St. Thomas recruit Ramogi Nyagodi

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Classof 66

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From Winnipeg, played one year at DME Academy at Delafield WI after two Manitoba provincial championship years at Winnipeg high school . Played on 18U Canadian National team 6' 8". Athletic. D1 interest including from Maryland and Michigan but had connection with St. Thomas through his father who went there. With Kendall Blue and Carter Bjerke among others on St. Thomas team, is there any reason not to schedule a yearly game with St. Thomas at Williams Arena alternating sites with St Thomas (or at Target Center for St. Thomas years). Would draw huge crowd and increase interest in college basketball for both programs. Minnesota should win most of the time but St. Thomas should be competitive enough to make it very interesting with how they are recruiting. If Rohde and Lee had stuck around the teams would be pretty equal.
 

Classof 66 said:
From Winnipeg, played one year at DME Academy at Delafield WI after two Manitoba provincial championship years at Winnipeg high school . Played on 18U Canadian National team 6' 8". Athletic. D1 interest including from Maryland and Michigan but had connection with St. Thomas through his father who went there. With Kendall Blue and Carter Bjerke among others on St. Thomas team, is there any reason not to schedule a yearly game with St. Thomas at Williams Arena alternating sites with St Thomas (or at Target Center for St. Thomas years). Would draw huge crowd and increase interest in college basketball for both programs. Minnesota should win most of the time but St. Thomas should be competitive enough to make it very interesting with how they are recruiting. If Rohde and Lee had stuck around the teams would be pretty equal.
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I like Ahjany Lee. He has some ability, but never completely tapped into it in his two years at UST. But IMO he is not a significant loss.

Losing Rohde most definitely was a hit, 1st team All-Summit as a freshman, but even so, Johnny Tauer still has arguably the best trio of guards in the Summit League in Kendall Blue, Drake Dobbs, and sparkplug Ryan Dufault. Two-way players.
 

And Carter Bjerke can shoot 3's. The point is, let's play them. It doesn't hurt UW to play Marquette. Wouldn't hurt us to play UST. UM seems to be worried that they might give them more credibility. But they seem to be gaining credibility by themselves. I can see upside, no downside.
 

Classof 66 said:
And Carter Bjerke can shoot 3's. The point is, let's play them. It doesn't hurt UW to play Marquette. Wouldn't hurt us to play UST. UM seems to be worried that they might give them more credibility. But they seem to be gaining credibility by themselves. I can see upside, no downside.
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Your reasoning is that WI also plays Marquette??? Comparable tourney selection impact as UST? One of the worst hoops program in the B10 is "worried" about them?

Having tons of cash sure does buy a sense of entitlement. As the largest state school, I'd rather support the other state school programs with exhibition games before catering to a private school's egocentric ambitions.

Scheduling UST offers zero upside for our program in regards to Tournament selection or local recruiting.

Just my opinion.
 

Classof 66 said:
From Winnipeg, played one year at DME Academy at Delafield WI after two Manitoba provincial championship years at Winnipeg high school . Played on 18U Canadian National team 6' 8". Athletic. D1 interest including from Maryland and Michigan but had connection with St. Thomas through his father who went there. With Kendall Blue and Carter Bjerke among others on St. Thomas team, is there any reason not to schedule a yearly game with St. Thomas at Williams Arena alternating sites with St Thomas (or at Target Center for St. Thomas years). Would draw huge crowd and increase interest in college basketball for both programs. Minnesota should win most of the time but St. Thomas should be competitive enough to make it very interesting with how they are recruiting. If Rohde and Lee had stuck around the teams would be pretty equal.
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UST. Better school, better coaches and better everything. Thank you for posting here
 


Reusse, who has banged this drum forever, changed his tune - I heard it on Rand’s podcast.

He said he used to rag on Coyle for not doing so, until he ran into the St, John’s AD, who told him he couldn’t schedule St. Thomas, a traditional rival. IIRC, it was for basketball.
 

Slim Tubby said:
Your reasoning is that WI also plays Marquette??? Comparable tourney selection impact as UST? One of the worst hoops program in the B10 is "worried" about them?

Having tons of cash sure does buy a sense of entitlement. As the largest state school, I'd rather support the other state school programs with exhibition games before catering to a private school's egocentric ambitions.

Scheduling UST offers zero upside for our program in regards to Tournament selection or local recruiting.

Just my opinion.
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Within five years, UST will be paying players a lot more than the Gophers and buying a legit good basketball team. They'll probably out draw the Gophers when that new arena opens.
 

disco said:
Within five years, UST will be paying players a lot more than the Gophers and buying a legit good basketball team. They'll probably out draw the Gophers when that new arena opens.
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If they're willing to pay well for players, they will be a better program than the Gophers.
 




EasyThere Pilgrim said:
If they're willing to pay well for players, they will be a better program than the Gophers.
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I think they will. I think their alumni base is more engaged and willing to spend on the program, and I think their fan base is going to skew quite a bit younger and more excited. Granted, there's a bit of that new car smell with the program, and when the arena opens, but the Gopher hoops fanbase is fairly old and apathetic.
 

disco said:
I think they will. I think their alumni base is more engaged and willing to spend on the program, and I think their fan base is going to skew quite a bit younger and more excited. Granted, there's a bit of that new car smell with the program, and when the arena opens, but the Gopher hoops fanbase is fairly old and apathetic.
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Yeah you're probably right.

And I assume their administration is supportive of men's basketball...instead of hostile to it?
 

disco said:
I think they will. I think their alumni base is more engaged and willing to spend on the program, and I think their fan base is going to skew quite a bit younger and more excited. Granted, there's a bit of that new car smell with the program, and when the arena opens, but the Gopher hoops fanbase is fairly old and apathetic.
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30 yrs of slop has its benefits
 

disco said:
Within five years, UST will be paying players a lot more than the Gophers and buying a legit good basketball team. They'll probably out draw the Gophers when that new arena opens.
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If this proves true, I congratulate UST for having deeper pockets and an Admin willing to support their Athletic Department. I will be jealous.

However, I have yet to read a compelling argument why scheduling UST has any value to the Gopher program:

* We win? We're supposed to...and receive no tourney cred for doing so.

* We lose? It's a big hit to our tourney resume and our fan base morale while promoting more negative media coverage and tarnishing our image with local recruits.

I love UST...easily one (1) of the best universities in the Midwest. My youngest niece starts an academic full ride there for Entrepreneurship next month. I still don't care about their basketball team...I'm a Gopher fan.
 



Slim Tubby said:
If this proves true, I congratulate UST for having deeper pockets and an Admin willing to support their Athletic Department. I will be jealous.

However, I have yet to read a compelling argument why scheduling UST has any value to the Gopher program:

* We win? We're supposed to...and receive no tourney cred for doing so.

* We lose? It's a big hit to our tourney resume and our fan base morale while promoting more negative media coverage and tarnishing our image with local recruits.

I love UST...easily one (1) of the best universities in the Midwest. My youngest niece starts an academic full ride there for Entrepreneurship next month. I still don't care about their basketball team...I'm a Gopher fan.
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I don't think it makes sense to schedule them...at this time. But I do think they'll pass the U in basketball prowess in a few years. And then what do you do?
 


UST is a really fun environment for a game the last few years. The U and the Barn is a waste of money until the product that we are putting out gets relevant.
 

TD12 said:
UST is a really fun environment for a game the last few years. The U and the Barn is a waste of money until the product that we are putting out gets relevant.
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I was told here it would take years for ust to pass the u in basketball. Wha happened?
 

disco said:
Within five years, UST will be paying players a lot more than the Gophers and buying a legit good basketball team. They'll probably out draw the Gophers when that new arena opens.
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This is ridiculous. If they have better players, the top school will poach them.
 

TD12 said:
UST is a really fun environment for a game the last few years. The U and the Barn is a waste of money until the product that we are putting out gets relevant.
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yeah, just like a high school game.
 



disco said:
Within five years, UST will be paying players a lot more than the Gophers and buying a legit good basketball team. They'll probably out draw the Gophers when that new arena opens.
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Maybe I'm way off...But with the move to Power Five universities having player payrolls, you really think UST will be able to keep up with the money that the Gophers generate each year?
 

MonikerSchmoniker45 said:
Maybe I'm way off...But with the move to Power Five universities having player payrolls, you really think UST will be able to keep up with the money that the Gophers generate each year?
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Hard to say. My opinion on this may change once the changes to paying players rolls out. But at the same time, I could see the U cheaping out, or deciding in the name of "fairness" to pay the women's rowing team a chunk of the TV revenue generated by the two revenue sports.
 


disco said:
I don't think it makes sense to schedule them...at this time. But I do think they'll pass the U in basketball prowess in a few years. And then what do you do?
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This is laughable. If St. Thomas was to join the Big East, which is unlikely, they would be similar to us. However, there is no way in the conference they are in. People here have such a ridiculous idea of how "poor" the U is for NIL. And, with the new rules where schools can pay, the Big Ten and SEC will be in their own world compared to pretty much everyone else.
 

MonikerSchmoniker45 said:
Maybe I'm way off...But with the move to Power Five universities having player payrolls, you really think UST will be able to keep up with the money that the Gophers generate each year?
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I don't, their football program doesn't provide scholarhips because they are in the pioneer league so I highly doubt they want to pay any players for being on the team. Cost is obviously relevent otherwise they would be in a different conference that allows football scholarships.
 

disco said:
Hard to say. My opinion on this may change once the changes to paying players rolls out. But at the same time, I could see the U cheaping out, or deciding in the name of "fairness" to pay the women's rowing team a chunk of the TV revenue generated by the two revenue sports.
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IMO, it's farfetched to think that UST donors will compete with even the lowest Big Ten payroll on a yearly basis. I can appreciate them going all in on the transition, but I think it's just bad timing, not knowing what NIL would become, and will take way more time to get to the level they're expecting. If they make it at all.
 



disco said:
Within five years, UST will be paying players a lot more than the Gophers and buying a legit good basketball team. They'll probably out draw the Gophers when that new arena opens.
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Nah, I think the opposite. St. Thomas is finding out how truly expensive running a DI program is. They have money issues right now. They've had a round of layoffs within the department, cost cutting everywhere, and cannot get any major sponsors to attach to the program. They are pinching pennies like crazy right now.

The new arena isn't even a sure thing at this point, at least not by 2025 as originally planned. They are having issues securing the property (not money related).

They have a few donors with deep pockets, but that isn't going to get them a roster to make them better than any Big Ten team on any type of consistent basis.
 

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