Tech punches ticket to NCAA tournament
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The Michigan Tech men’s basketball team is headed to the NCAA Midwest Regional Tournament, which begins Saturday and runs through Tuesday, March 17, at the University of Indianapolis. The Huskies secured an automatic bid by winning the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament on Sunday afternoon. Tech defeated Northwood University 68-57 in the title game and will make the program's 10th appearance in the NCAA National Tournament.
Michigan Tech is 23-8 overall and finished second in the GLIAC North Division and third in the overall regular season standings. Following the official announcement Sunday night by the national office, the Huskies will be the No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region Bracket. Tech will battle Bellarmine University, the No. 5 seed out of the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Knights enter the tournament with an overall record of 20-8 and finished tied for fourth in the GLVC regular season standings. The tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Eastern time.
This year’s appearance will be the first for the program since the 2014-15 campaign. The Huskies advanced to the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship game in 2013-14. Tech earned an at-large berth that year and logged wins over Southern Indiana (75-70) and Indianapolis (82-76) before falling in the title game to Drury. This will be the ninth trip to the national tournament for Tech under Head Coach Kevin Luke.
The other matchups for the Midwest Regional bracket have the No. 1 seed Indianapolis (24-6) taking on the No. 8 seed Walsh University (25-6). The No. 2 seed in the bracket is Truman State (23-8) and they face the No. 7 seed Ferris State (27-6) in the opening round. Missouri St. Louis (27-6) is the three seed and will take on the sixth seed Southern Indiana (22-8) to round out the bracket.
Tech men’s basketball team was well represented for the accomplishments of the 2019-20 season when the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference announced award winners at the Championship Banquet on Friday.
The Huskies had the Player of the Year with senior Kyle Monroe and the Coach of the Year in Kevin Luke. Junior Dawson Bilski was also selected for All-GLIAC First Team honors while sophomore Owen White and junior Isaac Appleby were named to the All-Defensive Team.
Bilski, a guard from Powers, is second on the team in scoring thanks to a 14.8 points per game averaged coming into the GLIAC Final Four. Bilski is currently second in the GLIAC in three-point shooting percentage (48.3%) and was tabbed as the North Division Player of the Week twice during the regular season.
Bilski poured in a career high 29 points against Lake Superior State Jan. 16 in the SDC Gym and in the process connected on a career best seven triples. Bilski has found the target on 51.6 percent of his total field goal attempts, 12th best in the GLIAC. Bilski is also averaging 4.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game through 29 contests this year. Bilski was an All-GLIAC Second Team honoree following the 2018-19 campaign.