The St. Thomas men’s basketball is back on CBS Sports Network Wednesday, Feb. 4 as it will take on South Dakota State University in the series’ final matchup of the regular season. The Tommies (18-6, 7-2 Summit League) tip-off at 6 p.m. from First Bank & Trust Arena looking for their first road win against the Jackrabbits (11-12, 4-4 Summit League) during the Division I era.
SERIES HISTORY | SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
St. Thomas and South Dakota State have played 26 times in the series history, led by SDSU 16-10, dating back to the 1919-20 season. The Tommies are 3-7 against the Jackrabbits since joining the Summit League while seven of the last eight regular season meetings were decided by seven points or fewer.
St. Thomas rallied from an eight-point second-half deficit to secure a 74-69 Summit League victory over South Dakota State on Jan. 22 at Lee & Penny Anderson Arena. The Tommies leaned on a decisive defensive stretch, limiting the Jackrabbits (10-11, 3-3 Summit League) to 11 points over the final 11 minutes. Carter Bjerke and Nick Janowski scored 21 points apiece, marking the sixth of seven games this season two Tommies reached the 20-point mark. Bjerke knocked down five 3-pointers, including four in the first half, while Janowski delivered 19 of his points after halftime and tied for the team lead with six rebounds. Nolan Minessale added 14 points, and Ryan Dufault chipped in 10 off the bench as St. Thomas improved to 3-1 against South Dakota State in its last four home meetings.
A RECORD-BREAKING BOUNCE BACK
St. Thomas delivered a decisive 99-64 victory over Kansas City on Feb. 1 at Lee & Penny Anderson Arena, fueled by a historic shooting performance from junior forward Carter Bjerke. The Tommies knocked down 18 3-pointers against the Roos, the most ever made against a Division I opponent, to build a 52-25 halftime lead.
Bjerke finished with a career-high 30 points on 10 made 3-pointers, setting the program’s Division I era single-game record and tying the school’s all-time mark. Nick Janowski added 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting, Nolan Minessale scored 10, and Jermaine Coleman contributed 10 off the bench as St. Thomas reached 90 points for the seventh time this season. Austin Herro directed the offense with eight assists and just one turnover.
TWO AT THE SUMMIT SINCE 2022-23
Since the start of the 2022-23 season, one Summit League program has totaled over 80 wins as a program, while three have more than 70. St. Thomas leads with 81 victories followed by South Dakota State with 72 and North Dakota State with 71. The Tommies and Jackrabbits have totaled at least 19 wins in each of the past three complete seasons, including back-to-back 20-win seasons in 2023-24 and 2024-25, while the Tommies have 18 wins this season compared to 11 for the Jackrabbits. Among 365 teams at the NCAA Division I level, UST ranks tied for 59th in total wins during the four-year span.
BIG MAN, BIG 3-POINT RECORD
Redshirt junior Carter Bjerke set the program’s Division I era single-game record with 10 3-pointers Feb. 1 against Kansas City, helping to a 99-64 win. He dropped seven in the first half, setting a career high in 3-point field goals and tying a career high 21 points over the first 20 minutes. Bjerke added three 3-pointers over the first nine minutes of the second half, recording his first career 30-point game, before sitting for the final 11:00 minutes of the game. The 10 3-pointers are tied for the fourth most ever by a Summit League player and it’s the fourth instance this season of a DI player reaching 30 points on 3-pointers alone (Nov. 7: Harrison Reed, IUW, 12 3FGM; Nov. 21: Ruben Dominguez, Texas A&M, 10 3FGM; Dec. 2: Braden Appelhans, Drake, 10 3FGM).
Bjerke surpassed the previous DI era record of nine set by Riley Miller against Merrimack during the 2022-23 season and tied the St. Thomas all-time 3-point record set by Curt Kietzer during the 1986-87 season. Bjerke accounted for 10 of the team’s 18 3-pointers against UMKC, which is the program’s most against a DI opponent. The team had previously made 22 3-pointers twice against DIII opponents.
ONE-TWO PUNCH
Janowski and Minessale are one of eight sets of teammates in the country with multiple 30-point games, one of 15 sets of teammates with at least eight 20-point games this season and are two of three players in the Summit League with multiple 30+ point games. The duo rank among the top four in the Summit League in points per game, Minessale at second with 19.6 points per game followed by Janowski in fourth with 16.8 points, while Minessale ranks 11th in the country in total points followed by Janowski in 66th, who is third in the Summit League with 20.9 points per game during conference-only games.
Minessale is tied for second in the country with 16 20-point games and recorded back-to-back 30-point games, first tying the program’s DI era record with 32 points against Weber State on Dec. 7, 2025. Janowski has scored in double figures in 23 games, 20+ points in eight games and had two 30-point games through the first four games of the Summit League schedule, tying Minessale, Parker Bjorklund and Raheem Anthony with 32 points Jan. 15 at UND for the program’s DI era single-game record.
AN OFFENSE NEVER SEEN IN THE SUMMIT
For the first time in at least two decades, a Summit League team scored at least 90 points in four straight games. The Tommies’ scoring onslaught began Dec. 20 with a 92-78 win over UC Riverside before adding 105 points against North Central, 92 against Denver and 99 against South Dakota. The streak is the first instance in program history and is the third streak of at least three 90+ point games under Johnny Tauer, previously doing so during the 2017-18 season and twice during the 2012-13 seasons. Prior to Coach Tauer taking over in 2011, St. Thomas had just two three-game streaks, coming during the 1993-94 and 1971-72 seasons.
During the streak, the Tommies averaged 97.0 points per game – on 55.4 percent shooting overall and 45.3 percent on 3-pointers – while allowing 77.8. Nolan Minessale averaged 18.8 points per game, followed by Nick Janowski with 17.3, Isaiah Johnson-Arigu with 13.8 and Carter Bjerke with 12.5. All four – and Austin Herro with 8.7 points per game – shot over 52 percent overall with Bjerke, Herro and Johnson-Arigu all above 60 percent. The Tommies combined for six 20-point performances – three from Minessale and a 30-point game from Janowski – and 11 14-point games during the 90-point streak.
MR. 300 Johnny Tauer became the third St. Thomas head men’s basketball coach to record 300 career victories, joining Steve Fritz (1980-2011) and Tom Feely (1954-1980), following the win at UNC Asheville. Tauer is the fastest of the three to reach the milestone, doing so in 411 games compared to 464 games for Fritz and 480 for Feely. Tauer is now just one of six active coaches among all of NCAA with 300 victories and a .730 winning percentage at one school, and joins Gonzaga’s Mark Few as the only two to do so currently at the Division I level. The only two head coaches in the Summit League with 300 career wins are Tauer and Paul Sather of North Dakota.
READY TO DANCE
With the transition in the rear-view mirror, St. Thomas is beginning its first season as a fully postseason-tournament-eligible program within NCAA Division I. Initially a five-year transition period, the NCAA Division I Council voted in January in favor of a reduction to the department’s provisional period from five to four years. The NCAA later announced in June that St. Thomas had completed its reclassification process and is fully eligible to compete in postseason play. St. Thomas made its first Summit League postseason appearance in 2022-23 and have gone 4-3 in those games, including a trip to its first title game last season against eventual champion Omaha.
NOTHING BUT NET
The initial NET Rankings for the 2025-26 season were released Sunday, Nov. 30, placing St. Thomas 138 among 365 teams. The mark landed as the highest Summit League team (SDSU: 178, NDSU: 179) and ahead of 12 Power 5 programs (Big Ten: 4, ACC: 3, Big 12: 3, Big East: 3, SEC: 1).
Since the initial rankings, St. Thomas has gone 13-3 to jump to 120, ranking second among Summit League teams. The Tommies currently slot behind of North Dakota State (118), South Dakota State (184), and Omaha (257). Six Power Five programs slot in behind St. Thomas from the Big Ten (3), ACC (2) and Big East (1).
KEEPING THE GANG TOGETHER
St. Thomas has had its core of the coaching staff together for the past four seasons in Head Coach Johnny Tauer, Associate Head Coach Mike Maker and Assistant Coaches Cameron Rundles and Kenneth Lowe. Maker oversees the offense while Rundles and Lowe each focus on defense. The Tommies are the only Summit League program to retain the same head coach and top three assistants over each of the past four seasons. The group is responsible for the Summit League’s most overall wins since Lowe completed the staff in 2022-23.
A NEW PEAK PERFORMER
Behind his 31-point performance Jan. 4 versus Denver, Nick Janowski was selected as the Summit League Peak Performer of the Week. He shot 12-of-22, including three 3-pointers, while adding seven rebounds against the Pioneers. Janowski scored 19 of his points in the second half and finished as one of five 30-point performances in the league this season. He joins Nolan Minessale as Tommies to earn the weekly honor in 2025-26, with St. Thomas already surpassing its combined total of three weekly award winners from the previous four DI seasons.
FOUR FOR FOUR
Nolan Minessale’s historic start to the season earned him two back-to-back Summit League Peak Performer of the Week honors on Nov. 18 and 25 before adding two more on Dec. 9 and 16, the first Tommie to earn multiple weekly honors for the program since joining in 2021. He is one of four Summit League athletes to earn the weekly award at least four times in one season since 2022-23. Minessale’s four weekly awards are more than the program has brought in through the first four seasons of Summit League play combined. Nick Janowski also earned peak performer of the week honors following a 31-point game Jan. 4, 2026 during a win over Denver to start the league schedule.
LIVING UP TO THE HYPE
Through the first 24 games of the season, Nolan Minessale has shown why he was chosen as the Summit League Preseason Player of the Year. The sophomore put up eight straight 20-point performances to begin the season, becoming the first Tommie to do so under Head Coach Johnny Tauer since at least the 2005-06 season and the first player in NCAA DI to do so since at least 2021-22, and recorded back-to-back 30-point games, one of two Tommies of the DI era with multiple 30-point games. Dating back to the 2025 Summit League Championship title game, Minessale scored at least 20 points in nine straight games, the first Tommie to do so under Head Coach Johnny Tauer. Minessale ranks 14th in NCAA DI in total points, 18th in field goals made and 32nd in points per game, and set St. Thomas DI era single-game records with 12 assists and 6 steals (later broken by Austin Herro with 7 at North Dakota) during the 99-86 win over South Dakota.
MINESSALE NAMED TO LOU HENSON EARLY SEASON WATCH LIST
Nolan Minessale’s historic start to the 2025-26 season has earned him national recognition as part of the ‘Early Season Watch List’ for the Lou Henson Award, presented annually to the top mid-major player in Division I college basketball, as announced Thursday by CollegeInsider.com. The award honors the former Illinois and New Mexico State head coach who won 775 games in 41 seasons. The 2026 award will be announced in Indianapolis, Ind., the site of the men’s Division I Basketball Championship.
THE NATION’S LONGEST HOME WINNING STREAK CAME TO AN END
NCAA Division I’s longest active win streak now resides elsewhere as St. Thomas’ 28-game home streak was snapped Jan. 29 during an 81-80 loss to North Dakota. The Tommies’ second longest home winning streak in over 50 seasons (32 straight from 2/11/12-2/8/14) began Feb. 8, 2024 (coming off a 74-64 loss to North Dakota) and spanned 721 days between two venues (Schoenecker Arena – 18 wins, Anderson Arena – 10 wins). Since the start of the 2022-23 season, the Tommies are 49-5 at home, which ranks eighth among all NCAA Division I programs during that span.
Dating back to the start of the 2021-22 season, St. Thomas’ 28-game home winning streak is tied with Samford, Drake and UConn for the third longest in NCAA DI during that span. Houston holds the longest streak during that span at 33 games (1/28/23-1/22/25) followed by Iowa State at 29 games (11/6/23-1/21/25).
STACKING 20-POINT SCORERS
For the seven time this season, St. Thomas featured a pair of 20-point players as Nick Janowski and Nolan Minessale each topped the mark Jan. 29 against North Dakota. It was the third time this season the duo both scored at least 20 points, while Isaiah Johnson-Arigu and Minessale have done so twice. Carter Bjerke and Minessale topped the mark during the win over UC Riverside and Bjerke and Janowski did so during the win over South Dakota State on Jan. 22. Between 2022-23 and 2024-25, St. Thomas totaled seven games with a pair of 20-point scorers, including two in 2024-25 and five in 2022-23.
FOCUSED ON EFFICIENCY
St. Thomas’ success on the scoreboard can be attributed to the type of shots it’s taking, primarily as one of the best in the country on converting two-point field goals. The Tommies trail Michigan (63.6%) and Duke (63.0%) in two-point field goal percentage at 62.8% and are ahead of undefeated Miami (OH) (62.6%).
VALUE THE BALL
Tauer’s teams have historically taken care of the basketball, and the first five seasons of DI play are no different. The Tommies finished tied for 13th nationally in turnovers per game (9.5) last season, ninth in 2023-24 (9.2), ranked tied for 11th nationally in the fewest total turnovers (327) in 2022-23 and led the category in 2021-22 (243). St. Thomas is one of three teams nationally to record fewer than 10.0 turnovers per game in each of the past four seasons, joining Iowa and Wisconsin. The Tommies (10.0) and Wisconsin are the only two of the three currently at 10.0 turnovers per game or fewer in 2025-26.
Through 24 games in 2025-26, St. Thomas has turned the ball over 10 or fewer times in 17 games and rank 32nd in the country in turnovers per game. The Tommies have posted fewer turnovers than their opponents in 17 of 24 games this season, going 14-3 in those games.
LOVE THAT HOME COOKING
Through its home games during the DI era, St. Thomas has won its home games by an average margin of 21.3 points, including a margin of 14.9 points against DI opponents. Thirteen of the program’s 39 home wins against DI opponents since that time have been by more than 20 points while 11 were decided by fewer than 10 points.
THE SUMMIT LEAGUE PRESEASON FAVORITES
Coming off its first trip to the Summit League Championship game, St. Thomas was voted to finish first in the 2025-26 Summit League Preseason Poll. The Tommies received 17 first-place votes and 501 total points, ahead of last season’s league champion Omaha with 13 first-place votes and 495 points. South Dakota State was slotted third with five first-place votes and 450 points followed by North Dakota State with 358 points.
Sophomore Nolan Minessale was voted as the Summit League Preseason Player of the Year, the first sophomore to earn the honor since Mike Daum of South Dakota State in 2016-17 and the first true sophomore since at least the 2006-07 season. The guard from Brookfield, Wis., started all 34 games and quickly established himself as one of the Summit League’s top two-way players. He led the league in blocks per game, ranked sixth in steals, and paced the Tommies with a .562 field goal percentage. Minessale averaged 11.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game, scoring in double figures 16 times with four 20-point outings.
Redshirt junior Carter Bjerke was picked to the All-Summit League First Team after emerging as one of the league’s top perimeter shooters and a cornerstone of the Tommies’ offense. The Plymouth, Minn., native has played in all 67 games of his career, leading St. Thomas in 3-pointers made in each of his first two seasons. In 2024-25, he averaged 9.8 points and 3.3 rebounds per game while ranking fifth in the league in made 3-pointers, scoring in double figures 17 times, including a career-high 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting from deep against NCAA Tournament qualifier Wofford.
POLL TOMS
The Purple began the 2025-26 season receiving 78 votes in the Mid-Major Top 25 Poll and totaled 161 in the most recent poll to rank No. 19, tying the highest ranking in program history. The Tommies are one of two Summit League programs ranked, joined by North Dakota State at No. 12. St. Thomas landed on the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll for the first time in program history in January 2025, debuting at No. 25.
In addition to the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll, St. Thomas was selected among a handful of preseason media polls: No. 6 on Ryan Hammer’s Mid-Major Top 20 Poll, No. 13 on Field of 68’s Mid-Major Top 25 Poll, No. 13 on T3Bracketology’s Top 32 Poll. While the Tommies were the only Summit League team among those polls, they were also the highest ranked Summit League team in Sports Illustrated’s Complete Division I Preseason Rankings, slotting in at No. 124.
THE SUMMIT OF WINS
St. Thomas continues to rank at the top of the Summit League in overall wins over the past four seasons, totaling 81 victories since the start of the 2022-23 season. Following UST is South Dakota State with 72 wins, North Dakota State with 71 and Omaha with 58. In addition, the Tommies also lead the Summit League with 49 home wins over that span, ahead of SDSU with 42 and NDSU and USD with 40.
PRIMETIME TOMMIES
St. Thomas will again be exclusively broadcast on the CBS Sports Network as its Feb. 1 matchup against Kansas City and Feb. 4 game at South Dakota State were announced as part of the league’s seven-game lineup for men’s basketball on the network. The Lee & Penny Anderson Arena will be the backdrop of the game against Kansas City, a team St. Thomas has won five straight games against, while the Tommies will look to win their first game in Brookings, S.D., over the Jackrabbits on CBS Sports Network.
St. Thomas is 3-0 all-time when playing on CBS Sports Network, earning a 70-45 win at North Dakota during the program’s network debut on Dec. 29, 2023, followed by a 79-62 win over North Dakota State on Feb. 2, 2025 and most recently a 99-64 win over Kansas City on Feb. 1, 2026. The Tommies have an average margin of victory of 25.7 points during CBS Sports Network games, with its smallest margin of victory being 17 points over NDSU.
A BOLSTERED SQUAD
Six newcomers – five with at least three years of eligibility – join the Tommies, including three Power Four transfers and two ESPN four-star recruits. The group combines local roots, championship experience, and national-level pedigree.
• #0 Isaiah Johnson-Arigu (F, 6-7, 215, So., Miami/Iowa) – Four-star ESPN recruit, back-to-back state titles at Totino-Grace; No. 2 ranked player in Minnesota out of high school.
• #10 Tommy Humphries Jr. (G, 6-5, 205, R-So., Furman) – Totino-Grace graduate and two-time state champion; ranked No. 5 in Minnesota coming out of high school.
• #11 Austin Herro (G, 6-3, 180, R-So., South Carolina) – Brother of NBA All-Star Tyler Herro; played AAU with Milan Momcilovic.
• #13 Luka Momcilovic (F, 6-7, 220, Fr.) – Averaged 16.8 PPG and 8.1 RPG in high school; multiple-time all-conference pick with two state titles and one runner-up finish.
• #20 Jack Tauer (G, 6-2, 200, Gr.) – Played two seasons at St. Norbert College before serving as a student manager; a Cretin-Derham Hall graduate.
• #23 Nick Janowski (G, 6-4, 210, R-Fr., Nebraska) – Four-star ESPN recruit; former teammate of Luka and Milan Momcilovic.
(info courtesy of Tommies Sports)
