The Northern Michigan men’s basketball team has been picked to finish third in the GLIAC for the 2024-25 campaign. Additionally, redshirt junior Dylan Kuehl has been selected to the Preseason First Team.
Now entering his sixth season at the helm, Matt Majkrzak is looking to bring the ‘Cats to a third consecutive NCAA Tournament after his teams have earned a spot in the big dance in back-to-back seasons. The last two seasons have been two of the best in program history. In 2022-23, Northern captured its first GLIAC Tournament title since 2000. The Wildcats went 25-8 that year, the most wins in program history, and made it to the Round of 32. Last year, the Green and Gold followed it up with a 22-11 season that saw them win the GLIAC regular season title for the first time since the 1992-93 season with a regular season conference record of 14-4.
Majkrzak is the reigning GLIAC Coach of the Year. In his five seasons, NMU has gone 86-56 (.606) including a 47-19 (.712) mark over the last two. Last year, Majkrzak and the Wildcats hosted the GLIAC Tournament for the first time since 1992-93. He is only the second leader of the program to be named conference Coach of the Year, joining Dean Ellis in 1993. For a team that dealt with injuries all season long a year ago, Majkrzak continued to make it work for the Green and Gold, plugging and playing different lineups with seemingly no interruptions. The Wildcats also tied the longest winning streak in program history last year at 13 games, originally set in 1984-85. NMU averaged 79.2 points/game and allowed 76.7 last year.
Joining Majkrzak on the bench will be second year Associate Head Coach Keil Ganz, in his second stint with NMU after being Majkrzak’s first assistant at NMU back in 2019. New to the staff is first year assistant John-Michael Hughes. Hughes most recently served as a graduate assistant at USC, and he brings in strong connections and respected touch points across the amateur, collegiate, and professional basketball ecosystem. In his time at USC under coach Andy Enfield, John-Michael was entrusted to work holistically across all aspects of the program but with specific emphasis in player development. He worked with players such as Isaiah Collier, Bronny James, and Boogie Ellis, two selections in the 2024 NBA Draft.
On the court, NMU will field a 17-player roster. Of those, only six players return to the lineup who saw playing time with the Wildcats a season ago. Losing GLIAC Player of the Year Max Weisbrod to Division I Northern Iowa will be a lot to overcome, but forward Dylan Kuehl and his freakish athleticism will certainly be up to the task.
Kuehl has been named to the GLIAC Preseason First Team after being a key player for Northern's recent success. He was named to the All-GLIAC First Team and All-Defensive Team in each of his two seasons, as well as earning a spot on the NABC All-District Second Team last year. In his career, Kuehl is averaging 14.3 points/game. He is closing in on the 1,000 career point milestone with 929 points. The Iron Ridge, Wisconsin native is also averaging 6.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.1 blocks over his two seasons while shooting 52.2% from the floor. Last year, he finished first in the GLIAC with 161 made field goals and fourth on the glass with 163 total rebounds.
In the backcourt, NMU added a quartet of guards in Julien Smith (Missouri S&T), Gerald Gittens (Mary), Derek Merwick (Midland), and Biggie Luster (Clarke) in the transfer portal. Smith is amongst the nation’s returning scoring leaders as he’s mustered 1,623 career points (15.9 ppg) over his four seasons at Missouri S&T while Gittens averaged 13.8 ppg last year at the University of Mary. These guards will join Brian Parzych who is the established veteran in the backcourt. Parzych has averaged 10.6 points/game and over the last two seasons and 3 assists/game over his career, as the three guards that are expected to lead the way in the backcourt.
Majkrzak will also look to returning bigs Sam Privet and Jackson Dudek, as well as redshirt freshman Peter Lattos to step into a bigger role than they held in 2023-24.
Northern has added four freshmen to the fold in Michael McNabb, Cody Schmitz, Jonny Ingalls, and Isaiah Allen. The four combined for a remarkable 8,216 career points in high school and the class will look fit right in with the veterans around them.
The 2024-25 squad will be the first to play in a new home, as Vandament Arena, previously the exclusive home to NMU volleyball, has been renovated and will now be the stomping grounds for both basketball teams in addition to volleyball. The project created a larger court area, four-sided stadium seating for about 1,500, a modernized look, and two state-of-the-art scoreboards.
On October 13, the Wildcats played its most notable preseason exhibition in program history when they hosted DI blueblood Michigan State in front of 11,500 fans in the Superior Dome Showdown, the largest indoor event in the history of the Upper Peninsula. In a weekend that was much more than the game on the court that included the retirement of NMU alum Tom Izzo’s #10 jersey and icons Bill Raftery and Lisa Byington announcing the game, the Wildcats put up a valiant effort and fell 70-53 to the Spartans. Jackson Dudek led the way with 14 points. More from that event can be found here.
Northern opens its season on November 8-9 at the JustAgame Crossover in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
