Michigan Tech men’s basketball coach Josh Buettner cuts down the net after the Huskies defeated Roosevelt Saturday, Feb. 28, to earn a tie for the GLIAC regular season title at the SDC Gym in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — Despite a 75-49 loss to the eventual national champion Gannon Golden Knights in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Mar. 25, the No. 16 Michigan Tech Huskies men’s basketball team had a remarkable season, finishing 29-7 and going deeper than any Huskies team had ever gone previously.

Coach Josh Buettner was proud of everything the Huskies accomplished, even if they did not reach their ultimate goal.

“This season was kind of a grind in a lot of ways,” he said. “We took everybody’s best shot. It felt long. We played two weeks earlier, and then, obviously, going as far as we went. It’s the most games we’ve ever played, and every game was just a battle. We took everybody’s best shots. It was a weight of expectation, and it kind of ended a little bit fairy tale.

“These guys came in as freshmen and we struggled, and you get all the way, and get to hold up the trophy in the regional final.”

He was happy his team was able to do something that Michigan Tech had never done before.

“Once you have a little time to step back and take it all in, it was obviously a success,” he said. “Won the conference championship and won the regional championship, and it’ll hopefully be lifelong memories for these guys and a bond that will stick with them for a long time.”

The Huskies had four seniors, guards Marcus Tomashek, Josh Terrian, and Nate Abel, and forward Dawson Nordgaard, who all led by example. They were the first class Buettner recruited as a head coach.

“It’s really satisfying when you ask them to believe in something, and that belief sticks with them no matter how tough times got, both as a group, and, a little bit, individually,” he said. “
Marcus too, I mean, even last year, just asking them to come back, and believe that we could take the next step. For him to get to experience that, for our group to get to experience that, for this group as a whole, just kind of believing in something bigger than him, and believe in what Michigan Tech basketball is, it was just very satisfying.”

Tomashek averaged 21.1 points per game, which led the team, and 3.9 rebounds per game. He led the team in assists with 96, and racked up 24 steals as well. He was named NABC All-District First Team, NABC All-American, CSC Academic All-District, and D2CCA All-America Second Team.

“A lot of people would say you have to play on the road, or in a tough atmosphere, but that’s what college sports are supposed to be, to get to play in that kind of environment where it’s loud and there’s people heckling you and all over you,” Buettner said. “Those are the kind of atmospheres that Marcus and Josh thrive in. So it’s very satisfying as a coach to get to one of the biggest games and play your best game.”

Buettner referred to Terrian as the “heart and soul” of the Huskies.

“He’s been the heart and soul of this group since the day he stepped on campus,” said Buettner. “It’s one of our biggest fears going forward is keeping the level of intensity of practice up, because he was so important in making sure practices were good, and making sure so many things that don’t show up in a box score. People talk about your culture and kind of the Michigan Tech way and what a Michigan Tech player should be, and he exemplifies all those things.”

Along with Terrian was Abel, who was the defensive specialist that Buettner could rely. Abel also averaged 6.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.

“Nate was, in my opinion, the Defensive Player of the Year in the league,” Buettner said. “He guarded everybody’s best players. He just had a spectacular year navigating screens, guarding the ball. His rebounding from the guard position was spectacular. He just had an unbelievable season.”

Abel had been a scorer in high school, but completely embraced defense-first if that was what got him on the floor game after game.

“Honestly, it’s interesting from where I’m sitting to see that, because, in high school, he was a big time scorer,” said Buettner. “To play here, he kind of bought into what we needed and really embraced a role that isn’t as glamorous. Obviously, it’s awesome to see him have some of those games where those offensive instincts and sparks come back out. Just a tremendous senior year for Nate as well.”

Nordgaard came to Houghton raw, and was redshirted his first season in Black and Gold. However, he paid attention to details, and that got him more and more playing time. By his senior year, teams were scheming to defend him. He finished averaging 9.6 points and 3.7 rebounds per game this season.

“Dawson always worked really hard,” Buettner said. “To see him get to the point where he was a First Team All-Conference player is awesome. I’m not going to sit here and say Marcus wasn’t always No. 1 on the other team’s scout, but there were a lot of games where Dawson was kind of No. 1 on the usage part for us in terms of what we do.

“Honestly, for a guy like me that’s been here through all the Michigan Tech years, having that guy that you kind of run an offense through again is pretty awesome. Really happy for Dawson, and glad he was rewarded with the First Team and a chance to get to experience a lot of things. He ended up having a pretty awesome career.”

Two players who came off the bench this season, but will be expected to have larger roles moving forward were freshman guard Jesse Napgezek and sophomore forward Grant Warren.

“You go to that regional, Jesse and Grant were two of our most important players,” said Buettner. “They were both pretty spectacular, and in some ways, both could have had bigger numbers and bigger roles if we weren’t so senior-laden. There were a lot of guys with a lot of experience, and you’re going to lean on your experience down the stretch in a lot of ways, and I don’t think that’s a wrong thing. Really excited to see those guys blossom.”

Add to those two sophomore guard Gabe Smith and sophomore guard Ty Fernholz, and the Huskies had a deep bench to help out.

“Their confidence should be high for most of these guys,” said Buettner. “Gabe was a little bit of a struggle during his redshirt year, but Ty, Gabe, Grant, Jesse, four guys that we’re going to lean heavily on next year, don’t know anything other than winning the league. That’s a good thing and a bad thing. If you don’t know the struggle of it, and you just assume that’s what we do, and you don’t know how hard it is to get there, that can be the negative part of it.

“But, you should also be able to avoid some of the mental battles and struggles of learning how to get to the confidence to get there. They have the experience playing in those big games, and I’m confident they’ll put the work in, but they need to understand how hard that grind is too.”

Buettner feels that the foundation has been laid for the Huskies to continue to compete each year.

“We talked about that even in this tournament run, playing for the guys that built the foundation of this, from some of Luker’s (former head coach Kevin Luke) first teams, and all the guys in between,” Buettner said. “We’ve had a lot of good teams over there, a lot of teams have made the tournament, a lot of teams that won the league, and this one took it to that step. Now it’s on these guys to keep it at that level and try to get back. I think everybody wants to try to make another run at it.

“I don’t think were at our best against Gannon. We watched the two games after that. It felt like we could have played with those teams. Early in the year, we played, and beat, some of the best teams in the country. I think our guys need to believe that we can play with anybody in the country.”