Northern Michigan University’s Dylan Kuehl, left, slaps hands with teammate Bennett Basich after a Kuehl dunk during a GLIAC game played against Michigan Tech at Vandament Arena in Marquette last Thursday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — The men’s basketball team at Northern Michigan University controls its own fate when it comes to the regular-season championship and No. 1 seed in the upcoming league tournament.

The Wildcats are tied with Michigan Tech for the top spot in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference at 14-4 as each squad is also 23-5 overall.

And with only this week’s games remaining, NMU can see the finish line for various titles, too.

Northern hosts the bottom two teams in the league this week, last-place Roosevelt (3-15 GLIAC) at 7:30 p.m. today and 10th-place Wisconsin-Parkside (6-12) at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Interestingly, since MTU is the Wildcats’ travel partner, the Huskies host the same two teams this week, just in reverse order.

Northern holds the tiebreaker on Tech as NMU Sports Information notes that the Wildcats just need this week’s two wins to secure the No. 1 seed for the GLIAC Tournament that begins Wednesday with the first-round quarterfinals at campus sites. Apparently with the U.P. rivals splitting their season series, Northern has the next tiebreaker with a better record vs. third-place Grand Valley State — 1-1 for NMU vs. 0-2 for MTU.

The top four teams host the fifth- through eighth-place teams, with the bottom two teams being left out of the postseason.

The No. 1 seed might seemingly be only important for bragging rights, but it’s a lot more than that — it also sets up that team to host the tourney semifinal and final rounds by just defeating the No. 8 seed at home in its quarterfinal. Whichever team is highest seeded after the opening round gets to host the last two rounds.

The Wildcats are attempting to claim their fourth conference title — two being GLIAC Tournament crowns — in the past four seasons, cementing a legacy for the seniors as the winningest class of players the program has ever seen.

And maybe not so coincidentally, Saturday’s game is also Senior Day, with four players to be recognized — Aidan Bellisle, Sam Privet, Jackson Dudek and Dylan Kuehl.

These games will be streamed online at FloCollege and can be heard live on Marquette radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point. 

Fans can also follow @NMU_MensBBALL and @NMU_Wildcats on X (formerly Twitter) and @nmu_mbb on Instagram for updates throughout the weekend, or visit the Northern athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the men’s basketball schedule for links to ticket information, live video, live statistics and a preview.

In this week’s National Association of Basketball Coaches poll, NMU rose several spots to No. 18. Tech is at No. 16, while Grand Valley State, which had also been in the top 25 for about a month, slipped to the “others receiving votes” category in 28th.

However, the Lakers (14-5 GLIAC) are lying in wait, just a half-game — though it’s with an extra loss — behind the Wildcats and Huskies in case either or both of them stumble this week. GVSU’s lone game this week is at home vs. seventh-place Ferris State at 7:30 p.m. today.

Things were looking dire for NMU at this time last week, with Northern sitting in third place a game behind Tech and Grand Valley. Then the Wildcats knocked off MTU 70-64 last Thursday while the Lakers took a 92-65 thrashing at the hands of middling Saginaw Valley State that same night.

GVSU compounded its problems by also losing at Lake Superior State 105-95 last Saturday while Northern took care of business at Ferris 75-53 the same afternoon, while Tech knocked off the Bulldogs in Big Rapids 79-68 on Monday.

Looking at this week’s opponents, NMU won 85-64 at Roosevelt (3-15) in Chicago way back on Dec. 6, while the Wildcats squeezed out a close 82-78 triumph at Parkside (6-12) in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Dec. 4. Those were Northern’s only conference games this season played before the new year.

Kuehl continues to be one of the most well-rounded players in Division II, recently becoming just the fourth NMU men’s player to break the 2,000-point barrier — the other three are Bill Harris, who played in the mid-1980s, with 2,224; Cory Brathol, a late 1990s player, with 2,110; and Ricky Volcy, hailing from the mid 2000s, with 2,032.

In GLIAC games only, Kuehl is the No. 1 scorer in the conference at 22.1 points per game and also tops with a 56.9% field goal success rate, also sitting third with 1.4 blocked shots per game, 11th with 6.2 rebounds per game and 14th with 2.6 assists per contest.

He’s also scored in double figures in every game against Division II opposition this season, reaching 20 points in five of the past six games.

For all those accolades, he’s been named to watch lists in the top 50 for the Bevo Francis Award and in the top 25 for the Trevor Hudgins Award.

Team-wise, NMU has plenty of national rankings, being second with a plus-10.7 rebound margin and also second with a 1.8 assist-to-turnover ratio, fifth with a 17.8 ppg scoring margin, and 14th in two more categories — a 64.2 ppg scoring defense and 38.5% on 3-point shooting success.

Thank Kuehl’s teammate Cal Klesmit for much of the long-range success, as he’s second in league games with 3.0 triples a game and No. 1 with a 45.4% success rate on those shots. He’s also 15th in scoring at 13.3 ppg.

Dudek averages 12.2 ppg, while his 43.5% career 3-point success is seventh among all active players with at least 80 attempts.

Looking at this week’s opponents, Roosevelt is mired at the bottom of the GLIAC, three games behind Parkside, but have half their wins — two — away from home, downing Purdue Northwest at their place, something the Wildcats couldn’t accomplish a few weeks ago, and also at then-No. 24 Upper Iowa.

Nevertheless, these Lakers are at the bottom of the conference in scoring at 67.7 ppg and also scoring defense at 80.6 ppg.

Hamahrie Bowers at 16.4 ppg, Mikey West at 14.7 ppg and Dante Sawyer at 13.1 ppg are all in the top 15 in GLIAC scoring, the only team with three players on that list.

Meanwhile, 10th-place Parkside isn’t out of the GLIAC postseason hunt yet, trailing three teams by just one win, with two of those squads to make the tourney.

However, they’re 2-8 on the road with an offense that averages 74.0 ppg and defense allowing 74.6 ppg.

Paxton Warden is No. 4 in GLIAC scoring at 18.8 ppg, while teammate Luka Mateski is at 16.4 ppg.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release previewing the games. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.