Michigan Tech guard Nate Abel controls the ball while looking for an open teammate during a game Saturday against Maryville at the D2 Midwest Region Tip-Off at Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. (Photo courtesy of Michigan Tech University)

HOUGHTON — After starting the season by defeating a pair of top 25-ranked opponents in Dallas Baptist and Lenior-Rhyne, the Michigan Tech Huskies men’s basketball team was riding high last weekend when they headed to Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, to take part in the D2 Midwest Region Tip-Off against Missouri-St. Louis and Maryville. Things did not go as well as they hoped.

The Huskies dropped their game Friday against Missouri-St. Louis, but bounced back Saturday with a win over Maryville to improve to 3-1 on the season.

“Honestly, it didn’t go great,” said Huskies assistant coach Zach Flener. “The first game was really frustrating. We thought we were ready to play. We thought our group was pretty focused before, and we just came out and didn’t play well. Honestly, there were not many positives at all. We were watching it back, trying to find some positives and didn’t. Didn’t find many.

“Hopefully, at the end of the season, we look back and it’s a hiccup that we felt like we needed, or whatever, coming off the two big wins in Florida. But yeah, it was really frustrating. It wasn’t like the effort was awful as a group, but there were just lots of mistakes, from execution mistakes to defensive coverages to pretty much everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong, which happened. So, the first game was frustrating.”

For all that went wrong with the opener, beating Maryville did soften the blow.

“It was good to come back and get a win,” Flener said. “The second day, we played a lot better. Still got a long way to go. We have a lot to fix, but it was good that our guys bounced back, and it’s helpful on those back-to-back games, when you have a game that next day, to just get that bad taste out of your mouth from the first game, and play better. It was good that we came back focused, and played better the second day, but there’s still a lot to get fixed.”

The Tritons held senior guard Marcus Tomashek to 15 points on Friday.

“They have a lot of really, really good, long, switchable defenders,” said Flener. “Honestly, Marcus is still, health-wise, a long way from where he wants to be, and hasn’t found that confidence in his body, in his game yet. He’s such a high-confidence player. You see it in the years that he’s been here. He’s very confident, he pumps our team with confidence, and he just hasn’t found that.

“He took almost a whole summer off trying to get his knees right, and we just started getting him back to live over the last month or so. He hasn’t found that in-game confidence yet, which is fine. We knew this was going to be part of the process with him. It stinks, in the moment, seeing him not play as well as he wants to, but we kind of just keep reminding him and ourselves like the whole goal was to get him right, and healthy by the end of the year.”

Flener mentioned that the coaching staff is working with Tomashek to get him to where he feels comfortable.

“We hope we have an awesome run down the stretch, and he’s healthy, unlike last year when he was really struggling at the end of the year and we needed him,” Flener said. “So, the whole goal was to have him healthy by the end. So (we are) just trying to reset his expectations of himself. He thinks really highly of himself, of a player, as he should. He’s a really, really good player, one of the best in the country. But, he’s not at that level right now, which is OK. He’s just got to reset his expectations, and start to build back up from the bottom.”

The good news is that Tomashek is surrounded by a group of seniors in guards Nate Abel and Josh Terrian, and forward Dawson Nordgaard, who all trust him.

“The continuity and the culture we have with this group, he’s been a huge part of that,” said Flener. “But, off the court, these guys are really, really, really close, which is what makes us good as a team.”

Scouting the Bulldogs

The Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs are 3-0 to start the season after sweeping their opponents, East Central and Southeastern Oklahoma State, in the GAC/NSIC Challenge over the weekend, and then taking down St. Scholastica Tuesday.

Redshirt junior guard Caleb Siwek leads the Bulldogs, averaging 25.0 points per game. Redshirt junior guard Nick Katona has also been good, scoring 11.3 points per game. Katona also leads in rebounding with 8.0 boards per game.

Redshirt freshman Jackson Fowlkes has been making the adjustment to the college game well, averaging 9.7 points per game.

Scouting the Huskies

The St. Cloud State Huskies are off to a tough start, going 0-2 with losses to Northwest Missouri State and Emporia State in the Hillyard Tipoff Classic last weekend.

They are led by sophomore guard Luke Winkel, who is averaging 18.0 points per game. Sophomore guard Lee Marks III has also played well, averaging 11.0 points per game.

Junior guard Wyatt Hawks is also averaging in double figures with 10.0 points per game.

Challenging non-conference schedule

“We have always a challenging non-conference (schedule), and these are two of our most challenging games on the road at Duluth on Friday night,” said Flener. “Hopefully there will be a crowd there to kind of challenge our guys, also. Two really well-coached, really good teams. These are going to be tough challenges.”

This could be the last chance for the seniors to defeat Duluth.

“They execute really, really well,” Flener said. “We have smart guys that execute well too, but they always execute well. Coach (John) Wieck does a great job of running their stuff well. Their details are very good. They screen very well. They space very well, and their guys are confident.

“They have really good players that are long, athletic, and skilled. They’re always extremely confident. They know each other so well. They’re similar to us, and they’re well coached. They’re really good. It’s an exciting challenge for our group. We’ve had this group here, they’ve played together for three years, their fourth year playing together, and we haven’t beat them over the four years. So, yeah, we’ve been really excited about this game. Our guys are, especially the seniors are, very excited to play them knowing it’s their last chance to get to play Duluth.”

Game times

On Friday, the Huskies and Bulldogs are set to start at 7 p.m. in Duluth, Minnesota. Saturday, Michigan Tech and St. Cloud are set for a 2:30 p.m. start in Duluth.