Coaches predict NMU men’s basketball 6th in 11-team GLIAC
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MARQUETTE -- The rest of their conference has modest expectations for the men's basketball team at Northern Michigan University under first-year head coach Keil Ganz.
The Wildcats finished last season with a program record number of wins in their 28-7 record and were co-champions of the regular season in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
That was under the guidance of seventh-year head coach Matt Majkrzak, who took the same job at NCAA Division I Northern Illinois soon after last season was over.
Ganz, who had two stints as an assistant coach with Majkrzak at NMU, leads his first college program at Northern.
With a number of graduated players now gone, including GLIAC Player of the Year Dylan Kuehl, other coaches in the league must think he'll need some time to bring his charges to a boil at the top of the conference.
They voted the Wildcats to finish sixth in the 11-team GLIAC, a position that leaves them behind both of their Upper Peninsula rivals, Lake Superior State and Michigan Tech.
NMU received 51 voting points as LSSU was crowned preseason co-No. 1 pick with 89 voting points, the same amount that Grand Valley State received. Coaches vote for all teams but their own.
One difference was that GVSU received five first-place votes while Lake State had just three, actually meaning the depth of the LSSU's support was better overall.
MTU was picked third with 83 points and two first-place votes, while Ferris State was a rather distant fourth with 68 points but also the final first-place vote.
Wisconsin-Parkside was fifth with 56 points, and after NMU, Purdue Northwest was a close seventh with 49 points.
Rounding out the league was Saginaw Valley State in eighth with 47 points, Wayne State ninth with 37, Davenport 10th with 26 and Roosevelt 11th with 10.
Last season, the Wildcats tied Michigan Tech for the regular-season title with 16-4 league records, as Grand Valley was only a game back in third at 15-5. LSSU was fourth, Purdue NW and Wayne State tied for fifth, Davenport seventh, SVSU and Ferris tied for eighth, Parkside 10th and Roosevelt 11th.
Ganz has a roster of six returning players, five freshmen and four transfers.
The Wildcats' season opens with three games starting Friday at the Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association Tip-Off Challenge in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. They open with Central Oklahoma at 7 p.m. EDT that day, then take on Harding (Arkansas) at 9:15 p.m. EDT next Saturday and Lincoln Memorial (Tennessee) at 7 p.m. EST on Sunday, Nov. 1.
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Northern Michigan University assistant coach Keil Ganz, left, and head coach Matt Majkrazak watch the Wildcats during a GLIAC game played against Davenport at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Feb. 1, 2025. Ganz has become head coach after Majkrzak’s departure for an NCAA Division I job. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)