Men’s Basketball opens home play Nov. 11-13 against Chicago State and St. Francis Brooklyn

St. Paul, Minn. -- St. Thomas Men's Basketball comes off an exciting season-opener to take on Chicago State Nov. 11 and St. Francis Brooklyn Nov. 13 for the Tommies' 2022-23 home opening weekend at Schoenecker Arena.

Tip-off for Friday's home opener against the Cougars is set for 7 p.m. followed by Sunday's game time of 2 p.m.

Tommie Watch
St. Thomas lifted the lid on the season Monday, Nov. 9 with an exciting game at No. 9 Creighton in Omaha, Neb. The Tommies led the Bluejays midway through the second half before a 72-60 loss in front of a crowd of 17.098.

The Tommies led the Bluejays, 57-56, with 9:58 to play in the second half before the BIG EAST program ended the game on a 16-3 run. St. Thomas sank just one of its final 13 field goal attempts.

The squad's two graduate students and two seniors combined to score 43 points while freshman Andrew Rohde led the team with 15 points on 6-of-16 shooting, including three 3-pointers, in his first collegiate game.

Senior Brooks Allen added 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting with two 3-pointers. Graduate student Riley Miller was the only other Tommie to reach double-digit scoring with 13 on 5-of-8 shooting with three 3-pointers.

Senior Will Engels led the Tommies with nine rebounds, a career-high in NCAA Division I games. He's had two other such games in NCAA Division III games.

The Tommies shot 41 percent from the field (24-58) and 41 percent from 3-point range (9-22). Creighton won the turnover battle, turning 14 St. Thomas turnovers into 16 points while CU turned the ball over just five times that led to five Tommie points.

Series History
St. Thomas and Chicago State have played once in program history. The two teams met last season, a 77-72 win by the Cougars on Nov. 9, 2021 in Chicago.

Graduate student Parker Bjorklund led St. Thomas during last season's meeting with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting with nine rebounds. Miller chipped in 14 points with five assists while Allen added 12 points, all on 3-pointers. Six different players for the Purple contributed at least one 3-point basket.

St. Thomas and St. Francis Brooklyn have played once in program history, Nov. 13, 2021 in Brooklyn, N.Y. The Tommies came away with a 91-73 win for the program's first win in NCAA Division I.

Miller was part of a duo that combined for 51 points in a lights-out shooting performance. He sank 7-of-11 field goals, all from behind the arc, to finish with 21 points. Bjorklund added 14 points and five rebounds.

Scouting Chicago State
The Cougars are 0-1 after falling in their season opener, 85-54, at Northwestern in Evanston, Ill. The Wildcats jumped out to a 9-0 lead and led for the entirety of the game.

Chicago State was led in scoring by senior Elijah Weaver with 19 points on 5-of-12 shooting. Sophomore Jahsean Corbett added 14 points with a team-high eight rebounds. The final Cougar to score in double digits was sophomore Wesley Cardet, Jr., with 11 points.

CSU shot 25.4 percent from the field and 26.5 percent from beyond the arc while losing the rebound margin, 48-36.

Scouting St. Francis Brooklyn
The Terriers enter the weekend 1-0 after a 94-56 season-opening win against Mount Saint Mary (NY) on Nov. 7. SFB and MSM traded the first six scores of the game before the Terriers began to pull away midway through the first half.

Redshirt freshman Zion Bethea paced St. Francis Brooklyn with 24 points off the bench behind 10-of-14 shooting and 4-of-7 from 3-point range. Senior Rob Higgins followed with 13 points and added a team-high 10 assists for his first career double-double.

St. Francis Brooklyn shot 50.7 percent from the floor (37-73) and 32.4 percent from beyond the arc (11-34). It added 44 points in the paint and 49 points off the bench while outrebounding Mount Saint Mary, 42-31.

Jumping into NCAA Division I
The Tommies finished 2021-22 eighth in the conference and bring back 10 student-athletes from that squad, including two starters.

Graduate students Parker Bjorklund and Riley Miller chose to return to the Tommies this season, combining for 124 games played with the program since 2019-20. Miller led the team with 15.4 points per game and chipped in 2.2 assists per game while Bjorklund scored 12.6 points per game with 6.3 rebounds per game. Bjorklund was second in the Summit League for field goal percentage.

Approaching 1,000 Points
Riley Miller's 13 points against Creighton brought the graduate student to within 14 of reaching 1,000 for his career at St. Thomas. He began his Tommie career with 145 points as a freshman and 247 as a sophomore before further increasing his scoring average with 133 points in just seven games during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. Miller totaled nearly half of his career scoring total last season with 448 points while 624 of his scoring total have come behind the 3-point line.

Miller will become the 38th Tommie in program history to reach the scoring milestone, most recently done by guard Anders Nelson during the 2020-21 season.

The 3-Point Veteran
Riley Miller surpassed 100 made 3-pointers last season and moved to 208 made on his 95-game career to begin 2022-23. He made 103 treys as he converted 41 percent behind the arc last season. Miller was one of just four D-I shooters to make 100 or more threes and convert at 40 percent or better behind the arc.

Miller also converted 90.8 at the foul line (79 of 87) to rank in the top 12 in D-I and second in the Summit League. That's the best free-throw clip by a Tommie since Alex Healy made 92.2 percent (71 of 77) as a senior in 2011 on a 30-3 NCAA champion team.

Miller was second in the Summit League in 3-point shots attempted, 3-point shots made, 3-pointer percentage, and free throw percentage.

Protect the Rock
St. Thomas had the fewest turnovers per game among all Division I teams last season with 8.1. They made the fifth most 3-point baskets per game among all D-I programs at 11.1 (second most in the Summit League behind Oral Roberts).

The Purple's assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.55 trailed only five D-I programs and led the Summit League. The Toms' .758 free-throw percentage ranked second in the Summit and was among the 40 best percentages in D-I.

Finishing with Success
For the third year in a row and fourth time in seven seasons, Coach John Tauer's squad won its final game of its season.

Seven or Less
Despite losing six games by seven or less points, the Toms posted a 10-20 record with a starting cast entirely of players who began their careers in the MIAC in NCAA Division III.

71 is the Magic Number
The Tommies won all games in 2021-22 when holding opponents to 71 or less points, and they lost all games when their opponent scored 75 or more points.

To begin the 2022-23 schedule, No. 9 Creighton topped the 71-point mark by one point.

Playing to the Competition
Senior Brooks Allen showed that he's among the most improved players in the conference. He averaged 10 points and five boards over his last 13 games. Allen recorded just nine points in nine varsity games as a freshman and sophomore while competing in Division III.

NCAA DI Recruiting Class: Part Two
After bringing in Ben Nau and Ryan Dufault during the 2021 Tommie Signing Class, the 2022 class was bumped up to four with the additions of Carter Bjerke (6-9, F), Kendall Blue (6-6, G), Ahjany Lee (6-9, F) and Andrew Rohde (6-6, G).

The 2022 class was ranked number 52 of 368 schools according to Rivals.com. Additionally, only three of the top 50 ranked classes were mid-major schools.

Opponents Across the Country
St. Thomas will face programs from across eight conference, outside of the Summit League: Big East (Creighton), Big Sky (Montana, Montana State), Horizon (Milwaukee, Green Bay), NEC (St. Francis Brooklyn, Merrimack), Pac 12 (Utah), Sun Belt (Troy), UMAC (Crown, North Central), WAC (Chicago State).

Follow Along
For more information on St. Thomas Men's Basketball, follow along on Twitter at @TommieMBBall and on Instagram at @TommieHoops

Join Us
To reserve your seat to be a part of the Tommies' 2022 season, click HERE to view ticketing information and purchase options.

Men’s Basketball opens home play Nov. 11-13 against Chicago State and St. Francis Brooklyn

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Brooks Allen

Parker Bjorklund

Ryan Dufault

Will Engels

Riley Miller

Ben Nau

Anders Nelson

University of St. Thomas Athletics