GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — The Michigan Tech men's basketball team who play in NCAA D-II, came into the Resch center on Wednesday afternoon and upset UW-Green bay. The Huskies are having their best season in a few years and it’s thanks in large part to the Fox Valley.
“Marcus Tomashek is a hell of a player,” said UW-Green Bay head coach Doug Gottlieb. “Obviously, he belongs at this level and that’s a great get for them.”
Michigan tech junior Marcus Tomashek was the demise of the Phoenix Wednesday. The Ashwaubenon alum dropped 30 points in the Huskies upset 72-70 win...
“It shows people that I can play at this level,” Marcus said. “I mean, it shows that D-II is just as good as these D-1 teams.
Averaging 25 points per game this year, Tomashek didn’t have one NCAA Division 1 offer coming out of high school.
“I spent that whole summer watching every single one of his games just hoping that no Division 1 wanted to take a chance on him,” said Huskies head coach Josh Buettner. “I knew Marcus was going to be special.”
But he’s not the only guy from the Green bay Area shining for the Huskies. Redshirt junior center Dawson Nordgaard is their second-leading scorer averaging 11 points and 4 boards a game.
“Well, he’s great on offense but also on defense,” Tomashek said. “He's a really good rim protector and he’s terrific on offense. guys can’t stop him right now.”
His last name hangs from the rafters of the Resch Center. Dawson's dad, Jeff, starred for the Phoenix in the 90s, Buettner says he had an inkling the raw product from west De Pere could put it all together..
“You just knew there was a good chance that he was going to develop as it went along,” the Michigan Tech head coach said. “He had hands. He had feet. He was long. He had some touch.”
Those two Green Bay area natives have become good friends and now - after back to back losing seasons, they have Michigan Tech heading in the right direction the huskies are off to a 7-3 start. Their goal for the rest of the season is to take Michigan Tech to the NCAA D-II tournament.
“We just have really great chemistry,” Nordgaard said. “There’s not a lot of transferring out, transfers in, we’ve been a team for a really long time and we just have a great connection with each other.”
