University of St. Thomas Athletics

Program Overview

Tommie Men's Basketball

  • Third most all-time wins among all Division III programs
  • John Tauer and Steve Fritz named National Coach of the Year three times since 2011
  • 2 NCAA DIII championships (2011, 2016)
  • 4 NCAA Division III Final Fours
  • 47 MIAC Championships (34 regular-season)
  • 21 consecutive MIAC playoff appearances (league hoops record)
  • 4 30-win seasons through 2020
  • 14 NCAA DIII playoff appearances
  • 14 MIAC championships through 2020
  • 8 D3Hoops.com All-America honors (2002-2021)
  • 6 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans
  • 10 of the 31 MIAC Player of the Year honors
  • 16 of the 31 MIAC Coach of the Year honors

In fall 2021 St. Thomas becomes the first institution to make a direct move in all sports from NCAA D-III into D-I athletics.

Tommie Men's Basketball is one of 18 sports that will compete in the Summit League. St. Thomas teams will also compete in the Pioneer Football League; the WCHA Women’s Hockey league; and the Central Collegiate Hockey Association for men’s hockey. 

John Tauer starts his 11th season as head coach in 2021-22, and he's averaed a 23-5 record over his first nine full seasons. His head coach resume -- and 218-50 overall record (.813) -- includes winning the 2016 NCAA championship and making one other Final Four appearance.

A St. Paul native, Tauer is starting his 26th season affiliated with St. Thomas hoops as a player, assistant coach and head coach, and he was part of D-III Final Fours in all three of those roles. A Psychology professor, Tauer is believed to be the only current D-I head hoops coach who holds a PhD and also teaches in the classroom. 



Division III Era

The Tommies, who started playing an official varsity intercollegiate basketball schedule in 1904, ranked third among NCAA Division III schools in all-time victories with 1,722 through 112 seasons.

St. Thomas won its first national championship in March 2011 and accomplished the rare feat again in 2016. In fact, St. Thomas is the lone NCAA institution – in D-I, II or III -- to win a team national championship in each of the sports of men’s and women’s basketball, softball, baseball and volleyball.

The Toms have made 20 NCAA playoff trips over the past 31 seasons, including Division III Final Four trips in 1994, 2011, 2013, and 2016. The Toms went 24-8 in DIII NCAA playoffs over their last 12 seasons as a member, including a 9-0 home record. The program’s all-time NCAA playoff record is 33-18.

St. Thomas also took eight trips to Kansas City for the NAIA National Tournament from 1949-1974, with a 5-8 record.

St. Thomas won an unprecedented 12 consecutive solo or shared conference regular-season championships from 2005-06 through 2016-17.

In all, St. Thomas won 34 conference regular-season and 13 conference playoff titles while a member of the MIAC. St. Thomas reached the conference playoffs 33 times in the 36-year history of the format, and its all-time record in the event was 37-20, including a 34-10 on-campus record. UST has a league-best 13 playoff crowns, including titles in eight of their last 15 years, and has a record streak of consecutive MIAC playoff berths at 21 appearances.

The program’s first national championship came during 2010-11. Those Tommies capped off a 30-3 season and a Division III championship with a record 24-point victory over Wooster (Ohio) in the national final. Former coach Steve Fritz was three weeks shy of his 62nd birthday when he guided the Tommies to the championship and became the oldest coach to win a Division III men's basketball crown. Fritz swept the three Division III National Coach of the Year awards for 2010-11.

After the season, Coach Fritz announced his plans to retire from coaching after 40 seasons, including his last 31 as the University of St. Thomas men's basketball head coach.

In 31 years as head coach, Fritz’ compiled a career record of 594-246 (.707 win%). In January 2004, he became the school's all-time leader in basketball coaching wins. He ranks third all-time among MIAC coaches in victories, and at retirement was in the top 10 among active Division III mentors.

Under Fritz, St. Thomas had been the most consistently successful team in the MIAC with just one losing season in 31 years.
 
New Era

John Tauer was named interim head coach in 2011 after 11 years as an assistant coach at UST. Tauer was an All-MIAC and Academic All-America Tommie player under Fritz in the 1990s and was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001. He led UST to a share of the MIAC championship and a 22-7 record in 2011 to capture the job on a full-time basis.

Twice named a Division III National Coach of the Year -- in 2013 by Basketball Times, and in 2016 by the National Basketball Coaches' Association and by D3 News – Tauer also has received three West Region and four MIAC Coach of the Year Awards.

Among Division III men's coaches, he was the second fastest in history to 100 victories and is believed to have won more games in his first five seasons than any coach in Division III history.

Tauer’s first nine teams have compiled a 211-50 overall mark (81-percent win clip). That includes a 159-32 record against conference opponents (.832), an 8-for-9 run in MIAC regular-season championships, and a 23-12 postseason record.

He’s the first MIAC coach to sweep conference and playoff championships in each of his first two seasons as head coach. He’s also the lone conference individual -- and one of a small number of coaches nationally -- to have played in, been an assistant coach, and been a head coach at the Division III Final Four. In addition, he is the first MIAC coach in any sport to win regular-season titles in each of his first six seasons.

Tauer is just the third head coach for St. Thomas men’s basketball since 1954. He’s continued an impressive tradition that has the Tommies ranked No. 3 among all 400-plus Division III programs in all-time victories. Going into 2020-21, the top three D-III programs for all-time victories are Wittenberg (Ohio) (1,789), Wooster (Ohio) (1,744) and St. Thomas (1,715).  

In their last 15 seasons of DIII, St. Thomas has won two national titles (2011, 2016) and had two other top-five NCAA finishes (2009, 2013); won an unprecedented 12 consecutive MIAC championships, made 12 consecutive NCAA appearances, has an overall record of 364-73 (.833 win %) and a conference regular-season record of 260-40 (.867 win %).

Over the final 12 seasons in Division III, St. Thomas' winning percentage ranks near the top, with a 274-58 record (.825 win %), including a 221-39 slate against conference opposition.

Tauer has spent 24 seasons with Tommie basketball, including the last 20 in coaching. During that time, he has directed the Tommies' offense which has consistently ranked among the best in NCAA basketball in field-goal percentage, 3-point proficiency, fewest turnovers, assist-to-turnover ratio, and offensive efficiency.

Tauer was a player on the 1994-95 Tommie squad that made MIAC history as the first 20-0 conference finisher. That team started the season with a conference-record 27-game win streak and finished 27-1.

Beginning in Fall 2021, Tommie basketball will compete in the Summit League Conference, a midwestern-based Division I conference, following a historic jump from Division III in July 2021.

More Recent Highlights

The 2004-05 Tommies played an exhibition game at Williams Arena against the Division I Minnesota Gophers.

In both 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08, the Tommies won both the MIAC regular-season and postseason crowns and advanced to the NCAA playoffs. Center Isaac Rosefelt became the first MIAC player to become a two-time first-team All-American by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). Rosefelt has gone on to a long professional basketball career in Israel, where he has dual citizenship.

The 2007-08 Tommies stunned Division II power Winona State in overtime in perhaps the biggest upset by an MIAC team in the last 40 seasons. St. Thomas returned its top 10 players from that team which finished 23-5 and swept the conference regular-season and playoff titles. 

The 2008-09 Tommies finished a game short of reaching the Division III Final Four while compiling a school-record best 30 wins and No. 1 national ranking. Fritz was named the Region Coach of the Year by D3hoops.com.

In 2010-11, the Tommies defeated defending national champions UW Stevens Point in the Sweet 16 and Augustana (Ill.) to advance to the Final Four for the first time since Tauer was a junior in college. The Tommies beat Middlebury and Wooster to cap off an amazing run defeating four top 10 ranked teams in the process.

In 2013, the Tommies returned to the Division III Final Four as the No. 1 ranked team in the country but fell in the semifinal round to Mary-Hardin Baylor. It marked the third time in five years the Tommies (30-2) finished with a 30-win season.

In 2015, UST won a record 10th consecutive MIAC title before losing on a buzzer-beating 3-point shot in the NCAA tournament.

In 2016, UST traversed one of the toughest roads possible to the title, defeating four top 10 ranked teams, including No. 1-ranked Augustana, No. 4-ranked Christopher Newport, and No. 2-ranked Benedictine, three teams with a combined 90-2 record during the season. UST was able to win its 11th consecutive MIAC title and its second national championship in six years.

In 2018-19, the Toms won 21 consecutive games en route to the MIAC crown. Tauer's team eliminated No. 1-ranked Nebraska Wesleyan on the road in the NCAA playoffs to advance to the Sweet 16.

In 2019-20, St. Thomas built a 13-game win streak and shared are MIAC championship with St. John's en route to a 26-3 finish. The Toms were ranked as high as No. 2 in the national poll, and were at No. 4 in the final poll of the season. The Toms beat two ranked teams away from home to start the NCAA playoffs. That let them reach the Sweet Sixteen round before the tournament was called off due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Tommies have about 30 players on their varsity and junior-varsity teams. They play games in the 2,000-seat Schoenecker Arena in the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex on campus. Their challengers include a special rivalry with St. John’s University. They also regularly travel out west or out east for a November tournament.
 
Schoenecker Arena

UST’s home victory streak peaked at 31 before a Feb. 22, 2015 defeat. The current streak surpassed the previous Schoenecker Arena record of 20 set in 1993-95 when John Tauer was an undergrad player. The men’s hoops on-campus record win streak is 34 set between 1965 and 1968 in the old upstairs OSH gym.

In recent seasons at home, the Tommies went 17-0 in 2012-13, 10-2 in 2011-12, 11-2 in 2013-14, 14-1 in 2014-15, and 12-2 in 2015-16.

They are 117-18 in the new Schoenecker Arena in the 10 seasons since the AARC opened in August 2010, including an 18-4 postseason record.

In its 28 seasons at old Schoenecker Arena, UST went 283-74 in men's hoops.