NMU men’s basketball begins Ganz era tonight
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MARQUETTE -- The Keil Ganz era of men's basketball at Northern Michigan University begins tonight at a familiar location for this Wildcats team.
NMU plays the first of three games in three days at the Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association Midwest Tip-Off Challenge in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
Northern squares off against Central Oklahoma at 7 p.m. EDT today, then takes on Harding (Arkansas) at 9:15 p.m. EDT Saturday and Lincoln Memorial (Tennessee) at 7 p.m. EST Sunday.
The Justagame Fieldhouse in Wisconsin Dells was the site of the Wildcats' first four games last season, a number of games that the team's Vandament Arena couldn't match until the calendar turned to January.
All three games will be streamed on the Justagame website at justagame.com, with Radio Results network radio stations carrying each of them, too. Today's and Saturday's will be on WUPZ 94.9 FM The Bay, while Sunday's is on WUPT 100.3 FM The Point.
Or visit the Northern athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the men's basketball schedule for links to live video, live statistics and previews. Fan can also follow @NMU_MBBall on Instagram and @NMU_Wildcats on X for updates.
Also appearing at the event, which includes women's teams like Northern's, is Grand Valley State of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
"I feel pretty good about the group that we're slated to start this weekend," Ganz said in an NMU Sports Information news release previewing the tourney. "Offensively, we have a lot of guys that we can put on the floor, which is a scary way to play, but also a fun way to play.
"But it starts defensively, and we have to be a good defensive team in order to have success this season."
League coaches see the Wildcats as being challenged under the new regime with one of its best players ever now graduated, Dylan Kuehl. He was not only voted the GLIAC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, but also the GLIAC Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year across all sports in the league.
The coaches voted these Wildcats to finish sixth in the 11-team league in their preseason poll.
Last year's NMU squad won the conference regular-season title and finished 28-7, setting a program record for wins. Northern also won a GLIAC regular season or conference tournament title for the fourth consecutive season while also making an NCAA Division II tourney appearance for the fourth straight time.
That was all under head coach Matt Majkrzak, who left after last season for the same job at Division I Northern Illinois.
Ganz had two stints as an assistant coach with Majkrzak at NMU, though last year he spent it as an assistant with Doug Gottlieb at Division I Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Six players return from last year's Northern squad, most prominently three guards, graduate student Charlie Miller, who averaged 6.6 points per game, sophomore Brooks Hinson at 4.9 ppg, and junior Isaiah Allen at 4.1 ppg.
Each had multiple double-digit scoring games a year ago as all three shot between 32% and 40% on 3-pointers.
Other returnees looking to step up their roles are Menominee product and graduate student guard Aidan Bellisle and sophomore forwards Ross Robertson and Pryce Gregoire.
Four transfers are among the Northern's nine newcomers -- junior guard Jake Dunham played at fellow GLIAC member Wisconsin-Parkside, senior guard Bristol Lewis was at Wisconsin-Platteville, senior forward Kyle Olagbegi was at Indiana-South Bend, and junior guard George Bellevue was at Panola Community College in Texas.
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Northern Michigan University's Aidan Bellisle, right, goes up for a shot past Wisconsin-Parkside's Paxton Warden during their GLIAC game played on Feb. 28 at Vandament Arena in Marquette. Bellisle is a Menominee HIgh School graduate. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)