Summit League Championship on the line vs No. 1 seed Omaha

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- St. Thomas men's basketball's 2024-25 season culminates Sunday night as it faces No. 1 seed Omaha in the Summit League Championship title game in the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls, S.D.

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SERIES HISTORY | OMAHA
St. Thomas has won six of eight games all-time against Omaha following a regular season split, the home team winning each game. The Tommies grabbed sole possession of first place within the Summit League standings following the win on Feb. 15, but fell during its ensuing road trip to allow the Mavericks to take back the top spot.

Miles Barnstable averaged 15.5 points and Kendall Blue scored 14.0 points in two games against UNO this season. Blue totaled 18 points with 14 from Barnstable during the loss in Omaha, Neb., while Drake Dobbs led all scorers during the win in St. Paul, Minn., with 23 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-4 from 3-point range. Nolan Minessale added 15 points with five assists, two blocks, three rebounds and on steal in the win.

SUMMIT LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY
The Tommies are 4-2 all-time in the Summit League Championships since making its first appearance in 2022-23. St. Thomas recorded a win during its first game in the tournament, 63-55 over Western Illinois during the quarterfinal round. The Tommies also won its first game of the 2023-24 championships, taking down North Dakota State (who had advanced to the previous five title games) 68-58. St. Thomas is the only team to advance to the semifinal round in each of the past three seasons, while the Tommies were knocked out by the No. 1 seed and eventual tournament champion both times (70-65 vs Oral Roberts in 2022-23, 59-49 vs South Dakota State in 2023-24).

ALL-LEAGUE, DEFENSIVE AND NEWCOMER
Graduate student Drake Dobbs and junior Miles Barnstable were named to the 2025 All-Summit League Teams. Barnstable became the second Tommie selected All-League First Team and the program's third straight selection to the All-Newcomer Team. Dobbs was named All-League Second Team and is the program's first selection to the All-Defensive Team. St. Thomas has featured at least two selections to the All-League First or Second Teams over the past three seasons. Barnstable leads the Tommies with 14.8 points per game and has scored the program's second most points (487) in a season since joining DI. Dobbs is fifth nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.47), second in the Summit League in free throw percentage (.872), and leads the Tommie defense as a primary on-ball defender.

BACK-TO-BACK 20 WINS/BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK 19 WINS
St. Thomas has recorded 20 wins for the second consecutive season, joining only Grand Canyon as teams since 2000 to do so in years 3 and 4 of their transition to Division I. The Tommies join SDSU as the only Summit League teams with back-to-back 20-win seasons since 2021-22 and the Purple are the only transition team with three consecutive 19+ win seasons. The Purple and UC Irvine are the only two programs in DI to improve its win total with a minimum of 19 wins since 2022-23. Overall, St. Thomas is one of 12 teams in the country to improve its winning percentage over the past four seasons (min. 60 wins).

MAKING IT A REGULAR THING
The regular season came to a close following St. Thomas' win over Kansas City, marking the end of the best stretch by a Summit League team during the regular season over the past three years. The Tommies have compiled 59 regular season wins since the start of the 2022-23 season, two more than South Dakota State. Schoenecker Arena has featured 38 of those 59 wins, also marking the most by a Summit League team over that span.

A PERFECT SCHOENECKER SEND-OFF
St. Thomas closed its regular season with a 65-59 win over Kansas City, marking the final men's basketball game played in Schoenecker Arena. The Tommies finished its final season at home 14-0, extending DI's longest active home winning streak to 18 games, which is tied with St. John's (NY). The streak is the second longest for the program under Johnny Tauer, previously winning 32 games between Feb. 2012 and Feb. 2014. The Tommies have now won 38 of 42 home games over the past three seasons, the 15th highest winning percentage nationally over that span. Since 2021-22, St. Thomas has defeated its DI opponents at home by an average of 14.8 points per win. The Tommies are one of eight teams nationally that are undefeated at home this season. The 2023-24 season featured 12 undefeated home teams nationally, 10 in 2022-23, and 15 in 2021-22.

FIGHTING TO THE FINALS
On the biggest stage so far of the short Division I era, Kendall Blue surpassed 1,000 career points to lift No. 2 seed St. Thomas to an 85-69 win over No. 6 North Dakota. Blue scored a team-high 21 points, his fourth 20-point game of the season, and reached the career milestone as part of a second-half separation over UND. St. Thomas overcame a sluggish start, shooting 36.7 percent in the first half, to shoot 62.5 percent over the final 20 minutes. The Tommies forced a DI era best 24 turnovers from the Fighting Hawks, which led to 40 points for the Purple, also the most points off turnovers scored in the DI era. The Tommies have now advanced to six conference tournament championship games in 14 seasons under Johnny Tauer.

A MEMBER OF THE 1,000-POINT/375-REBOUND CLUB
Junior Kendall Blue became the second player in the program's short DI history to reach the mark while scoring all 1,000 in the Purple and Gray. Blue is the 37th Tommie to score at least 1,000 points all at St. Thomas while becoming the 42nd in program history to reach 1,000 career collegiate points overall. He also become the 20th Tommie in program history to record 1,000 career points and 375 rebounds all at St. Thomas. Blue's 375th career rebound came Feb. 27, 2025 against North Dakota, the 40th Tommie all-time to record as many career collegiate rebounds.

POLL TOMS
For the first time in the Division I era, St. Thomas landed on the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll, making its debut at No. 25 on Jan. 6, 2025. The Tommies reached as high as No. 19 on Jan. 20. The Purple received 18 votes in this week's Mid-Major Top 25 Poll, one of two Summit League teams to receive votes (Omaha, 20).

D 3-0
Miles Barnstable joined a short list of Tommies to score at least 30 points since joining the DI ranks. He became just the fifth player to score as many points in a game, joining Parker Bjorklund (32 vs NDSU '23-24), Raheem Anthony (32 vs UND '23-24), Anders Nelson (30 at St. Francis Brooklyn '21-22) and Brooks Allen (30 at SDSU '22-23). All five began their collegiate careers in the Division III ranks, Anthony at St. Mary's (MN) and Barnstable at UW-Whitewater with the other three playing for St. Thomas before the DI merger. The performance was the fourth most points in a game in the Summit League this season.

RARE COMPANY IN THE PURPLE AND GRAY
For just the third time since St. Thomas joined the Summit League, a Tommie was featured as the Peak Performer of the Week. Miles Barnstable claimed co-honors, splitting with South Dakota State's Oscar Cluff, after averaging 25.0 points and leading the Purple to a 2-0 road weekend to begin league play. He began the week with 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting in a win at North Dakota State before dropping season highs of 30 points and five rebounds at North Dakota. The only other Tommies to earn the league's weekly honor were Riley Miller and Parker Bjorklund, both during the 2022-23 season.

ROLLIN' BY DRAKE
Grad student Drake Dobbs has been on a hot streak capping a string of three straight 20-point games versus Omaha (2/25/25) and scoring double figures in 11 of the last 18 games. He was the first Tommie to record a three-game streak with at least 20 points since Andrew Rohde (five-game streak) in 2022-23 and Riley Miller (three-game streak) in 2021-22. Dobbs has multiple games with at least four assists and no turnovers during league play, including the most assists by a Tommie against a DI opponent (9 vs South Dakota). He has three career games with at least four assists, no turnovers and double-digit points.

Prior to his three-game scoring streak, Dobbs set a career high of 19 points Dec. 29 at UC Riverside. Since then, he set a career high of 23 points twice and recorded three straight games with multiple 3-pointers for the first time this season and third time in his career.

In addition to his scoring prowess, Dobbs has 91 assists and 24 turnovers for a 3.79 assist-to-turnover ratio over the last 23 games and currently ranks sixth nationally in the category (3.33).

ROAD CHALLENGES
Outside of St. Thomas' perfect 14-0 home record overall, three of the team's four losses in Summit League play have come to the league's next three highest winning percentage teams at home. The Tommies dropped their first league game Jan. 23 at Omaha before falling Feb. 6 at South Dakota State and Feb. 19 at South Dakota, who are a combined 38-5 at home this season.

BACK TO 24
The Tommies extended its DI single-season record with 24 wins following its semifinal win over North Dakota. It's the sixth season of 14 under Head Coach Johnny Tauer with as many wins and the 11th with at least 19. The Tommies' 12 wins in Summit League play also extended a single season record after totaling nine in each of the past two seasons.

A TRUE (FRESHMAN) GAME OF THE ERA
Nolan Minessale powered a near comeback during an 81-79 overtime loss at UC Riverside on Dec. 29, 2024. The Brookfield, Wis., native scored 27 points on 9-of-16 shooting and 7-of-9 from the free throw line, tying for the most points in a game by a Tommie true freshman during the DI era. Andrew Rohde previously scored 27 points Feb. 25, 2023, at North Dakota. It is the eighth highest scoring game by a Tommie overall in the DI era and the most since Raheem Anthony scored 32 against UND on Jan. 27, 2024, two days after Parker Bjorklund also scored 32 points at home against NDSU.

TYING A DIVISION I BEST SIX STRAIGHT
St. Thomas extended its winning streak to a DI program best six games with a set of dominant victories heading into the Christmas break. The Tommies came away with a dominant 93-68 victory over Bowling Green, fueled by a stellar first-half defensive performance, balanced scoring from four players in double figures, and a team-best 23 points from Miles Barnstable. The Tommies closed out their 2024 home schedule with two victories following a gritty 77-71 win over Western Michigan, led by Ben Nau's career-high 22 points and a pivotal 16-0 second-half run. They capped off the calendar-ending weekend with a commanding 100-61 triumph over Crown College, where freshman Ryan Lafferty shined with a record-setting double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds. The Purple shot above 45.8 percent with 10 or fewer turnovers in five of the last six wins, including six turnovers or fewer in three of the last five wins.

CLIMBING THE NET RANKINGS
The Tommies are currently 118 in the NET Rankings, shy of a program-best 97, through games of March 3. St. Thomas is the highest ranked Summit League team (South Dakota State, 119/North Dakota State, 130). Denver enters the game 300 in the rankings.

Through games of March 4, St. Thomas ranked ahead of nine Power Five programs in the NET Rankings: ACC - 6, Big East - 2, Big 12 - 0, Big Ten - 0, SEC - 0.

St. Thomas was initially ranked 133 in the NET Rankings on Dec. 1, 2024, before jumping to 99, its first time ever among the top 100, following its win over Northern Colorado on Dec. 4 and ahead of its loss at UC Riverside on Dec. 29. The Tommies' 99 ranking marks just the second transition team to top the 100 ranking since 2000, joining Grand Canyon from the 2015-16 season when it finished the season 88.

KEN POM RANKINGS
St. Thomas ranked a program best 110 in the Ken Pom Rankings after winning 10 of 11 games through games of Jan. 11. The Tommies are currently 124 and rank 64th nationally in in adjusted offensive efficiency, which includes points scored per 100 possessions. Denver is ranked 305 through games of March 3.

Through games of March 3, the Tommies ranked ahead of seven Power Five schools in the Ken Pom Rankings: ACC - 4, Big East - 2, Big 12 - 0, Big Ten - 0, SEC - 0.

HIGHEST RANKED TEAM DEFEATED
St. Thomas' win over North Dakota State on Jan. 2 marked the highest ranked team the Purple have beat in both the NET and Ken Pom Rankings. NDSU entered the Summit League opener ranked 90 in the NET and 112 in the Ken Pom, compared to St. Thomas ranked 109 in the NET and 123 in the Ken Pom entering the game.

DEPTH. BALANCE. UNSELFISHNESS.
St. Thomas is one of three teams (George Washington, Missouri) in the country to feature eight different leading scorers in a game this season. Eight of the Tommies' nine players who have played in all 31 games this season have led in scoring at least once this season. Miles Barnstable has led St. Thomas 12 times, followed by Nolan Minessale five times, Drake Dobbs and Kendall Blue four times, Ben Nau three times, and Ben Oosterbaan twice. Carter Bjerke and Rich Byhre have led in scoring once. The Tommies are the only Summit League team with four players averaging at least 11 points per game and with five players averaging at least 9 points per game.

TRANSITION NEARING COMPLETION
St. Thomas has produced one of the most successful transitions to Division I through its first four seasons. With the win over Denver, St. Thomas has the second most wins by a transition team through its first four seasons (73), trailing only Grand Canyon with 81. The Purple are the only transition team with three consecutive 19-win seasons, became the second team with back-to-back 20-win seasons in years 3 and 4 (Grand Canyon) and the fourth transition team overall with 23 wins in a season since 2000. Among all transition teams since 2000, St. Thomas recorded the largest Ken Pom Ranking and NET Ranking improvements from the end of year one through year four, jumping 181 spots in the KP and 196 in the NET through four seasons.

GOING ON THE OFFENSIVE
The Toms have been pouring on points all season, including at least 86 points in 15 of 22 wins, and is second in the Summit League with 83.4 points per game. St. Thomas' scoring average is 14th nationally and is the most for the program since Head Coach Johnny Tauer took over in 2011.

The league's most efficient field goal shooting team is powering the offense, shooting 49.5 percent overall to lead the league while the team's 39.1 percent shooting from long range trails only North Dakota State.

AMONG THE BEST IN THE NATION
St. Thomas continues to rank among the best in the country in several stats, landing among the top 20 programs in 10 categories and top 10 in four. St. Thomas and Duke are the only teams in the country to rank among the top 20 in 2-point field goal percentage, 3-point field goal percentage and free throw percentage.

Category	Total	Rank
Effective FG Pct.	.585	2nd
FG Pct.	.495	t-8th
2-Pt. FG Pct.	.582	8th
3FG Pct.	.391	8th
Assist/Turnover Ratio	1.62	14th
Scoring Offense	83.4	14th
Turnovers/Game	9.6	t-15th
3FG/Game	10.5	t-13th
FT Pct.	.785	t-16th
Turnover Margin	3.8	t-15th

GOODBYE, SCHOENECKER ARENA
Tommie Basketball played its final game at Schoenecker Arena for a 65-59 win over Kansas City on March 1. Schoenecker Arena has featured 193 men's basketball contests, in which the Tommies have gone 163-30 in those games and 39-4 at home over the past 43 games, including 18 straight wins (tied for longest active streak in DI with St. John's (NY)) for the second longest home winning streak at Schoenecker Arena, previously winning 32 straight between Feb. 11, 2012 and Feb. 8, 2014. The Tommies are the only Summit League team with 12-win seasons at home over each of the past three seasons.

Through its home games during the DI era, St. Thomas has won its home games by an average margin of 21.4 points, including a margin of 14.8 points against DI opponents. Eleven of the program's 30 home wins against DI opponents since that time have been by more than 20 points while just nine were decided by fewer than 10 points.

SHOOTING 60
St. Thomas set season highs in field goal percentage in a half during the Dec. 4 win at Northern Colorado, opening the game shooting a season best 63.3 percent before topping that at 65.4 percent to close the final 20 minutes. The Tommies have now shot over 60 percent in a half 11 times this season, going 9-0 in those games.

The Purple's 64.3 percent shooting overall against the Bears set a new Division I single-game record, hitting at least 60 percent shooting in seven games since 2021-22. St. Thomas shot above 60 percent during its road win at Green Bay and held a previous record of 63.3 percent on Nov. 11, 2022, against Chicago State.

DOBBS BACK HOME
With St. Thomas serving as the most unique story in college basketball, it's only fitting graduate student Drake Dobbs is closing out his unique path as a part of the 2024-25 Tommie squad. The guard from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, was a regarded high school recruit as a senior at Eden Prairie High School. During his senior season, Dobbs led EPHS to a perfect 28-0 record and ranked #10 nationally before COVID shortened the season. He led his team to a road win over nationally ranked Minnehaha Academy and future NBA draft picks Jalen Suggs and Chet Holmgren. Dobbs was a Minnesota Mr. Basketball top five finalist, a McDonald's All-America nominee, an all-metro first team selection (alongside Suggs, Holmgren and Dawson Garcia), and the all-time leading scorer at EPHS with over 2,000 points.

Dobbs committed to Liberty University and played 39 games (including a NCAA Tournament First Round versus Oklahoma State) with two starts before transferring in the middle of the 2021-22 season to St. Thomas. Dobbs played in 11 games in 2022-23 before starting all 33 games as a senior. He set the tone as the Tommies' staple in the backcourt last season (playing a team-high 30.3 minutes per game), consistently drawing the opponent's top offensive threat while also directing the St. Thomas offense (3.28 assist-to-turnover ratio).

THE DIII PIPELINE
After the departure of three former NCAA Division III athletes (Brooks Allen, Raheem Anthony, Parker Bjorklund), St. Thomas brought in another DIII product in junior Miles Barnstable from University of Wisconsin - Whitewater. Barnstable played two seasons with the Warhawks (2022-24) where he was a 2023-24 NABC All-District Second Team and two-time WIAC All-Conference First Team selection. He was named the WIAC and WBCA Newcomer of the Year and to the D3hoops.com All-Region Third Team after leading UW-Whitewater to a Final Four run, upsetting five ranked teams along the way, while scoring 22 points per game. During his Tommie debut, Barnstable led St. Thomas with 16 points in 16 minutes. He followed with 23 points on 6-of-11 shooting in the win at Green Bay and leads the team in scoring (13.3 ppg). Barnstable scored his 1,000th career collegiate point Nov. 15, 2024, versus St. Norbert.

RETURN OF THE LONG BALL
St. Thomas returns four of its top five 3-point shooters from last season as the team's top seven scorers all made at least 35 3-pointers on the season. This season, Carter Bjerke is again leading with 72 3-pointers on 42.4 percent shooting. He and Ben Nau made the team's most in a game this season at six each. Five Tommies have at least 43 3-pointers made this season while all but one of those are shooting at least 42.2 percent from long range.

St. Thomas is second in the Summit League in 3-point shooting during conference play at 39.1 percent and with 10.3 3-pointers per game. Nationally, St. Thomas ranks eighth in 3-point field goal percentage and tied for 13th in 3-pointers per game.

The Tommies have made a 3-point field goal in all 129 games of the DI era.

TAKE CARE OF THE BALL
Tauer's teams have historically taken care of the basketball and the first four seasons of DI play is no different. The Tommies finished tied for ninth nationally in fewest turnovers per game (9.2) last season after ranking tied for 11th nationally in the fewest total turnovers (327) in 2022-23 and leading the category in 2021-22. St. Thomas is one of seven teams nationally to record fewer than 10.0 turnovers per game in each of the past three seasons. This season, Auburn, Duke, Gonzaga and St. Thomas are the only teams to rank among the top 15 in scoring offense and turnovers per game nationally.

Currently, St. Thomas ranks tied for 15th nationally with 9.6 turnovers per game. The Tommies are averaging 8.2 turnovers per game over the past 24 games, including six games with five or fewer turnovers. Entering 2024-25, the Purple had recorded five or fewer turnovers in 10 games since 2021-22.

SMOOTH TRANSITION
St. Thomas is one of nine teams currently making the transition into NCAA Division I. Of those nine teams, the Tommies are the only one making the jump directly from the Division III ranks (while all 47 teams to transition to Division I since 2001 came from Division II). Among the current transitioning teams, St. Thomas leads all in wins, Ken Pom, and NET Rankings. St. Thomas joined Tarleton State are one of two teams since 2001 to transition to Division I that improved its win total in each of its first four seasons. 2023-24's 20-win season was just the third for a transitioning team during its third year and the 24-win season in 2024-25 is the third most by a team in a single season during its transition since 2000 (Grand Canyon, 27/Tarleton State, 25), while St. Thomas is the only transitioning team to win 19 games in three consecutive seasons and the second with 20-win seasons in years 3 and 4, joining Grand Canyon. St. Thomas' 73 cumulative wins through the transition period is second most by a transition team since 2000 (Grand Canyon, 81).

In addition to its win total, the Tommies saw their Ken Pom and NET Rankings rise in each of the past four seasons. The Toms' current Ken Pom and NET Rankings are the highest for a transition team during its fourth season. The Tommies' 99 NET Ranking prior to the Montana win this season marked just the second time a transitioning team has hit double digit marks in the NET Ranking (Grand Canyon '15-16).

Johnny Tauer is one of four head coaches currently transitioning to Division I coaching at their alma mater. He is also one of eight DI head coaches in their first head coach stint, coaching at their alma mater, and a member of their athletics hall of fame. Tauer is the second longest tenured (14 seasons) among the eight, trailing only LeVelle Moton of NC Central (16 seasons).

A WINNING TRADITION
Winning has been the tradition at St. Thomas with the trend continuing under Head Coach Johnny Tauer. Since 2011, the Tommies have finished with nine 20-win seasons, 11 19-win seasons and 12 nine-win conference seasons. The only seasons to not win 19 games or nine conference games included the COVID season and the 2021-22 inaugural DI season.

Tauer has averaged 20.5 wins per season at St. Thomas and became the fastest coach in program history to reach 250 career wins, doing so in 337 career games. He is one of 17 active head coaches among all of NCAA with at least 250 wins and a .730 winning percentage at any program, and one of seven active among all of NCAA with both at one program.

SUSTAINED EXCELLENCE
Head Coach Johnny Tauer's excellence within the Tommie Men's Basketball program dates back to his days as an Academic All-American that led to his induction to the St. Thomas Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001. As a student-athlete from 1991-95, Tauer was an All-MIAC player, first team All-West Region, and as a senior led the 1994-95 Toms to a school-record 27-0 start, including an MIAC Championship with an unprecedented 20-0 record. He helped the Toms to NCAA DIII Tournament berths in 1992-93, 1993-94, and 1994-95, including a run to the Final Four in 1993-94. Tauer ranks 25th in career scoring (1,219 points) and 23rd in career rebounding (482) at St. Thomas and was the school 3-point leader until 1999-2000.

After earning master's and PhD degrees at Wisconsin, Tauer joined the Tommie Men's Basketball coaching staff as an assistant coach and ran the St. Thomas defense for two seasons (2001-03) and also directed the Tommies' offensive sets that had consistently ranked among the best in NCAA basketball in overall offensive efficiency, field-goal percentage, 3-point proficiency, fewest turnovers, and assist-to-turnover ratio. With Tauer serving as an assistant, the Toms won the 2010-11 DIII National Championship title, made a run to the 2008-09 Final Four, and totaled seven DIII National Tournament runs.

With the retirement of longtime head coach Steve Fritz in 2011, Tauer took over the program as just the third head coach for the program since 1954 and continued its storied tradition with another national title in 2015-16, a Final Four run in 2012-13, and eight DIII National Tournament appearances.

As a student-athlete, assistant coach, and head coach at St. Thomas, Tauer has helped the Tommies to 623 wins overall in 29 seasons, averaging out to over 20 wins per season. He has been involved in 819 games combined with 705 coming as a coach along with 19 conference titles, 15 national tournament appearances, three Final Fours, and two national championships with the Purple and Gray.

FOLLOW ALONG
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-- St. Thomas Athletics --

Summit League Championship on the line vs No. 1 seed Omaha

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Players Mentioned

Brooks Allen

Raheem Anthony

Miles Barnstable

Carter Bjerke

Parker Bjorklund

Kendall Blue

Rich Byhre

Drake Dobbs

Ryan Lafferty

Nolan Minessale

Ben Nau

Ben Oosterbaan

University of St. Thomas Athletics