklund heading up the All-Tournament Team, NMU freshman Max Weisbrod also earned a spot on that squad after he scored 14, 15 and 14 points in his three tourney games, adding a total of 13 assists and 15 rebounds in the three games.

The all-tourney team was filled out by Marcus Tomashek and Dan Gherezgher of Michigan Tech, former NMU player Dolapo Olayinka of Ferris and Marquette Senior High School graduate Marius Grazulis of Grand Valley State.

On Friday, GLIAC season honors were handed out and Northern’s “Two Maxes” from the All-Tournament Team were joined by redshirt freshman teammate Dylan Kuehl in earning honors.

Weisbrod won one of the league’s “special awards” as Freshman of the Year in addition to gaining a berth on the All-GLIAC Second Team.

He was cited for his 12.1 ppg and GLIAC-freshman leading 5.1 assists per game. The assist number also tied him for best among all league players in the regular season and was second in NCAA Division II among freshmen.

And his 46.0% shooting of 3-pointers was No. 5 overall in the GLIAC and best among first-year players.

Other impressive numbers included Weisbrod’s 3.0 assist-to-turnover ratio, 80.4% shooting of free throws and 4.3 rebounds per game. And his 932 minutes played was top 10 in the conference.

Bjorklund and Kuehl were each named to the All-GLIAC First Team, with Kuehl also earning a berth on the All-Defensive Team.

Bjorklund was at 20.4 ppg for the regular season, ranking him in the top 30 nationally. He shot 45.2% from the field overall, including 38.6% on 3-pointers, and 79.4% on free throws. He averaged 4.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game and has 1,677 career points in his collegiate career split between NMU and Bemidji State.

Kuehl averaged 13.2 ppg in the regular season and led the Wildcats at 7.0 rebounds a contest. He also shot 56.3% from the field, No. 1 in the GLIAC and No. 2 nationally among freshmen, while his 1.3 blocks per game was second in the league.

Grazulis also made the First Team, as by the end of the overall season including the tourney he took over the top spot in rebounding at 7.0 a game while finishing at a 12.2 ppg clip and was ninth in shooting percentage at 50.9%.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.