HOUGHTON — Fresh off an outright GLIAC regular season title, the Michigan Tech men’s basketball squad was voted to win the league, the GLIAC office announced Wednesday.

The Huskies were the unanimous preseason favorite, earning 10 first-place votes and 100 points. U.P. rival Northern Michigan earned Michigan Tech’s first-place vote and 85 total points for second in the league. Parkside (80 points), Grand Valley State (74 points) and Lake Superior State (59 points) rounded out the top-five teams.

“What it means is that there’s a bigger target on your back, there’s going to be a lot of pressure, and you’re going to get everybody’s best shot, which we knew one way or the other,” said Huskies coach Josh Buettner. “Preseason polls in today’s world mean less. I mean, they’ve never meant much, but they mean even less than they ever have. 

“We have the most back, which is the only reason that we’re picked first. I guess there’s some that we had a good year last year, but there’s a lot of teams that brought in a lot of transfers that they think are really good. If they come together, there’s going to be teams that might be more talented. We have to control the things we can control that make Michigan Tech successful, the chemistry, the toughness, the connectiveness, the playing-for-each-other stuff.”

Buettner, the 2024-25 GLIAC Coach of the Year, returns its entire starting five that made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament a season ago, including All-American, Midwest Region Player of the Year and GLIAC Player of the Year, senior guard Marcus Tomashek.

The Green Bay, Wisconsin, native finished the season averaging 23.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game, finishing the season with the fourth-most points for a season in program history with 720 points.

Other key returners are All-GLIAC second teamer Dawson Nordgaard and two-time GLIAC All-Defensive team selection Josh Terrian. Nordgaard averaged 8.7 points while shooting 57.1 percent from the field to go with 3.5 rebounds, as Terrian produced 4.3 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. 

The Black & Gold lost three players to graduation but return a cast of 14 student-athletes from last season, while bringing in four freshmen for the 2025-26 campaign.

2025-26 GLIAC Men’s Basketball Preseason Poll

1. Michigan Tech 100 (10)

2. Northern Michigan 85 (1)

3. Parkside 80

4. Grand Valley State 74

5. Lake Superior State 59

6. Ferris State 57

7. Wayne State 51

8. Saginaw Valley State 34

9. Purdue Northwest 26

10. Davenport 20

11. Roosevelt 19