Michigan Tech guard Marcus Tomashek drives around a Saginaw Valley State defender during a game Saturday, Feb. 7, at the SDC Gym in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — They have already gone further than any Michigan Tech Huskies men’s basketball team has ever gone, which is an accomplishment in itself, yet, the Black and Gold would love nothing more than to keep their season alive beyond Wednesday.

The Huskies won the Midwest Region for the first time in school history Tuesday, March 17, and were serenaded by the Pep Band upon returning to campus. For head coach Josh Buettner, finally breaking through at his alma mater meant the world.

“It was unbelievable,” he said. “It’s kind of a dream to win one. Just coming back to Michigan Tech with my experience as a player, to come up short of getting that regional championship, and getting to go when we had a team that was probably good enough to do it, I wanted to come back and just try to get that experience back and give that experience to other guys.

“We’ve had some teams that have come close over the years since then. Recruiting this group, it’s kind of a storybook, from the struggles we had when these guys were freshmen and they kept believing, people probably questioned how good we were or whatever. For it to come all the way back, and do this, it’s just kind of a great feeling, a happy ending to it. Hopefully, it’s not the ending.”

Buettner has a special place in his heart for his senior class, which includes guards Marcus Tomashek, Josh Terrian, and Nate Abel, and forward Dawson Nordgaard. All four have been instrumental in helping build the Huskies back up from a team that went 10-20 in 2022-23 to 29-6 thus far this season.

“There were no shortcuts,” Buettner said. “We were in a ton of close games this year, but this group has experienced every situation you could possibly imagine over the last four years, and they have so much game experience that there’s just no getting rattled at this point. You could really see it in the Grand Valley game, where you don’t take a lead until the last 10 seconds of the game.

“There were so many times in there that it could have been the, ‘Here we go again.’ It could have been it just isn’t our night when some of their balls sat on the rim funny and roll in. You know what? They just kept playing and kept grinding, and last play, another offensive rebound. We’ve won some of our biggest games of the year getting an offensive rebound and kick out for three.”

Tomashek was outstanding all regional for the Huskies. He scored 34 against Lake Erie, and 22 against Grand Valley State, before scoring 33 in the championship game against Walsh.

“That’s a weird, chaotic system. It’s not easy to prepare for, and it’s relentless,” said Buettner, when describing how Lake Erie played. “You know what? We took their best shot in the first half, and, obviously, Marcus was terrific all weekend, but him keeping us in that game, especially the last two minutes of that first half, I thought were the biggest of the game. We got down 45-41 and we sat in that last media timeout with I think it was 1:40-something on the clock. We talk about rounds, the four minute rounds between media (timeout)s, and we said, ‘Let’s get this last two minutes.’ Honestly, we made the, whatever it was, 4-0, 5-0 run, and took the lead at half. I thought that was a huge momentum boost for us.”

Facing Grand Valley for the fourth time was, by no means, easy. The Lakers had already beaten the Huskies three times this season, and they led in the regional game until the end of the contest.

“I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a little bit of a dread going into that game,” said Buettner. That’s the 12th time we played them in four years. They have four seniors. There were no secrets. There was nothing to figure out. I’m not trying to minimize that. They know everything we were going to do. We knew everything they were going to do. It’s going to be who’s tougher. That’s all we talked about. This is 100% mental. If you want to go in there, and believe that you can win, we’re going to have a great chance to win. If you’re going to dread it, and not want to deal with it, and ‘Let’s get this over with,’ then things could go wrong.

“That’s what it was. There were no secrets. We were tougher than them. We had 15 offensive rebounds (against) one of the better rebounding teams in the country. That was the difference in the game.”

The game came down to the ball in Tomashek’s hands. He missed his initial attempt, but Abel grabbing an offensive rebound and passed it back to him for a 3-point try near the Huskies’ bench, which fell to give Michigan Tech the lead with just seconds remaining.

Tomashek followed that huge finish with 15 of the first 17 points the Huskies scored against the Cavaliers. Buettner has joked many times about how the Huskies’ offense revolves around Tomashek.

“I’ve told that story a million times,” Buettner said. “When this kind of run really started, we put four guys out there that are going to guard their butts off, and let Marc do the offense. There’s all types of leadership, but there’s just something; when you have a guy like Marcus that’ll go out there and be like, ‘We’re going to get this done,’ he sets the tone there. From a mental standpoint, it was huge that he just gave confidence to everybody else. From an actual basketball standpoint, it was huge that you get that 10-point separation at the beginning, so when they make their runs, they’re never in front.

“That’s a big part of basketball games too, in terms of controlling a game and the momentum. So, that start was huge.”

Scouting the Golden Knights

The Gannon Golden Knights won the Atlantic Region Tournament, which they hosted. They defeated Charleston, California (Pennsylvania), and IUP to advance. They are 31-3 overall, and have beaten Lake Erie and Saginaw Valley State in nonconference play, but lost to Lake Superior State on Wednesday, Nov. 26, in Flint.

They are led offensively by sophomore guard Pace Prosser, who averages 18.3 points per game. Junior guard Lucas Morgan puts up 13.6 points per game, and averages 5.2 rebounds per contest as well.

Sophomore guard Lucas Sekasi averages 11.4 points per game off the bench. Redshirt junior Precious Idiaru rounds out the offense, averaging 11.1 points per game.

Where the Golden Knights thrive is in forcing turnovers, and then averaging 28.1 points per game off those ensuing possessions.

Game time

The Huskies and Golden Knights will battle Wednesday at 12 p.m. at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Should the Huskies win, they will play a Final Four matchup Friday also at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. If they win that game, they advance to the national championship Sunday, April 5, at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.