Last year the Northland College Men’s Basketball team had a very young roster and often found themselves at a disadvantage playing against veteran squads. Coach Robinson’s goals last year were to compete hard while gaining experience for his young team, and then get those key players to return to the team while adding a strong recruiting class. That’s exactly what happened and has the Jacks excited about the upcoming season.
Northland opens up on Tuesday evening with a home game against Finlandia University at 7:30 pm. They had a very good freshman class last year and three of those players, now sophomores, are expected to start for the team in the early going. Sophomores Max Lesatz (Houghton, MI) and Zeb Woiak (Nekoosa, WI) will start again this season along with classmate Joey Brennan (Ashland, WI). Upper classmen Jordan Arneson (Sr., Madison, WI) and Ryan Cannata (Jr., Nashwauk, MN) bring four and three years of playing experience, respectively, to the team.
“We have much more playing experience in our starting lineup,” said Coach Robinson. “These are the guys that we will rely upon to lead us this season. They have been through it before, know what to expect, and can use their veteran experience to lead us throughout the year.” Northland also gained three transfers this season in Joe Kohegyi, Juan Martinez, and Mike Swartz, who are each coming in at junior status. Robinson also looks to them to bring even more experience to the team. In the UMAC last year, certainly the top team, and several others as we, were senior led teams which bodes well for Northland as they return their key players while other teams have to bring along inexperienced players. Despite that, Northland was picked towards the bottom at number seven.
Bethany Lutheran was the top pick in the preseason coaches’ poll, earning six first place votes and 47 points total. Northwestern, who won both the conference championship and the conference tournament, earned one first place vote and 40 points. Martin Luther and St. Scholastica round out the top half, and then it was UM-Morris, Presentation College, Northland, and Crown.
“We have to earn our respect this year, and earning a playoff berth with still a young roster, would be a good way to do so,” said Coach Robinson. For the first time in many years, the UMAC playoffs have been expanded to six teams. The first round will pit the # 3 vs # 6 seeds and the # 4 vs # 5 while the top two seeds have a bye, so earning a playoff spot is a very reasonable goal for the Jacks, who found themselves in a number of close games last year but didn’t have the experience or leadership to turn those games into victories. This year they can rely on their experience, surprise a few teams, and get into the playoffs.
After the Finlandia contest, the Jacks will be busy before their conference opener. The Jacks play at Northland Baptist before hosting Milwaukee School of Engineering the next two games and then travel to UW-Stout for a tournament on Thanksgiving weekend. The Jacks play the host school first and then will play either UM-Crookston or Wartburg College. A contest versus UW-Superior will be the final tune-up for the Jacks before they open their conference schedule by hosting Crown College and Northwestern College. After that the Jacks play two Division II teams, Northern Michigan University and UM-Duluth before heading into the Christmas break.