Tommies Blog: Football, Basketball Programs Highlight Dominant UST Sports Year
It's hard to ignore the success that St. Thomas athletics have had as the 2015-16 school and sports year is in the books.
For the ninth straight year, the Tommies won the MIAC all-sports championship for both men's and women's athletics. The school's only winter sport to not win or at least share a league title was men's hockey, which was second behind Augsburg.
St. Thomas also won five league titles in the spring season. It's a group that includes baseball, softball and both outdoor track teams.
But that's just the icing on the cake after John Tauer's men's basketball program won the Division III national championship, and Glenn Caruso's football program got to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl for the second time in four years. The Tommies had a 14-0 lead over Mount Union early before falling short, 49-35.
The school's winter sports success, highlighted by the men's basketball team, put St. Thomas in the top 10 of the Director's Cup before the start of the spring sports season. That meant St. Thomas athletics as a whole are among the best in Division III. The Tommies ended up with 780 points overall to finish ninth nationally.
But it wasn't all trophies and hog piles for Tommie athletics this year. The St. Thomas baseball team won the MIAC regular season title, but lost its first two league playoff games to be eliminated. The Tommies were a top-25 team virtually all spring but didn't receive an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.
It should also be noted that the basketball program lost the MIAC playoff title game to St. Olaf and earned a home regional as an at-large team. They probably should have hosted a regional last year, but it was the women's turn in Division III.
The Tommies won four games over top-10 programs, including at No. 1-ranked Augustana to go to the Final Four, on the way to its national championship.
So for some it begs the question, is St. Thomas too balanced and dominant for the MIAC?
The short answer is no. The long answer has more variables and factors than one blog can address. I'll attempt to answer a few here.
Yes, I am a St. Thomas alum. I earned my bachelor's degree in 2004. Other than track and field, St. Thomas athletics were far from dominant in my college days. The men's basketball program was slightly above average and the football program was all but in shambles, leaving much to be desired. St. John's won three of the four MIAC crowns in my four years, with Bethel winning the other.
After my four years were over, there was a fundamental shift in the philosophy at St. Thomas. A large donation that led to the construction of the multi-million dollar Anderson Athletic and Recreation Center was obviously a huge boost. But it also signified a long-term commitment to winning, and doing it the right way.
St. Thomas hired Glenn Caruso to be its football coach before the 2008 season. Don Roney resigned after the Tommies had a 2-8 campaign in 2007. In Caruso's first season, the Tommies went 7-3. A year later, 11-2 and an NCAA berth. After that came an unprecedented run of three straight MIAC titles, a run to the 2012 national title game and a 39-3 mark over those three seasons.
The men's basketball program has matched that success and then some, winning several league titles and two national championships since 2012. But there was some uncertainty in the program after that season with Steve Fritz retiring as head coach to focus solely on being the St. Thomas athletic director. Tauer was all but guaranteed to be the next head coach, but the school and athletic department still had to do a search and conduct its due diligence on outside candidates.
With the success the Tommies had in the 2015-16 year, the premise has been that St. Thomas athletics have always been dominant and always will be. That just simply isn't true.
Look at the football numbers. St. Thomas has 18 MIAC titles. Its biggest rival, St. John's, has that nearly doubled with 32. The Johnnies also have four national championships, the most recent coming in 2003. Gustavus has more football titles than St. Thomas with 22, though the Gusties haven't won one since 1987. St. Thomas leads in men's basketball regular season titles with 31, including 10 straight, and women's basketball has 15.
It's also inaccurate to think St. Thomas is the best at every sport and no other program has a chance to win. St. John's has had its fair share of success in men's golf. Carleton and Gustavus are pretty much always strong in tennis.
Sure, St. Thomas has had its share of success in sports. But they've also invested in the department to get that success. Should they apologize to the other schools for that? Absolutely not. Some MIAC schools have other priorities higher than athletics and that's fine, but to suggest a school or program should leave a conference because they are winning too much is short-sighted and ignorant.
Some have called for St. Thomas to move to Division II or even Division I. Either move wouldn't make sense, both for financial and competitive reasons. It would require a far bigger athletic budget for scholarships and travel, one that simply doesn't exist, and it would be tough to find a league where they could compete and not be on a plane every other week. This year was absolutely a dominant year for the Tommies, more than probably coaches and athletes would admit was possible. It was a year that will be nearly impossible to match in the future.
But instead of complaining about it, other schools can and should try to do something about it by winning.
There aren't many complaints when St. John's celebrates a MIAC football title, but when St. Thomas wins? They need to leave the MIAC and play tougher competition. The interesting part about St. Thomas and St. John's is also what has fostered the rivalry between the two. The schools recruit similar student-athletes who want to compete for winning programs. But there's a bias there with St. Thomas being in the heart of the Twin Cities and St. John's being in Collegeville, outside the metro. If you don't don the purple, you don't like them and that's just the way it is.
I'll be the first to admit it does get a little monotonous and annoying when the same team wins the league title in the same sport every year, regardless of what the league or the sport is. But instead of complaining about it, athletes and coaches should use that energy for a greater purpose and do something about it.
So to sum it all up, St. Thomas had an unprecedented year in athletics, one that should be celebrated and that the school should be proud of. It's one that will be nearly impossible for them to match in the future, but that won't stop them from trying. It should present a challenge to other schools and their athletic programs to strive to get better. After all, isn't that part of what sports is all about?
