University of St. Thomas Athletics
Photo by: Collin Boyles
Men's Basketball continues climb in season 2 of D-I era
3/10/2023 12:23:00 PM | Men's Basketball
If it seems to you that Tommie Men's Basketball's is winning a lot early in the Division I era, your instincts are correct.
An underdog for sure coming out of non-scholarship Division III, St. Thomas Men's Hoops managed to win 10 games in season one. The Purple followed that up this winter with a 19-victory season.
Picked for eighth place of 10 in this year's conference preseason poll, St. Thomas tied for fourth place in the Summit League. Coach Johnny Tauer's squad took 30-win Oral Roberts to the wire on Monday night, losing 70-65 in the playoff semifinals.
The Purple beat eight of the Summit League opponents at least once. They also took a road victory at 21-win UW-Milwaukee; beat 20-win Troy; and split with 19-win South Dakota State. The Toms also beat an 18-win Merrimack team that won its conference championship.
They played two Power 5 teams on the road: Against nationally-ranked Creighton, a 21-win team thus far, the Purple played the Bluejays even for 30 minutes before losing by 12. The Toms also lost to a 17-win Utah team.
St. Thomas ranked in the top 25 percent of NCAA D-I teams in home-court success with a 12-2 record.
Historical Lens
A quick comparison with other recent reclassifying universities provides more good signs for St. Thomas men's hoops.
Of the 50 universities to reclassify into Division I over the last 25 years, in men's basketball, St. Thomas has the second-best record from season one to season two -- plus-9 wins (10-20 to 19-14).
Stony Brook (2000 and 2001) was plus-11 as it went from six wins in year one to 17 in year two. Longwood (2005 and 2006) also was plus-9 going from one win in year one to 10 wins in season two.
Among those same 50 men's hoops programs, St. Thomas is tied for ninth most victories over those first two seasons at 29. That's especially impressive since the Toms were non-scholarship coming in, and all other programs had some scholarship players to build upon from Division II.
Most MBB Wins in First Two Seasons of D-I
(Newest teams reclassifying since 2000)
42, South Dakota (2009, 2010)
39, Utah Valley (2006, 2007)
39, Incarnate Word (2014, 2015)
37, California Baptist (2019, 2020)
36, North Dakota State (2005, 2006)
35, Alabama A&M (2000, 2001)
34, Bellarmine (2021, 2022)
32, Grand Canyon (2014, 2015)
29, St. Thomas (2022, 2023)
29, Merrimack (2020, 2021)
More Reclassification Talk
St. Thomas is the lone NCAA program to reclassify directly from Division III, although Utah Valley was a junior college and thus faced a six-year reclassifying timeline to full eligibility.
Many teams struggle in the early years moving up into D-I. One-third of these 50 reclassifying teams averaged only eight or fewer wins in each of their first two seasons.
Of these recent reclassifying programs, 45 started this season eligible to reach the 68-team tournament. Half of those have never advanced to the big dance, the other half qualified at least once. Only a handful of programs reached the NCAA tournament in the first three years of becoming eligible.
Of those recent 50 teams reclassifying, only two are no longer Division I members: Savannah State dropped down to Division III in 2019; Morris Brown University eliminated varsity athletics two decades ago shortly after moving into D-I.
Good Company
In its first two seasons of its D-I era, St. Thomas has played five different programs that have reached the NCAA tournament during that span:
Bright Future
The Tommies received strong leadership and play from veterans like Riley Miller, Brooks Allen, Parker Bjorklund and Will Engels. But credit a dynamic freshman class in helping the Purple take a huge step forward in season two.
Freshmen Andrew Rohde, Kendall Blue, Ahjany Lee and Ryan Dufault accounted for 43 percent of the team's minutes and 42 percent of its scoring.
Fun Facts
New Records
St. Thomas set new D-I era records for wins (19), road wins (four), home wins (12); scoring defense (70.4), FG% defense (.455) and 3FG% defense (.336). The Toms also set D-I era bests for scoring margin (plus-4.0); FG% (.447); FT% (.785); made FT (456); RPG (31.6); APG (12.9); and SPG (5.9).
Riley Miller broke the all-time program record for career games played at 127. Miller finished No. 2 in career treys made at 290, including a D-I era record of nine made treys vs. Merrimack.
Here's Johnny
With his 1-1 record this week in the Summit tournament, 12-year head coach Johnny Tauer has an impressive 20-8 career record in March games.
Tauer is on a short list of NCAA men's basketball coaches to average both 20 wins a season and single-digit losses over his 12-year head coaching career – 247-88 (.737).
An underdog for sure coming out of non-scholarship Division III, St. Thomas Men's Hoops managed to win 10 games in season one. The Purple followed that up this winter with a 19-victory season.
Picked for eighth place of 10 in this year's conference preseason poll, St. Thomas tied for fourth place in the Summit League. Coach Johnny Tauer's squad took 30-win Oral Roberts to the wire on Monday night, losing 70-65 in the playoff semifinals.
The Purple beat eight of the Summit League opponents at least once. They also took a road victory at 21-win UW-Milwaukee; beat 20-win Troy; and split with 19-win South Dakota State. The Toms also beat an 18-win Merrimack team that won its conference championship.
They played two Power 5 teams on the road: Against nationally-ranked Creighton, a 21-win team thus far, the Purple played the Bluejays even for 30 minutes before losing by 12. The Toms also lost to a 17-win Utah team.
St. Thomas ranked in the top 25 percent of NCAA D-I teams in home-court success with a 12-2 record.
Historical Lens
A quick comparison with other recent reclassifying universities provides more good signs for St. Thomas men's hoops.
Of the 50 universities to reclassify into Division I over the last 25 years, in men's basketball, St. Thomas has the second-best record from season one to season two -- plus-9 wins (10-20 to 19-14).
Stony Brook (2000 and 2001) was plus-11 as it went from six wins in year one to 17 in year two. Longwood (2005 and 2006) also was plus-9 going from one win in year one to 10 wins in season two.
Among those same 50 men's hoops programs, St. Thomas is tied for ninth most victories over those first two seasons at 29. That's especially impressive since the Toms were non-scholarship coming in, and all other programs had some scholarship players to build upon from Division II.
Most MBB Wins in First Two Seasons of D-I
(Newest teams reclassifying since 2000)
42, South Dakota (2009, 2010)
39, Utah Valley (2006, 2007)
39, Incarnate Word (2014, 2015)
37, California Baptist (2019, 2020)
36, North Dakota State (2005, 2006)
35, Alabama A&M (2000, 2001)
34, Bellarmine (2021, 2022)
32, Grand Canyon (2014, 2015)
29, St. Thomas (2022, 2023)
29, Merrimack (2020, 2021)
More Reclassification Talk
St. Thomas is the lone NCAA program to reclassify directly from Division III, although Utah Valley was a junior college and thus faced a six-year reclassifying timeline to full eligibility.
Many teams struggle in the early years moving up into D-I. One-third of these 50 reclassifying teams averaged only eight or fewer wins in each of their first two seasons.
Of these recent reclassifying programs, 45 started this season eligible to reach the 68-team tournament. Half of those have never advanced to the big dance, the other half qualified at least once. Only a handful of programs reached the NCAA tournament in the first three years of becoming eligible.
Of those recent 50 teams reclassifying, only two are no longer Division I members: Savannah State dropped down to Division III in 2019; Morris Brown University eliminated varsity athletics two decades ago shortly after moving into D-I.
Good Company
In its first two seasons of its D-I era, St. Thomas has played five different programs that have reached the NCAA tournament during that span:
- The Tommies lost by 10 at Drake last season, and after a near miss last March, Drake made this year's 68-team NCAA field.
- St. Thomas also lost by 12 this season at Creighton, a predicted 6-seed in this year's tournament.
- The Toms also played Montana State both seasons, a qualifier into the big dance in March 2022 and March 2023.
- They played South Dakota State twice last season and Oral Roberts three times this season, and those teams represented the Summit League at the national tourney in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
Bright Future
The Tommies received strong leadership and play from veterans like Riley Miller, Brooks Allen, Parker Bjorklund and Will Engels. But credit a dynamic freshman class in helping the Purple take a huge step forward in season two.
Freshmen Andrew Rohde, Kendall Blue, Ahjany Lee and Ryan Dufault accounted for 43 percent of the team's minutes and 42 percent of its scoring.
Fun Facts
- Rohde was named Summit League Freshman of the Year. He's one of 25 finalists – and one of five from non-Power 6 teams -- for the National Freshman of the Year award. Over his last five games he averaged 24 ppg, and his 17.1 season scoring clip was the best by a Tommie men's player in 17 seasons. He became the first Tommie men's hoops freshman to surpass 500 points.
- St. Thomas broke its all-time program record for season free-throw percentage in 2021-22 at .758. The Tommies broke that record this winter by converting .785 at the line, eighth best in Division I.
- St. Thomas recorded the best record this season of all 11 current reclassifying teams.
- Nine of the Toms' 13 non-conference opponents finished with a winning record.
- Comparing scores can be misleading, but in Oral Roberts' 21-0 run against Summit League opponents, it averaged just a six-point winning margin in two games against Omaha, and just an eight-point margin in three wins vs. the Tommies. The next closest team was North Dakota, which lost three times by a 10-point average. Oral Roberts beat North Dakota State three times by a 21-point average clip, and beat South Dakota State twice by a 21-point average.
- The Toms had just one three-game losing streak, a January's run of three road games over 10 days
- In 23 of the 34 games, a freshman led the Toms in scoring or rebounding
New Records
St. Thomas set new D-I era records for wins (19), road wins (four), home wins (12); scoring defense (70.4), FG% defense (.455) and 3FG% defense (.336). The Toms also set D-I era bests for scoring margin (plus-4.0); FG% (.447); FT% (.785); made FT (456); RPG (31.6); APG (12.9); and SPG (5.9).
Riley Miller broke the all-time program record for career games played at 127. Miller finished No. 2 in career treys made at 290, including a D-I era record of nine made treys vs. Merrimack.
Here's Johnny
With his 1-1 record this week in the Summit tournament, 12-year head coach Johnny Tauer has an impressive 20-8 career record in March games.
Tauer is on a short list of NCAA men's basketball coaches to average both 20 wins a season and single-digit losses over his 12-year head coaching career – 247-88 (.737).
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