Northern Michigan University Wildcats’ killer: Marquette Senior High School graduate Marius Grazulis named GLIAC Men’s Basketball Player of the Week
Grand Valley State's Marius Grazulis, left, is guarded near the baseline by Michigan State's Mady Sissoko during their college basketball exhibition game played at the Breslin Center in East Lansing on Nov. 1. Grazulis, a 2019 Marquette Senior High School graduate, scored four points and had two rebounds and two assists in just 12 minutes playing time against one of the Big 10's storied programs. (Photo courtesy Grand Valley State University)
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- Grand Valley State’s Marius Grazulis, left, is guarded near the baseline by Michigan State’s Mady Sissoko during their college basketball exhibition game played at the Breslin Center in East Lansing on Nov. 1. Grazulis, a 2019 Marquette Senior High School graduate, scored four points and had two rebounds and two assists in just 12 minutes playing time against one of the Big 10’s storied programs. (Photo courtesy Grand Valley State University)
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- Grand Valley State’s Marius Grazulis, left, is guarded near the baseline by Michigan State’s Mady Sissoko during their college basketball exhibition game played at the Breslin Center in East Lansing on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022. Grazulis, a 2019 Marquette Senior High School graduate, scored four points and had two rebounds and two assists in just 12 minutes playing time against one of the Big 10’s storied programs. (Photo courtesy Grand Valley State University)
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- Grand Valley State’s Marius Grazulis, center, yells out with happiness after a Lakers’ game with two of his teammates during the 2021-22 season. (Photo courtesy Grand Valley State University)
Marquette Senior High School graduate Marius Grazulis earned the conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week honor after he led Grand Valley State to road wins at NMU on Thursday and Michigan Tech on Saturday.
In particular, in the Lakers’ 82-77 victory at NMU, the youngest of the basketball-playing Grazulis siblings scored 14 points and pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds. This was only the second double-double posted by a GVSU player this season.
Then on Saturday, Grazulis scored 17 points and had nine rebounds — barely short of another double-double — in the Lakers’ 74-61 victory against the Huskies.
While Tech is struggling this season near the bottom of the GLIAC, Thursday’s feat came against the first-place Wildcats as their loss knocked Northern from their spot alone atop the league into a three-way tie. After Saturday, though, NMU was back on top of the league alone again.
Grand Valley State's Marius Grazulis, center, yells out with happiness after a Lakers' game with two of his teammates during the 2021-22 season. (Photo courtesy Grand Valley State University)
Grazulis is not a volume shooter — vs. the Wildcats he was 6 of 8 at the free throw line, while vs. Tech he was 7 of 10 from the field.
Despite the two wins last week, the Lakers are still just a middle-of-the-pack team in the GLIAC at 5-4, tied for fifth place in the 10-team league. They’re also 11-8 overall after winning eight of their last 10 games.
At 6-foot-11, it may not be surprising that Grazulis is tied for third in GLIAC rebounding at 6.3 per game as he is also sixth in blocked shots with 17. He’s also his team’s leading scorer at 11.7 points per game while shooting 49.4% (81 of 164) from the field and 74.7% (59 of 79) on free throws.
His older sister is Daina and older brothers are A.J. and Vejas, the latter who still plays at Ferris State as all four brothers and sisters have played basketball at GLIAC schools. Their parents are Marius and Sheila Grazulis of Marquette.
In his senior season at MSHS, Marius Grazulis made the All-Upper Peninsula Dream Team and Associated Press all-state squad in Division 1 after averaging 18.7 ppg and making nearly 40% on 3-pointers.
That year, the 2018-19 season, the Redmen won their first district title since 2013.
Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.