St. Thomas has a standout recruiting class, a surprise in men's college basketball

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Marcus:

St. Thomas men's basketball made its Division I debut last year with a 10-win season, but Tommies coach Johnny Tauer knew the talent that could jumpstart his program was on the way.

Tauer and his coaching staff call their current freshmen "founding fathers," since they're the first full class after the official move from Division III last year.

Minnesotans Ahjany Lee, Kendall Blue and Carter Bjerke, and Wisconsin native Andrew Rohde arrived on campus this summer as the No. 1 recruiting class in the Summit League.

"I think it has the potential to be a really special group," Tauer said. "All of them come as really decorated high school players and they're really good students and people."

Class of 2022 recruiting rankings had the Tommies just outside of the top 60 nationally, even ahead of some Big Ten schools. St. Thomas landed some players who were recruited by high-major programs.

"It's really a blessing to be able to play for the hometown school where my family can come see me," said Blue, a former East Ridge star. "I'm just really focused on being a founding father during this process they're going through. I just wanted to be a part of it."

www.startribune.com

St. Thomas has a standout recruiting class, a surprise in men's college basketball

Watch for the Tommies to improve on their inaugural Division I season after coach Johnny Tauer's success in putting together a recruiting class that's ranked No. 1 in the Summit League.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
per Marcus:

St. Thomas men's basketball made its Division I debut last year with a 10-win season, but Tommies coach Johnny Tauer knew the talent that could jumpstart his program was on the way.

Tauer and his coaching staff call their current freshmen "founding fathers," since they're the first full class after the official move from Division III last year.

Minnesotans Ahjany Lee, Kendall Blue and Carter Bjerke, and Wisconsin native Andrew Rohde arrived on campus this summer as the No. 1 recruiting class in the Summit League.

"I think it has the potential to be a really special group," Tauer said. "All of them come as really decorated high school players and they're really good students and people."

Class of 2022 recruiting rankings had the Tommies just outside of the top 60 nationally, even ahead of some Big Ten schools. St. Thomas landed some players who were recruited by high-major programs.

"It's really a blessing to be able to play for the hometown school where my family can come see me," said Blue, a former East Ridge star. "I'm just really focused on being a founding father during this process they're going through. I just wanted to be a part of it."

www.startribune.com

St. Thomas has a standout recruiting class, a surprise in men's college basketball

Watch for the Tommies to improve on their inaugural Division I season after coach Johnny Tauer's success in putting together a recruiting class that's ranked No. 1 in the Summit League.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...
UST definitely building something. It won't take long before Tommies are competing at the top of the Summit League with SDSU & NDSU, and to a lesser extent ORU.
 

It's a great class for the Summit League, Lee had some big time offers, but if they were committable he wouldn't be at UST. Anyways, it'll be interesting to see in an era of one free, possibly soon to be unlimited transfers, if they and other top Summit League Programs/Mid Majors will be able to hold on to star players to see it through, but then again they'll probably did into the lower Major D 2 ranks for transfers as well if it comes to that, every program trying to get older.
 

Rhode may be the best player in class. Lee is an enigma to me with certainty having a nice combination of size and athletic ability.
 

BleedGopher said:
per Marcus:

St. Thomas men's basketball made its Division I debut last year with a 10-win season, but Tommies coach Johnny Tauer knew the talent that could jumpstart his program was on the way.

Tauer and his coaching staff call their current freshmen "founding fathers," since they're the first full class after the official move from Division III last year.

Minnesotans Ahjany Lee, Kendall Blue and Carter Bjerke, and Wisconsin native Andrew Rohde arrived on campus this summer as the No. 1 recruiting class in the Summit League.

"I think it has the potential to be a really special group," Tauer said. "All of them come as really decorated high school players and they're really good students and people."

Class of 2022 recruiting rankings had the Tommies just outside of the top 60 nationally, even ahead of some Big Ten schools. St. Thomas landed some players who were recruited by high-major programs.

"It's really a blessing to be able to play for the hometown school where my family can come see me," said Blue, a former East Ridge star. "I'm just really focused on being a founding father during this process they're going through. I just wanted to be a part of it."

www.startribune.com

St. Thomas has a standout recruiting class, a surprise in men's college basketball

Watch for the Tommies to improve on their inaugural Division I season after coach Johnny Tauer's success in putting together a recruiting class that's ranked No. 1 in the Summit League.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

This is Gopher forum BOZO !!!
 




GopherBlood666 said:
Multiple players mentioned in the article had scholarship offers from the Gophers, seems relevant in a Gopher forum.
Click to expand...
But posts about dozens of other guys with offers who went elsewhere in other sports aren’t posted. Why? Because it’s a gopher board. Bleed posted
Because it’s a Minnesota institution.
 

I wonder how much their freshmen are going to play next year, I would expect Blue and maybe Lee to play quite a bit
 









I think Lee thought KSU where his sister goes might be interested. It appears they were not..

at this point Lee needs to focus on playing and getting better. Any move he makes now via the portal would be a lateral move.

He might be in denial but he is at the right level currently
 

Roland Brooks said:
I think Lee thought KSU where his sister goes might be interested. It appears they were not..

at this point Lee needs to focus on playing and getting better. Any move he makes now via the portal would be a lateral move.

He might be in denial but he is at the right level currently
Click to expand...
No doubt he’s at the right level. He’s got a lot of work to do to be a high major big.
 


builtbadgers said:
I enjoy the St. Thomas updates. Many things are posted on here about other college basketball players, coaches and programs.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I get when people get frustrated when threads get derailed and completely off topic. It gets super frustrating when you want to find out about one thing and are subjected to tons of posts about a completely unrelated topic.

But when the thread title clearly says it is going to be about St. Thomas basketball I really don't understand what drives someone to click on the thread in order to complain about it not being about Gopher Basketball. Just skip the thread and move on to something else.

Never ceases to amaze me how hard some people work to find things to complain about.
 


MNVCGUY said:
Yeah, I get when people get frustrated when threads get derailed and completely off topic. It gets super frustrating when you want to find out about one thing and are subjected to tons of posts about a completely unrelated topic.

But when the thread title clearly says it is going to be about St. Thomas basketball I really don't understand what drives someone to click on the thread in order to complain about it not being about Gopher Basketball. Just skip the thread and move on to something else.

Never ceases to amaze me how hard some people work to find things to complain about.
Click to expand...
I am patiently waiting for the Omaha and Western Illinois recruiting synopsis...

In all seriousness, I have a minimal interest level in St. Thomas basketball currently. Although, I would love to see them build a decent program (as long as it's not at the expense of the gophers :p) and have a recurring series with the U of M like WI does with Marquette. That would be fun for all parties involved and add a little zest to the non-conference and hopefully a notch in the ol' SOS for both teams.
 

Well, for a very long time, one of the refrains about Gopher hoops has been:

"only D1 program in MN."

St. Thomas - at the very least - has an opportunity to challenge that.

I am NOT suggesting that St. Thomas is going to be a better or stronger program than MN.

BUT - if St. Thomas can at least become a respectable program, then they could potentially wind up in recruiting battles with the Gophers for certain candidates.

I'm fine if the two programs wind up playing a non-conference series in future seasons.

I would rather see the Gophers play St. Thomas or one of the Dakota schools as opposed to playing
Alcorn State or St. Francis.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Well, for a very long time, one of the refrains about Gopher hoops has been:

"only D1 program in MN."

St. Thomas - at the very least - has an opportunity to challenge that.

I am NOT suggesting that St. Thomas is going to be a better or stronger program than MN.

BUT - if St. Thomas can at least become a respectable program, then they could potentially wind up in recruiting battles with the Gophers for certain candidates.

I'm fine if the two programs wind up playing a non-conference series in future seasons.

I would rather see the Gophers play St. Thomas or one of the Dakota schools as opposed to playing
Alcorn State or St. Francis.
Click to expand...
100% agree.
 



It’s great that they are doing so great! It’s just awesome that they are assembling a d1 team that can compete with the U. How awesome.
 





I wonder if the st Thomas coach would have liked to coach at the u?
 

Anyone that thinks we will be in a recruiting battle for kids with St. Thomas doesnt know anything about college basketball. If I'm minnesota and I'm recruiting same kids that are summit league players than I'm in trouble.
 

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