University of St. Thomas Athletics
Photo by: Andy Kenutis
Gene's Blog: Hoops entertainment to the Max here Thursday
2/9/2023 12:20:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Gene's Blog
College hoops fans are in for a treat Thursday night if they visit Schoenecker Arena to catch the host Tommie men's team facing first-place Oral Roberts. A packed arena with at least one NBA scout is expected for the 7 p.m. tip-off.
Spectators here and those watching via our free video stream will see a young but improving Tommie team (16-10) battle a dynamic Oral Roberts squad. The Golden Eagles are ranked fourth nationally in a poll of men's basketball mid-majors behind only St. Mary's and Gonzaga of the West Coast Conference, and Louisiana.
Coach Johnny Tauer's Tommies have already played road games against Power 6s Creighton and Utah, and faced Oral Roberts recently in Tulsa, a 12-point loss. So the Toms are ready for the atmosphere and the opportunity. The Purple are 10-1 at home, have won three of their last four, and need just one victory to secure a winning season.
St. Thomas guard Andrew Rohde averages 15.6 points (sixth best among D-I freshman) and 3.8 assists (11th most among D-I freshmen). Rohde is the lone D-I newcomer to rank in the top 12 nationally among freshmen in both of those categories.
Rohde also converts at 81 percent at the foul line, and the Tommie team ranks seventh best nationally in free-throw shooting on school-record pace at 79.0 percent. Senior guard Riley Miller is one of only eight D-I players to convert 90 percent or better at the foul line with 80 or more made free throws.
Worth the Price of the Ticket
Thursday's game features a Golden Eagles team that has the Summit League's best player (point guard Max Abmas)… its tallest player (7-foot-5 Connor Vanover)… and arguably the player with the best name (sophomore Sir Isaac Herron).
You can make the case that no opposing player has come onto the St. Thomas campus with a better college hoops resume than the 6-foot Abmas (pronounced ACE-muss). The senior guard, who grew up near Dallas, Texas, scorched the Toms on a 38-point scoring night in his only previous trip to Schoenecker last season, part of an 81-66 ORU victory. In three wins over St. Thomas over the last 13 months, Abmas averaged 22 points, six assists and six rebounds.
A 38-point night isn't breaking news in the NBA, but it's not common in Division I. It's certainly rare from a Tommie defensive perspective. No opposing player since at least the 2000 season has scored that many points against St. Thomas in one men's hoops game. The closest was Cobber Keith Eckhoff, who went for 35 points in a January 2005 matchup. In fact, just only one other opposing player – Omaha's Frankie Fidler, with 33 last week -- has recorded a 30-point game vs. the Purple in the D-I era. Over the last two seasons, the high scoring game for a Tommie is 30 points (Anders Nelson last season, and Brooks Allen this winter).
Abmas has led the 2022-23 Golden Eagles to a 21-4 start, including a 12-0 Summit League record. Last week alone, Oral Roberts went 3-0 in the conference and averaged 93 points a contest and a 34-point winning margin.
Abmas has played in 113 games at ORU with 2,355 points for a 21 ppg clip. He also has 350 career assists, and has converted at 39 percent from 3-point range and 88 percent at the foul line. Abmas helped ORU reach the NCAA tourney Sweet 16 in March of 2021, and led the nation in scoring that season.
Ode to Freddie
St. Thomas' D-I era lets us witness a parade of skilled and athletic players that the Tommie have to matchup up against. A rare D-III guy with D-I skills visited Schoenecker Arena six years ago this week when sophomore Freddie Gillespie helped Carleton hand the Toms a rare double-digit home defeat.
A late bloomer in his hoops career, Gillespie went for 19 points and 11 boards that night, and then that summer transferred up to D-I Baylor. After sitting out a transfer season, the East Ridge High grad contributed with the Bears in 2018-19. He went on to start all 30 games as a fifth-year senior on the Bears' top-10 ranked team in 2019-20. Baylor was No. 5 in the national poll that March when Covid struck and erased the NCAA tournament.
Gillespie went undrafted but had short stints in the NBA with Toronto and Orlando in each of the previous two seasons. He's current playing with a German team in the Euro League.
Onward and Upward
Here's another measure of the progress being made across St. Thomas Athletics from season one of the Division I era to season two: In a five-week stretch from Jan. 6-Feb. 6 last winter, the Toms hit a slump in men's and women's basketball and hockey. They won just three games with one tie in those sports while losing 28 times.
Fast forward to the same five-week span in 2023, and the Tommie hoops and hockey teams won 14 games with one tie against 21 losses.
Across the eight traditional team sports in fall and winter -- Football, Volleyball, and M-W squads in Soccer, Hockey, Basketball -- all eight Tommie teams have improved their won-loss records from 2021-22 to 2022-23.
Those eight sports last year won or tied 47 games throughout their seasons. With four weeks left in the 2022-23 hoops and hockey seasons, St. Thomas is already at 70 wins or ties in those eight sports.
You don't have to be a scholar like Sir Isaac Herron or Sir Isaac Newton to know that the Purple are heading in the right direction in their D-I journey.
--
Spectators here and those watching via our free video stream will see a young but improving Tommie team (16-10) battle a dynamic Oral Roberts squad. The Golden Eagles are ranked fourth nationally in a poll of men's basketball mid-majors behind only St. Mary's and Gonzaga of the West Coast Conference, and Louisiana.
Coach Johnny Tauer's Tommies have already played road games against Power 6s Creighton and Utah, and faced Oral Roberts recently in Tulsa, a 12-point loss. So the Toms are ready for the atmosphere and the opportunity. The Purple are 10-1 at home, have won three of their last four, and need just one victory to secure a winning season.
St. Thomas guard Andrew Rohde averages 15.6 points (sixth best among D-I freshman) and 3.8 assists (11th most among D-I freshmen). Rohde is the lone D-I newcomer to rank in the top 12 nationally among freshmen in both of those categories.
Rohde also converts at 81 percent at the foul line, and the Tommie team ranks seventh best nationally in free-throw shooting on school-record pace at 79.0 percent. Senior guard Riley Miller is one of only eight D-I players to convert 90 percent or better at the foul line with 80 or more made free throws.
Worth the Price of the Ticket
Thursday's game features a Golden Eagles team that has the Summit League's best player (point guard Max Abmas)… its tallest player (7-foot-5 Connor Vanover)… and arguably the player with the best name (sophomore Sir Isaac Herron).
You can make the case that no opposing player has come onto the St. Thomas campus with a better college hoops resume than the 6-foot Abmas (pronounced ACE-muss). The senior guard, who grew up near Dallas, Texas, scorched the Toms on a 38-point scoring night in his only previous trip to Schoenecker last season, part of an 81-66 ORU victory. In three wins over St. Thomas over the last 13 months, Abmas averaged 22 points, six assists and six rebounds.
A 38-point night isn't breaking news in the NBA, but it's not common in Division I. It's certainly rare from a Tommie defensive perspective. No opposing player since at least the 2000 season has scored that many points against St. Thomas in one men's hoops game. The closest was Cobber Keith Eckhoff, who went for 35 points in a January 2005 matchup. In fact, just only one other opposing player – Omaha's Frankie Fidler, with 33 last week -- has recorded a 30-point game vs. the Purple in the D-I era. Over the last two seasons, the high scoring game for a Tommie is 30 points (Anders Nelson last season, and Brooks Allen this winter).
Abmas has led the 2022-23 Golden Eagles to a 21-4 start, including a 12-0 Summit League record. Last week alone, Oral Roberts went 3-0 in the conference and averaged 93 points a contest and a 34-point winning margin.
Abmas has played in 113 games at ORU with 2,355 points for a 21 ppg clip. He also has 350 career assists, and has converted at 39 percent from 3-point range and 88 percent at the foul line. Abmas helped ORU reach the NCAA tourney Sweet 16 in March of 2021, and led the nation in scoring that season.
Ode to Freddie
St. Thomas' D-I era lets us witness a parade of skilled and athletic players that the Tommie have to matchup up against. A rare D-III guy with D-I skills visited Schoenecker Arena six years ago this week when sophomore Freddie Gillespie helped Carleton hand the Toms a rare double-digit home defeat.
A late bloomer in his hoops career, Gillespie went for 19 points and 11 boards that night, and then that summer transferred up to D-I Baylor. After sitting out a transfer season, the East Ridge High grad contributed with the Bears in 2018-19. He went on to start all 30 games as a fifth-year senior on the Bears' top-10 ranked team in 2019-20. Baylor was No. 5 in the national poll that March when Covid struck and erased the NCAA tournament.
Gillespie went undrafted but had short stints in the NBA with Toronto and Orlando in each of the previous two seasons. He's current playing with a German team in the Euro League.
Onward and Upward
Here's another measure of the progress being made across St. Thomas Athletics from season one of the Division I era to season two: In a five-week stretch from Jan. 6-Feb. 6 last winter, the Toms hit a slump in men's and women's basketball and hockey. They won just three games with one tie in those sports while losing 28 times.
Fast forward to the same five-week span in 2023, and the Tommie hoops and hockey teams won 14 games with one tie against 21 losses.
Across the eight traditional team sports in fall and winter -- Football, Volleyball, and M-W squads in Soccer, Hockey, Basketball -- all eight Tommie teams have improved their won-loss records from 2021-22 to 2022-23.
Those eight sports last year won or tied 47 games throughout their seasons. With four weeks left in the 2022-23 hoops and hockey seasons, St. Thomas is already at 70 wins or ties in those eight sports.
You don't have to be a scholar like Sir Isaac Herron or Sir Isaac Newton to know that the Purple are heading in the right direction in their D-I journey.
--
Gene's Blog is a sports column penned by Tommie sports information director Gene McGivern. Gene is working his 29th season at St. Thomas and 35th overall with Twin Cities college athletics teams. He blogs periodically on various topics regarding the Tommies and college sports.
If you have comments or questions, e-mail Gene at ejmcgivern@stthomas.edu
Players Mentioned
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballTommie Men's Basketball Intro Video 2025
Wednesday, November 12
Tommie Men's Basketball: Summit League Tournament Cinematic Recap 2025
Thursday, March 20
Press Conference: Tommie Men's Basketball Postgame vs Kansas City 03-01-25
Sunday, March 02
Press Conference: Tommie Men's Basketball Postgame vs Omaha 02/15/25
Sunday, February 16
