PREVIEW: No. 17 Wildcats journey to Warriors and Pride

MARQUETTE, Mich. – After a weekend cut up, the No. 17 Northern Michigan males’s basketball staff is again on the street with simply three weekends remaining within the common season. 

The Wildcats will journey to the Motor City to tackle Wayne State on Thursday, Feb. 12, at 7:30 p.m. Northern will then journey additional south to Purdue Northwest to contest the Pride on Saturday, Feb. 14, at 4 p.m. ET. 

Coming off a 71-68 defeat towards the Lake Superior State Lakers, the ‘Cats are 20-4 general and 11-3 in convention play, deadlocked with Michigan Tech and Grand Valley State on the high of the GLIAC leaderboard. 

Each recreation this weekend shall be streamed on FloCollege and may also be heard reside on 100.3 The Point, with Casey Ford on the decision. 

Follow the Action

Follow @NMU_MensBBALL and @NMU_Wildcats on X (previously often called Twitter) and @nmu_mbb on Instagram for updates all through the weekend.

About the Wildcats

The Wildcats dropped one spot to No. 16 within the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Poll, behind No. 13 Michigan Tech and forward of No. 19 Grand Valley State. The Wildcats are tied for first place within the convention standings with GVSU and MTU at 11-3. 

Dylan Kuehl leads the way in which for the Green and Gold. In GLIAC video games, he’s first in scoring (22.1 ppg) and discipline objective proportion (56.9%), and second in blocks (1.7 bpg). He has scored in double figures in each recreation towards DII competitors this season, and not too long ago posted 32 and 26 factors within the video games final weekend.

The Wildcats have established themselves as some of the environment friendly groups within the nation, main the nation with a +11.6 rebounding margin. They are additionally high 10 in help/turnover ratio (2nd, 1.71), scoring margin (fifth, 19.2), and three-point proportion (ninth, 39.5). 

A big a part of the success past the arc is Cal Klesmit, who’s second in GLIAC play with 3.4 threes per recreation and first in taking pictures 49.5% from past the arc. Through 14 convention video games, he’s tenth at 14.5 factors per recreation. He can take over a recreation from three, notching 5 or extra triples eight instances this season. 

Bennett Basich has additionally been an all-around pressure in league competitors, averaging 11.8 factors and 6.8 rebounds. He has scored in double figures in 10 of the previous 12 video games and notched a 13-point, 14-rebound double-double on Jan. 17 vs. Saginaw Valley State. Jackson Dudek can be averaging double figures at 12.5 factors per recreation. His 44.4% profession three-point proportion is fifth amongst all energetic gamers with no less than 80 makes an attempt. 

A Look at Wayne State

The Warriors are 11-9 general and 8-6 in GLIAC play. Winners of three straight, WSU is 8-3 at dwelling and most not too long ago knocked off Grand Valley State 70-68. Jordan Briggs leads the staff at 17.8 factors per recreation, with Carlos Paul III (12.6) and Jotham Nweke (10.6) additionally in double figures. 

The Wildcats defeated the Warriors 83-62 on Jan. 24. Briggs had 16 to tempo WSU, whereas Northern had three in double figures, led by 21 from Dudek. 

A Look at Purdue Northwest

The Pride are 10-11 general and 6-8 in league play. At 5-4 at dwelling, they fell to GVSU final weekend however bounced again with a 62-56 win over Davenport. Kyle Ross leads the staff, averaging 14.8 factors and seven.5 rebounds per recreation. 

On Jan. 22, NMU trailed the Pride 41-37 at halftime, however rallied to win 82-75. Northern was led by Kuehl with 28 factors whereas Ross had a 23-point, 10-rebound double-double for the Pride.