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Baptism by fire? Rookie NMU men’s hoops coach Ganz has lots of new faces, early road test

New NMU men’s hoops coach Ganz has first 14 games away from home

By Steve Brownlee 6 min read

MARQUETTE -- The men's basketball team at Northern Michigan University will join the Wildcats women's team in not playing a game at home for the first two months of the upcoming season.

Each team plays 30 games in the upcoming campaign, with just 10 of them at their home Vandament Arena, though eight of the 20 "road" games for the men will be played at neutral sites, all but one of those at the Justagame Fieldhouse in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. The women's schedule is quite similar, with six games in the Dells.

The Wildcat men are coming off a historic season, setting a program record with 28 wins while winning a fourth consecutive conference championship and also advancing to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the fourth straight year.

In the aftermath of that success, seven-year head coach Matt Majkrzak took the same job at Division I Northern Illinois, opening the way for former NMU assistant and associate head coach Keil Ganz to take the reins of the Wildcats' program.

Twice he had served as an assistant to Majkrzak, the most recent season in 2024-25. Last season, though, he was an assistant coach for former ESPN, CBS Sports and Fox Sports commentator Doug Gottlieb at Division I Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Ganz will face his opening season with just six returning players from last year's team, only one who started any games a year ago, senior Charlie Miller. Two other sophomores, Brooks Hinson and Isaiah Allen, are the only other returnees to average more than 10 minutes per game in playing time.

Another returning player is the lone Upper Peninsula native on the roster, senior Aidan Bellisle of Menominee, according to a look at the team's roster on the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com.

Miller, who had 24 starts, was the leading scorer of the trio with 6.6 points per game, with Hinson at 4.9 ppg and Allen at 4.1.

Miller also led all Wildcats' players in free-throw shooting, making 94.3% on 33 of 35, and tied for the team lead in steals with 31 while also committing the most fouls, 106.

Hinson was second among all NMU players in free throws, hitting 88.2% on 30 of 34, while Allen shot a nifty 50% from the field, making 52 of 104. Bellisle averaged 1.0 ppg while averaging 2.9 minutes on the court.

An influx of freshmen and transfers will swell the opening roster to 15 players. They include two senior transfers -- Bristol Lewis from Wisconsin-Platteville and Kyle Olagebi from Indiana-South Bend -- and one junior -- Jake Dunham from Wisconsin-Parkside, a fellow Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference member.

Ganz will have a challenge with the team's first 14 games -- one game short of half the schedule -- being away from Marquette.

Northern's first game at Vandament will be at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 7 -- yes, that's 2027 -- against heated Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech.

Prior to that, the Wildcats play their first seven games at neutral-site Wisconsin Dells, though it's highly unlikely they'll spend all their time there, considering the contests are spread more than three weeks apart.

It begins with the Midwest Tip-Off Challenge on back-to-back-to-back nights. First there's a contest vs. Central Oklahoma on Friday, Oct. 30, then Harding (Arkansas) on Saturday, Oct. 31, and wrapping up with Lincoln Memorial (Tennessee) on Sunday, Nov. 1.

NMU returns almost two weeks later for two more games in the Dells on consecutive afternoons, facing Missouri-St. Louis on Friday, Nov. 13, and Winona State (Minnesota) on Saturday, Nov. 14.

One week later, the Wildcats are back again to central Wisconsin to face St. Cloud State (Minnesota) on the evening of Friday, Nov. 20, and Minnesota State-Mankato on the afternoon of Saturday, Nov. 21.

One more Minnesota opponent -- a game at Minnesota-Duluth on Saturday, Nov. 28 -- comes before the GLIAC schedule opens.

Northern travels yet again to open the league campaign in Chicago to play Roosevelt on Thursday, Dec. 3, followed two days later in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to face Wisconsin-Parkside on Saturday, Dec. 5.

With a GLIAC schedule break of nearly three weeks, NMU will fill in mid-December with two more nonconference games -- and yes, away from home. The Wildcats travel to Quincy, Illinois, for both games, facing the host Bearcats on Wednesday, Dec. 16, then taking on Southwest Baptist (Missouri) on Thursday, Dec. 17, for what will be the last neutral-site game.

The league schedule resumes on New Year's Eve, Thursday, Dec. 31, in Grand Rapids to face Davenport, then on Saturday, Jan. 2, in Big Rapids to take on Ferris State.

Now 14 games in, Northern finally plays at Vandament Arena against the Huskies at home on Thursday, Jan. 7. Three more home games immediately follow, with Wayne State visiting on Saturday, Jan. 9, U.P. rival Lake Superior State on Thursday, Jan. 14, and Saginaw Valley State on Saturday, Jan. 16.

All Thursday home games this season will be played at 7:30 p.m. and all Saturday contests at 3 p.m.

After that extended homestand, the Wildcats more-or-less alternate weeks and pairs of games on the road and at home for the rest of the regular season.

A road trip downstate and to northwestern Indiana follows at Hammond, Indiana, to play Purdue Northwest on Thursday, Jan. 21, and at Allendale to face Grand Valley State on Saturday, Jan. 23.

NMU returns home to host Ferris State on Thursday, Jan. 28, and Davenport on Saturday, Jan. 30, followed by a trip to University Center to play SVSU on Thursday, Feb. 4, and to Sault Ste. Marie to take on LSSU on Saturday, Feb. 6.

A home weekend includes GVSU on Thursday, Feb. 11, and Purdue NW on Saturday, Feb. 13, then a slightly different schedule follows a week later in Houghton against MTU on Thursday, Feb. 18, and in Detroit to face Wayne State on Monday, Feb. 22.

The regular season wraps up with one more weekend at Vandament, the Wildcats hosting Parkside on Thursday, Feb. 25, and Roosevelt on Saturday, Feb. 27.

The GLIAC Tournament takes place during the first week of March, with the campus-based quarterfinal round for the top four seeds hosting the next four seeds on Wednesday, March 3. The highest remaining seed after the quarters hosts the tourney semifinals and finals on Saturday and Sunday, March 6-7.

A full schedule can be found on the NMU athletics website.

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

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