Men’s Basketball returns home to host Milwaukee

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- St. Thomas men's basketball returns to Schoenecker Arena Wednesday, Dec. 6 to host Milwaukee for the second time in the all-time series.

The Tommies (4-4) look to stay undefeated at home this season against the Panthers (3-5) with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m.

TUNE IN
Basketball fans can follow Friday's game on the Summit League Network. Fans can also follow the game on ESPN 1500 radio with Corbu Stathes or via Live Stats on TommieSports.com.

SERIES HISTORY
Wednesday's meeting will be the second all-time between St. Thomas and Milwaukee. The first meeting came Nov. 23, 2022, a 76-72 win by the Tommies in Milwaukee, Wis.

Graduate student Brooks Allen led all scorers with 20 points (his second career 20-point game at the time) on 5-of-7 shooting, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range and 6-of-8 from the free throw line. He pulled down six rebounds while sophomore Ahjany Lee led the Tommies with seven boards to go along with nine points. Sophomore Kendall Blue came off the bench to score 10 points in 21 minutes played.

LAST TIME OUT | WESTERN MICHIGAN
St. Thomas dominated from the get-go, storming out with a 23-8 advantage over the first 10 minutes. A staggering 21 of the 23 points came from 3-pointers, shooting 53.8% from deep that led to a commanding 33-10 lead after a 10-0 run with six minutes left in the first half. St. Thomas, holding a 41-14 lead at halftime, carried their strong defense into the second half, limiting the Broncos to just three points over the first five minutes. Western Michigan fought back defensively but struggled to narrow the gap. The Tommies maintained their lead, holding a 55-38 advantage at the six-minute mark. Despite the back-and-forth momentum in the second half, the Tommies' early dominance secured them a hard-fought 65-51 victory.

THE CAST | VS. WESTERN MICHIGAN
Graduate student Parker Bjorklund led the Tommies and tied a season high 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting. He also added four rebounds, and one assist while junior Ben Nau scored a season high 11 points off the bench. Senior Drake Dobbs had five assists along with seven points and three rebounds. Graduate student Raheem Anthony totaled seven boards, nine points, and three assists.

JOINING ELITE COMPANY
Johnny Tauer became one of five active head coaches among all of NCAA to reach 250 career wins with a .740 winning percentage, all with one program.

Head Coach	School	Wins	Pct.
Mark Few	Gonzaga	694	.836
Jeff Young	Walsh	440	.757
Joe Lombardi	Indiana (PA)	404	.784
Ben McCollum	Northwest Mo. State	370	.808
Johnny Tauer	St. Thomas	251	.740

Tauer is also one of 11 active head coaches to reach 250 career wins with a .740 winning percentage at any program.

Since taking over as head coach in 2011, Tauer has averaged 20.5 wins per season heading into 2023-24. He is the fastest to reach 250 career wins in program history, joining Steve Fritz (594-246) and Tom Feely (417-269). Tauer was a senior with Tommie Basketball when Fritz reached the 250-milestone in 1995 and Fritz was a senior for the program when Feely reached the milestone in 1970-71.

THE OPPOSITION | MILWAUKEE
Milwaukee comes off a 22-12 record and 14-6 mark in the Horizon League, finishing second in the conference, during the 2022-23 season. The Panthers enter Wednesday's game 3-5 overall and 0-1 in league play, losing back-to-back games to Horizon League opponent Green Bay, 70-58, and Southern Mississippi, 90-84.

The Panthers' offense relies heavily on junior BJ Freeman who averages 19.5 points per game. After Freeman, the scoring efforts are distributed evenly across the roster without another player averaging more than nine points per game.

Milwaukee averages 74.3 points and allows 77.3 points per game. Milwaukee's opponents shoot at a 43 percent clip from the 3-point line, setting up the Tommies who average 8.4 3-pointers per game.

THE MAKEUP OF THE TOMMIE ROSTER
The heart of the St. Thomas men's basketball program is comprised from Minnesota natives, including 10 of 15 student-athletes, Head Coach Johnny Tauer and Assistant Coach Cameron Rundles. Four of the remaining five student-athletes hail from Illinois while one is from Wisconsin.

LUCKY 13
Head Coach Johnny Tauer is in his 13th season at St. Thomas as the longest tenured head coach among all Summit League programs and among the top 50 in their current role among all DI men's basketball coaches. He leads league head coaches with a .740 winning percentage and is third in career wins (251).

2023-24 Summit League Head Coaches
Head Coach	School	Wins	Pct.
Johnny Tauer	St. Thomas	251	.740
Eric Henderson	South Dakota State	91	.700
David Richman	North Dakota State	179	.603
Paul Sather	North Dakota	331	.586
Marvin Menzies	Kansas City	260	.584
Eric Peterson	South Dakota	18	.450
Jeff Wulbrun	Denver	32	.438
Russell Springmann	Oral Roberts	3	.429
Chris Crutchfield	Omaha	24	.400

Tauer's winning percentage of .740 ranks 13th among active head coaches across all of NCAA with at least 10 years of experience. The only head coaches at their current NCAA DI programs for at least 10 seasons with a higher winning percentage than Tauer are John Calipari (Kentucky), Mark Few (Gonzaga), and Bill Self (Kansas).

BACK FROM 2022-23
St. Thomas returns 10 letter winners and one redshirt freshman (Carter Bjerke, F), along with four newcomers. Among the newcomers is one transfer (Raheem Anthony, G) and three freshmen. Leading the pack is graduate student forward Parker Bjorklund who was named Preseason All-Summit League First Team. Fellow graduate student forward Brooks Allen also returns after starting all 33 games last season and playing in all 69 games for St. Thomas since joining NCAA Division I. Kendall Blue and Ahjany Lee come back for their sophomore seasons after Blue played in all 33 games, with 22 starts, and Lee played in 32 with four starts.

TAKE CARE OF THE BALL
Tauer's teams have historically taken care of the basketball and last season was no different. The Tommies ranked tied for 11th nationally for fewest total turnovers (327) after leading the category in 2021-22. The Purple also tied for 12th for fewest turnovers per game (9.9) and tied for 50th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.30). Of the 14 teams with as few or fewer turnovers per game, only four (Iowa, NC State, Oral Roberts, Toledo) finished with a higher scoring offense than St. Thomas' 74.2 points per game. St. Thomas recorded 10 or fewer turnovers in 21 of 33 games last season and averages 10.5 per game through seven games in 2023-24.

POWER FIVE
The 2023-24 season opener was the third game for St. Thomas against a Power Five opponent as the previous two came last season. The Tommies opened the 2022-23 season at No. 9 Creighton (Big East) in front of a crowd of 17,098, holding a 57-56 lead against the Blue Jays with 9:58 to play before ultimately falling. The first Pac-12 opponent for St. Thomas came during a loss at Utah on Nov. 26. The Tommies face another preseason top 10, Power Five opponent this season Dec. 14 at No. 8 Marquette (Big East).

HITTING FROM DEEP
St. Thomas has been one of the top teams in the country in sinking 3-pointers over the past five seasons (2020-21 COVID shortened season excluded). Since joining NCAA Division I in 2021-22, the Tommies have ranked among the top 47 in the nation each season. The trend began in DIII as St. Thomas finished 2018-19 10th and 2019-20 ninth nationally in total 3-pointers made.

ALL BUSINESS FOR BJORKLUND
Since joining the Tommies off the intramural courts, it's been all business for Parker Bjorklund as he's averaged double-digit scoring in each of his three seasons and leads the team this season with 14.3 points per game. He put in 12.6 points per game during the program's first DI season in 2021-22 on 54.4 percent shooting from the field. Bjorklund is averaging 14.0 points per game through his career on 52.7 percent shooting, one of two Tommies (Raheem Anthony, 51.7%) with a career field goal percentage above .500 (minimum 250 FGA).

He ranked second in the Summit League last season shooting 49.5 percent from the field and finished 13 games shooting above 50 percent while taking at least seven shots in all games. His 15.1 points per game ranked 10th in the Summit League and he's currently fourth among active Summit League student-athletes in career scoring average (14.0 PPG).

Bjorklund currently sits at 893 career points in 64 career games and has 367 career rebounds, eight shy of Brent Longval for 34th all-time at St. Thomas.

SUCCESS ON BOTH SIDES
The Purple were the only Summit League team to rank among the top three in both scoring offense (74.2) and scoring defense (70.2). St. Thomas joined South Dakota State as the only two teams in the league to rank among the top four in both 3-point field goal percentage and 3-point field goal percentage defense.

KEEPING THE DIVISION III PIPELINE
A newcomer to the team in 2023-24 is graduate student guard Raheem Anthony, a transfer from NCAA DIII Saint Mary's University in Winona, Minn. He was a two-time All-American (NABC, D3hoops.com) in 2022-23 after averaging 24.6 points, 9.2 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.5 steals per game, and shooting 54.5 percent from the field. Anthony started all 78 games played in at Saint Mary's and averaged 19.3 points during three games against St. Thomas during the 2019-20 season. He's scored a career-high 41 points twice and currently has 1,494 career points.

St. Thomas has four members of the 1,500-point club, all of which scored the entirety of their points in the Purple and Gray. Anthony would be the first Tommie to reach the 1,500 mark since Karnell James (1993-97) who finished his career with 1,854. Six Tommies have transfered in to the program and ended their careers with at least 1,000 points. He's also at 657 career rebounds, including 620 at Saint Mary's, which ranks 13th at St. Thomas.

Anthony is second on the Tommies with 10.8 points per game and leads with 2.8 assists per game, with at least three assists in six games this season. He scored a season-high 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting with 9 rebounds during a 54-53 win over Idaho State on Nov. 10.

PREP CHAMPIONSHIP PEDIGREE
Five of the Tommies' 15 student-athletes have reached the ultimate pinnacle of their high school prep careers, winning state titles, while COVID brought another imminent title run to a halt. Three others also led their programs to Minnesota State Tournament appearances in Kendall Blue (2018-22) and Courtney Brown, Jr., (2015-19) at East Ridge High School and Adam Tauer (2019-23) at Cretin-Derham Hall.

Carter Bjerke - Wayzata HS
            - 2020-21 Class AAAA MSHSL State Championship - 2021-22 Runner-Ups
Drake Dobbs - Eden Prairie HS
            - 2019-20 28-0 and #10 in the nation (COVID shortened season)
Ryan Dufault - Waseca HS
            - 2020-21 Class AA MSHSL State Championship - Game-winner with 3 seconds left
Ben Nau - Brookfield Central HS
            - 2018-19 WIAA Division I State Championship
Hayden Tibbits - Wayzata HS
            - 2020-21/2022-23 Class AAAA MSHSL State Championship - 2021-22 Runner-Ups
Ahjany Lee - Totino-Grace HS
            - 2021-22 Class AAA MSHSL State Championship

A FRESHMAN FEAT
Redshirt freshman Carter Bjerke scored 14 points Nov. 12 against North Central, setting a career high. In doing so, he became the eighth freshman under Head Coach Johnny Tauer with a 14+ point performance within his first three career games.

2022-23
Kendall Blue: 15 pts vs. St. Francis Brooklyn (3rd career game)
Ahjany Lee: 14 pts vs. Chicago State (2nd career game)
Andrew Rohde: 15 pts vs. Creighton (1st career game)

2020-21
Parker Bjorklund: 15 pts vs. Concordia College (Minn.) (2nd career game)

2019-20
Will Engels: 15 pts vs. Whitman (1st career game)

2018-19
Anders Nelson: 24 pts vs. Emerson (2nd career game)

2017-18
Burt Hedstrom: 15 pts vs. St. Scholastica (3rd career game)

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

Join Us
To reserve your seat to be a part of the Tommies' 2023-24 season, click HERE to view ticketing information and purchase options.

-- St. Thomas Athletics --

Men’s Basketball returns home to host Milwaukee

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Brooks Allen

Raheem Anthony

Carter Bjerke

Parker Bjorklund

Kendall Blue

Courtney Brown, Jr.

Drake Dobbs

Ryan Dufault

Will Engels

Ahjany Lee

Ben Nau

Andrew Rohde

Adam Tauer

Hayden Tibbits

University of St. Thomas Athletics

Men’s Basketball returns home to host Milwaukee

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Brooks Allen

Raheem Anthony

Carter Bjerke

Parker Bjorklund

Kendall Blue

Courtney Brown, Jr.

Drake Dobbs

Ryan Dufault

Will Engels

Ahjany Lee

Ben Nau

Andrew Rohde

Adam Tauer

Hayden Tibbits

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