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U of st Thomas MN, a sleeping sports giant (at least by MN standards)?

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General Tso

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Nov 20, 2004
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If I were Gopher athletics, I'd be sweating a bit about competition coming from across the river in St Paul over the next 10 years. Never underestimate the alumni base of a primarily business school to need their wealthy egos stroked by donating to athletic causes.

www.google.com

University of St. Thomas announces $75M donation to build hockey and basketball arena

The Lee and Penny Anderson Arena will be the new home to the Tommies hockey and basketball teams.
www.google.com

Edit: sorry meant to post this in Off Topic
 
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Really tough spot for Minnesota. That's a lot of bank just for hockey and basketball.
 
They have been covering the spread a lot in basketball this year. That’s about the extent of my knowledge of them. Made a few bucks off them this year.
 
iahawks10 said:
They have been covering the spread a lot in basketball this year. That’s about the extent of my knowledge of them. Made a few bucks off them this year.
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They almost took Creighton down on the road and are already dominating their conference in football. There's already talk in the TCs about them possibly being the best D1 b-ball team in the state.
 
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Minnesota is a Big 10 school and the flagship school in the State. The best players will always want to play in the biggest and best conferences.

For hockey, Mariucci and Ridder are awfully nice facilities in their own right. There is enough hockey talent in this state to go around, and I just don't see a day anytime soon when the gophers aren't getting their pick of it. I don't think the gophers have to worry. The teams that might need to worry are Minnesota State and St. Cloud State.

I've met several St. Thomas and St. Kates alumni in my time up here. They seem to be a uniquely loyal (some might say cliquish) alumni base.
 
I will never feel sorry for Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin for having to compete with anyone for in state recruits. These guys have zero competition in their state for football. Minnesota in almost everything but hockey.
 
St Thomas has always been a great small private school alt to the U, with plenty of money. But they play in different arenas...athletically speaking. The Tommies aren't taking fans away from U of M seats. It's a different crowd. A kid good enough to play B1G hockey with an eye on the NHL, isn't going to be stolen away by St Thomas.
 
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BonzoFury said:
St Thomas has always been a great small private school alt to the U, with plenty of money. But they play in different arenas...athletically speaking. The Tommies aren't taking fans away from U of M seats. It's a different crowd. A kid good enough to play B1G hockey with an eye on the NHL, isn't going to be stolen away by St Thomas.
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No, they're probably going to Duluth or St. Cloud, maybe even Mankato, if they stay in state now.
 
As for the football program, while St. Thomas is doing well in their conference, the Pioneer League is a non-scholarship FCS conference (like the Ivy League). The rest of FCS gets 63 scholarships. St. Thomas has done well in that league, but these programs (Drake is in this league) aren't on a par with the rest of FCS, and certainly not even close to the good FCS leagues like the Missouri Valley and Big Sky. St. Thomas won the Pioneer League but ranked only 69 in the country in FCS in the Massey computer. Long story short, I don't think the Gophers have much of a threat in the football world yet. That being said, that's quite a facility investment.
 
I would love to see Iowa add men's and women's hockey. I've never quite understood why the interest in hockey drops to almost zero once you drive south of the Iowa-Minnesota border. Iowa is a cold weather state too after all, but for some reason there is almost no hockey culture in the state. Its a mystery to me.
 
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General Tso said:
If I were Gopher athletics, I'd be sweating a bit about competition coming from across the river in St Paul over the next 10 years. Never underestimate the alumni base of a primarily business school to need their wealthy egos stroked by donating to athletic causes.

www.google.com

University of St. Thomas announces $75M donation to build hockey and basketball arena

The Lee and Penny Anderson Arena will be the new home to the Tommies hockey and basketball teams.
www.google.com

Edit: sorry meant to post this in Off Topic
Click to expand...

I believe they are on the same side of the river 😝
 
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BonzoFury said:
St Thomas has always been a great small private school alt to the U, with plenty of money. But they play in different arenas...athletically speaking. The Tommies aren't taking fans away from U of M seats. It's a different crowd. A kid good enough to play B1G hockey with an eye on the NHL, isn't going to be stolen away by St Thomas.
Click to expand...

I disagree, the “U” isn’t the only school in the state that sends players to the NHL. UST definitely has some built in feeder programs such as St Thomas Academy, Hill-Murray and Cretin-Derham Hall. It’ll likely be a popular destination for in-state kids from other schools as well. They likely won’t compete with the Gophers for the elite recruits each year but most schools can’t. I think they’ll have an impact on the other in-state schools a bit and definitely get 2-3 players yearly that typically go to places like Ohio State, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, PSU and the smaller schools out east like UNH, Vermont, Clarkson, Quinnipac, etc.

They’ll be pulling in top 10 classes eventually and they should given their inherent recruiting advantages due to the campus location and reputation within the upper Midwest. In June of July 2022, they signed 13 players, 10 from Minnesota.

As a UST alum, it’s hardly surprising that they received the single largest athletic donation on record to any Minnesota university. I have season hockey tickets, am a donor and I believe the school has the 2nd highest endowment in the state behind the U of MN.
 
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SalAunese said:
I disagree, the “U” isn’t the only school in the state that sends players to the NHL. UST definitely has some built in feeder programs such as St Thomas Academy, Hill-Murray and Cretin-Derham Hall. It’ll likely be a popular destination for in-state kids from other schools as well. They likely won’t compete with the Gophers for the elite recruits each year but most schools can’t. I think they’ll have an impact on the other in-state schools a bit and definitely get 2-3 players yearly that typically go to places like Ohio State, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, PSU and the smaller schools out east like UNH, Vermont, Clarkson, Quinnipac, etc.

They’ll be pulling in top 10 classes eventually and they should given their inherent recruiting advantages due to the campus location and reputation within the upper Midwest. In June of July 2022, they signed 13 players, 10 from Minnesota.

As a UST alum, it’s hardly surprising that they received the single largest athletic donation on record to any Minnesota university. I have season hockey tickets, am a donor and I believe the school has the 2nd highest endowment in the state behind the U of MN.
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The other in-state schools have definitely found success against the U by taking a different approach to recruiting. The U gets top talent, many of whom are going to be one and two year players for them, and many of whom come straight from high school without a stop in juniors. Minnesota and Michigan are the college hockey equivalent of Duke and Kentucky basketball when it comes to recruiting. And as we've seen with Duke and Kentucky, getting top talent isn't necessarily a recipe for dominance when it only stays for a year or two.

SCSU and Minnesota State have had success recruiting kids out of juniors, so they are are year or two older already when they enter the program and then developing them into key players as upper classmen. Watching that Minnesota State v. U of Minnesota NCAA semi-final last year felt like watching men against boys when it came to the physical side of the game. The gopher players looked better technically, but they just couldn't compete physically.

Also, recruiting players from junior hockey allows those schools to find kids who were late developers or overlooked, and they have definitely had success putting kids like that into the NHL.
 
They’re all recruiting kids out of juniors whether it’s the USHL/ NAHL or BCJHL. They Gophers are typically younger than the other teams but this year they’re pretty stacked with NHL draft picks, especially along the blue line staying fkr a 3rd or 4th year. It definitely lets their talented forwards to play their game. Cooley (#2 draft pick overall) might be the best forward since Vanek or Wheeler
 
SalAunese said:
I disagree, the “U” isn’t the only school in the state that sends players to the NHL. UST definitely has some built in feeder programs such as St Thomas Academy, Hill-Murray and Cretin-Derham Hall. It’ll likely be a popular destination for in-state kids from other schools as well. They likely won’t compete with the Gophers for the elite recruits each year but most schools can’t. I think they’ll have an impact on the other in-state schools a bit and definitely get 2-3 players yearly that typically go to places like Ohio State, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, PSU and the smaller schools out east like UNH, Vermont, Clarkson, Quinnipac, etc.

They’ll be pulling in top 10 classes eventually and they should given their inherent recruiting advantages due to the campus location and reputation within the upper Midwest. In June of July 2022, they signed 13 players, 10 from Minnesota.

As a UST alum, it’s hardly surprising that they received the single largest athletic donation on record to any Minnesota university. I have season hockey tickets, am a donor and I believe the school has the 2nd highest endowment in the state behind the U of MN.
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I didn't say the U was the only school sending players to the NHL. There are a number of strong hockey programs in Minnesota. UMD, St Cloud St, Bemidji St...with others closeby UND, NDSU, etc.

St Thomas is an excellent school (good friend of mine is a Prof there) with great sports programs...but they're not D1.
 
BonzoFury said:
I didn't say the U was the only school sending players to the NHL. There are a number of strong hockey programs in Minnesota. UMD, St Cloud St, Bemidji St...with others closeby UND, NDSU, etc.

St Thomas is an excellent school (good friend of mine is a Prof there) with great sports programs...but they're not D1.
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They went D1 last year. They’re in a hockey conference with Ferris State, Bemidji State, Minnesota State, Bowling Green etc. You mentioned NDSU, they only have club hockey I think.

They’re in the Summit League for basketball, which includes North Dakota, NDSU, South Dakota, SDSU and Oral Roberts.

*Edit* They beat Bowling Green tonight, 4-2
 
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SalAunese said:
They went D1 last year. They’re in a hockey conference with Ferris State, Bemidji State, Minnesota State, Bowling Green etc. You mentioned NDSU, they only have club hockey I think.

They’re in the Summit League for basketball, which includes North Dakota, NDSU, South Dakota, SDSU and Oral Roberts.

*Edit* They beat Bowling Green tonight, 4-2
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Great, didn't know they went D1 last year.

Still...I doubt people on the U of M campus are wringing their hands and laying awake at night. Their revenue from hockey (and all other sports) dwarfs St Thomas.
 
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BonzoFury said:
Great, didn't know they went D1 last year.

Still...I doubt people on the U of M campus are wringing their hands and laying awake at night. Their revenue from hockey (and all other sports) dwarfs St Thomas.
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That's already been established, we're talking about the other smaller in-state schools and universities in the upper Midwest. I'm not sure if you missed that
 
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General Tso said:
If I were Gopher athletics, I'd be sweating a bit about competition coming from across the river in St Paul over the next 10 years. Never underestimate the alumni base of a primarily business school to need their wealthy egos stroked by donating to athletic causes.

www.google.com

University of St. Thomas announces $75M donation to build hockey and basketball arena

The Lee and Penny Anderson Arena will be the new home to the Tommies hockey and basketball teams.
www.google.com

Edit: sorry meant to post this in Off Topic
Click to expand...
One year of B1G money.
 
WhiteSoxClone said:
I would love to see Iowa add men's and women's hockey. I've never quite understood why the interest in hockey drops to almost zero once you drive south of the Iowa-Minnesota border. Iowa is a cold weather state too after all, but for some reason there is almost no hockey culture in the state. Its a mystery to me.
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I live in Minneapolis but from Iowa City. It’s remarkably colder for longer months. You see ice rinks at practically every other park. Can’t do that in Iowa where it was 55 degrees last week.
 
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This is correct having lived in Des Moines for a long time then Grand Forks ND for 4 years and now Sioux Falls for almost a year…. This is about the north south dividing line for hockey due to the climate.
 
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