Name: Central Michigan University
Location: Mount Pleasant, Michigan
I’m bad at geography, where’s Mount Pleasant? It’s in central Michigan.
Ha ha, very funny. I mean, it is pretty right there in the middle part of the Mitten section of Michigan. It’s in the northern half of the lower peninsula, if that helps. North of pretty much every city in Michigan that a non-native has ever heard of, I’d imagine, with the possible exception of Traverse City.
Founded: 1892, as Central Michigan Normal School and
Business Institute. Even though “Normal School” is old-timey code for “teachers college,” the college didn’t actually fall under the jurisdiction of Michigan’s Board of Education until 1895, which seems….. weird. The state changed the name to Central Michigan University in 1959.
Enrollment: 10,219 undergraduates as of the end of the Fall 2024 semester, along with 4,296 graduate students.
Nickname: Chippewas
Why “Chippewas”? Well, the short answer is “a campus vote in 1942,” but it’s more complicated than that. They had a brief flirtation as Dragons in the 1920s thanks to a tradition connected to a homecoming bonfire, but it never really caught on. Bearcats caught on in 1927 and held on til 1941. The argument was made that bearcats didn’t have any real connection to the area of Mount Pleasant, but Chippewas did. Yeah, sure, the yearbook held the name and the Chippewa River is near campus, fine. But I don’t think that the following argument from football coach Lawrence Sweeney is a very good one, even in the light of 1941:
“…the name Chippewa opens up unlimited opportunities for pageantry and showmanship for the band as well as athletic teams. The Indian chief would be an outstanding marker for athletic uniforms, the Indian pow-wow could replace the pep-meeting and Indian ceremonies could be conducted on many occasions. School flags could be made much more attractive and finally all types of Indian lore have a strong appeal and could be used to great advantage.”
It was put to a campus vote on January 16, 1942, and Chippewas won, 351-90. Is it weird to have a campus vote five weeks after Pearl Harbor? YES, IT IS, seeing as CMU’s own history notes that less than half of campus voted. 441 votes was recorded as less than half of campus and I am guessing this is largely because wide swaths of college age Michiganders were busy enlisting in the armed forces at the time.
Okay, why still “Chippewas”? FANTASTIC QUESTION. The Michigan Civil Rights Commission recommended changing the name in the 1980s, but an advisory committee to the university president recommended they keep the name in 1989, but with conditions:
Those conditions included developing educational programs in conjunction with the local Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Council, sessions to familiarize CMU students and staff with traditional Native American culture, dropping the two official CMU Native American logos (a Native American profile and a spearpoint with a feather inside a block “C”), eliminating Native American drumbeats by pep bands and other measures.
CMU’s own nickname history webpage has a link right at the top that explains what it means to be a Chippewa. The short answer of “why still Chippewas” is that they are attempting to honor the original settlers of the area of Mount Pleasant, and I respect that. The fact that they have to even to this day keep this list of “DO NOT DO THESE WILDLY RACIST THINGS” on their website kinda tells me that this isn’t a great idea anyway.
Is Campus Haunted? Well, I don’t know if CMU’s campus is actually haunted, but they have a nearly 30 year tradition of turning the older section of campus effectively into a haunted house for Halloween. The idea of doing tours and telling ghost stories about campus is pretty cool on its own, but the idea of working people in costumes into the whole enterprise is a very cool twist.
Take It Easy: A lot of college campuses have some sort of “okay, finals are coming up, here’s a study day before they start” kind of thing. Central Michigan has gone so far as to brand it as Gentle Friday. It started in 1960 and has evolved into an actual campus sponsored/operated block party.
Notable Alumni: Bad news, everyone. We have to make Tom Crean sad, as he graduated from CMU in 1989. Also on the list: Sports broadcasting legend and noted Al McGuire friend Dick Enberg; pro wrestler George “The Animal” Steele; Emmy winning actor Jeff Daniels, maybe best known for his role as Harry in Dumb and Dumber; NBA icon Dan Majerle; former Kentucky governor Matt Bevin; actor Terry O’Quinn, best known for his role as John Locke on Lost; former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Joseph Ralston; author John Grogan, best known for his memoir Marley & Me; MMA fighter Phil Baroni; and finally, William Nolde, U.S. Army colonel and the official final combat casualty of the Vietnam War.
Last Season: 14-17, with a 7-11 record in the MAC
Final 2024-25 KenPom.com Ranking: #198 out of 364 teams
Final 2024-25 BartTorvik.com Ranking: #220 out of 364 teams
We’re going to go slightly out of our usual order here because we need a teeeeeeeeeny bit of context for what comes next….
Head Coach: Andy Bronkema, in his first season as a Division 1 head coach. His only other head coaching experience is at Division 2 Ferris State, where he posted a record of 278-105. Bronkema won a national championship in 2018 and lost double digit games just four times in his 12 seasons in charge and never had a losing record other than 1) Year 1 and 2) The Weirdest College Basketball Season Ever in 2020-21.
Preseason Poll: Central Michigan was picked to finish 12th in the 13 team MAC this season.
This Season: 2-3 and coming off a 90-66 home loss to Northern Kentucky on Thursday night.
Current KenPom.com Ranking: #306, up from their preseason rank of #309
Current BartTorvik.com Ranking: #309, up from their preseason rank of #318
Returning Stats Leaders: No one. Central Michigan returns no players that saw the court at all in the 2024-25 season, but again, they had a coaching change so there you go. CMU does “return” three players from Andy Bronkema’s last Ferris State team, though.
Current Stats Leaders
Points: Nathan Claerbaut, 11.2 ppg
Rebounds: Nathan Claerbaut, 7.8 rpg
Assists: Tamario Adley, 3.4 apg
Bigs? The aforementioned Nathan Claerbaut will be an issue for Marquette. Listed at 7’0” and 230 pounds, he’s Central Michigan’s top scorer and rebounder after averaging 9.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per game for Andy Bronkema at Ferris State last season. He’s a traditional big with just one three-pointer attempted this season and just three a year ago while playing in Division 2. His rebounding numbers hold up as a rate on both ends, where KenPom has him ranked in the top 300, including top 200 on the offensive glass. He’s also top 150 in the country in block rate while averaging 2.0 per game, so Claerbaut will be a force to deal with on both offense and defense.
Claerbaut only plays 25 minutes a night on average, but he’s been at 28 or 30 in each of CMU’s last three games. Northern Kentucky limited him to 10 points and six rebounds in 28 minutes on Thursday, and the Norse are not exactly knocking them out on the defensive end of the floor this season.
Nick Mullen and His Mustache are averaging 19.3 minutes this season, and he started the last two nights, swapping in for the 6’6”, 220 lb. Keenan Garner. Mullen is listed at 6’10” and 230 pounds, so the IU-South Bend transfer definitely has a claim to Big Man. He’s only averaging 5.8 points, but 5.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks is a lot for his minutes. Mullen had nine points and seven rebounds in 26 minutes in his first start against Coppin State, then 12 & 4 in 21 minutes against Northern Kentucky on Thursday.
That’s it, though. Kareem Aburashed is listed at 6’10” and 235 points, but the Wayne State transfer hasn’t played yet this year.
Shooters? Jaxson Whitaker is sniping over defenses this season, hitting 42% of his more than five three-point attempts per game. He was a 43% shooter for Andy Bronkema and Ferris State last season, so this is very much who he really is as a player.
Same thing for Logan McIntire, who was the #3 shooter in all of Division 3 last season at Kentucky Wesleyan. He was putting them down at a 47% clip a year ago, so his 39% shooting right now on nearly eight attempts per game is a rough start to the year for the 6’5” guard from Indiana. Rodney Johnson was a 37% shooter for Tennessee Tech last season, so his 4-for-11 (36%) start to the year here is right what you might expect from him.
Tamario Adley is off to a 4-for-12 start to the season, and you have to respect a 33% shooter. However, he went 3-for-4 in the opener and is 1-for-8 since and that’s after a 1-for-7 in their two point loss to South Alabama and Adley didn’t shoot a three at all on Thursday night. He was also at just 23% and 28% on about an attempt or two per game in his two years at Wayne State before coming to CMU.
What To Watch For: Well, since he’s started all five games so far this season for Central Michigan, I should probably prepare you for hearing either Mike J at Fiserv or Brian Anderson on truTV mentioning Phat Phat Brooks on the regular on Saturday afternoon.
I’m sorry, did you just…. Yes, Phat Phat Brooks. He is a 6’2” sophomore guard. He spent his freshman year at Michigan, where he appeared in 15 games for a total of 49 minutes. Brooks won Michigan’s Mr. Basketball award as a high school senior, but he still wasn’t a top 200 prospect in the eyes of 247 Sports.
You know why I stopped you. Yes.
Born Durral Brooks on January 27, 2006
AND? One thing at a time, they aren’t consecutive notes in his CMU bio.
Nickname “Phat Phat” was given by his father, Eric, because of his chubby cheeks as a baby
Okay, so, basketball things? Right.
Yes, Central Michigan has guys that should be noted on the scouting report. Nathan Claerbaut can score it inside, he can grab rebounds, he can block shots. Logan McIntire and Jaxson Whitaker can fill it up from the outside if you give them space.
But there’s a reason why the Chippewas are still outside the KenPom.com top 300 this season. Their team numbers are bad. They don’t shoot it well as a team, even with Claerbaut shooting over 64% on twos. They turn it over more than 20% of the time, which is very bad, and they’re specifically prone to steals/live ball turnovers. They almost never get to the free throw line relative to what the rest of the country is doing.
On the other end of the court, Central Michigan isn’t terrible at shooting defense. They’re about middle of the country in letting you shoot a three, but teams are really filling it up on them when they get the shots off. I presume there’s a connection between ranking #249 in three-point shooting defense and ranking #223 in assist rate. The Chippewas do not force turnovers, and even with Claerbaut being one of the better rebounders on a national level in terms of rate, CMU struggles to end possessions after one shot. They’re giving up an offensive rebound nearly 34% of the time, and this is where I note that Marquette is #76 in the country in offensive rebounding right now….. at over 36%.
Just to say it out loud: This is, according to the computers, the worst team that Marquette has faced so far this season, and the worst team that Marquette will face this season. This is a game that Marquette needs to win confidently and not a game where the coaching staff needs to tinker with lineups and see what works and let guys explore the space. This is a game where MU needs to take the lessons they have learned from the Indiana, Maryland, and Dayton losses, and go out and play/coach with whatever changes are warranted. Once that margin clears 20, maybe 25 points, yeah, go ahead, widen things out, give guys some minutes.
This is a game for sending a message, not figuring things out before Oklahoma in Chicago next weekend.
All-Time Series: Marquette is 3-0 all time against Central Michigan. That’s 81-67 in December 2008, 97-73 in November 2022 at the McGuire Center, and 70-62 last year.
Follow Anonymous Eagle on social media
Facebook: AnonymousEagle
Instagram: AnonymousEagleSBN
Bluesky: AnonymousEagle
