Tommies Blog: St. Thomas Controls Its Destiny In MIAC Race
The players and the coaches in the program may never admit it publicly, but there has been plenty of fuel for the St. Thomas men's basketball team provided by last year's finish.
The Tommies were a top-10 team pretty much all season, won the MIAC regular season title and the four-team playoff crown. They had high expectations, and they came crashing down after a buzzer-beating loss to Northwestern in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Tournament. It's a moment coach John Tauer has put in the rear-view mirror and forgotten.
But it can also serve as a motivating force for this year's program. If that's the case, St. Thomas is well on its way to another MIAC crown and potential postseason run.
"It was an incredibly difficult way to end an extraordinary season. We went 24-3 with a special group of guys. Is it added incentive? I don't know, but our guys love basketball and love to compete at the highest level nationally," Tauer said this week.
St. Thomas is rolling yet again this season. After cruising to an 87-72 win Wednesday night over Gustavus, the Tommies are 18-1 on the regular season and 13-1 in MIAC play with six games to go. They clinched a playoff spot with the win over the Gusties, have a four-game lead for first in the league and should secure the No. 1 seed for the MIAC Playoffs. It would be 11 straight years St. Thomas would finish at the top of the league.
If the Tommies, currently ranked No. 5 in Division III, get that top seed, they are a virtual lock for the NCAA Tournament regardless of what transpires in the MIAC Playoffs. Their lone slip up? A 67-66 loss to Carleton in the second game of the MIAC season. The Tommies have won 14 straight games since, 13 straight league games and got even with Carleton in late January with a 71-61 victory in Northfield.
Also in that stretch was a 56-38 victory at UW-Steven's Point, last year's Division III national champion. The Tommies have also been tested with other non-conference games against teams either at or near the top of their leagues.
"We played one of the tougher non-conference schedules in the country and our team has stood up to every challenge," Tauer said.
St. Thomas recently finished up a stretch of 10 games in 26 days. The Tommies won all 10 games, six by double figures. Tauer credited his coaching staff for putting together game plans for every opponent during the grind. It's a group that includes Jay Pivec, Mike Keating, Jon Hughes, Tim Jarmusz, Josh Rodenbiker and Alex McCoy.
Each assistant is assigned with putting together the game plan for a particular opponent. They're split up to ensure the maximum amount of preparation because the reality is, every opponent in the MIAC throws everything it has at St. Thomas. The Tommies will get every opponent's best game on a nightly basis.
"It's an unbelievable staff of assistants we have. We split up the scouting work for team and individual tendencies," Tauer said. "They have as much to do with our success as anything. We won a lot of big games in a 10-day span and we got better every day. It was a lot of fun to go 10-0 but definitely a grind."
The closing stretch for St. Thomas includes games at Hamline Saturday, home against St. John's on Monday and then a three-game road stretch at Augsburg, Bethel and St. Olaf. The Tommies close out the regular season at home against St. Mary's on Feb. 20.
St. Thomas has a four-game lead for the top spot in the MIAC with Concordia, St. John's and St. Olaf all at 10-5.
As has been tradition for the Tommies, they win with a balanced attack. St. Thomas scores about 77 points per game and shoots better than 51 percent from the field for the season. That includes better than 41 percent from three-point range. Their leading scorer? Cortez Tillman at 14.8 points per game and Taylor Montero at 14.6. Four of their five regular starters score in double figures.
In year's past, the scoring leaders have been around 12 points per game.
"That's actually the highest scoring average we've had in about 6 years. We have a lot of guys who are just outstanding veteran players and nobody really cares who scores," Tauer said.
Tauer will be the first to say there is still a long way to go and anything can happen, but St. Thomas appears to be poised to make another playoff run.