St. Thomas men and Gophers women reach their highest ever NET basketball rankings

Johnny Tauer and Dawn Plitzuweit went into Christmas break coaching the two hottest Division I basketball teams in Minnesota with the St. Thomas men and the Gophers women, respectively.

They were playing entertaining ball. They were efficient on offense and defense. They didn’t have the toughest non-league schedule, but they won enough to set program highs in NET rankings, the evaluation tool for NCAA tournament selection.

After the largest margin of victory in a Big Ten game in eight years, the Gophers' NET jumped to No. 28 following a 90-54 win against Penn State last Saturday.

Tori McKinney, Amaya Battle and company brought the toughness and execution on both ends ,“the best that we’ve seen” all season, Plitzuweit said.

“That’s something we have to continue to build upon,” the Gophers second-year coach added, if they want to contend in the Big Ten.

Sure, Tauer knows his Tommies (10-5) aren’t even eligible to play in the NCAA tournament until 2026-27 after the transition from Division III. He still figured out how to get into the NET’s top 100 for the first time this year. The Tommies reached 99th before falling to 106th on Monday. Not bad for a predicted fourth-place Summit League team.

In the first year at D-I, St. Thomas ended at 314th in the NET. The second and third seasons, the Tommies finished 199th and 159th, respectively.

“NET ranking and Ken Pom are indicators of how you’re doing,” said Tauer, who saw a six-game winning streak snapped in an 81-79 overtime loss Sunday at UC Riverside. “The thing we’re pleased with is we continue to get better every year. We’re thrilled with the progress — and it’s probably faster than what a lot of people thought it would be. We don’t take it for granted.”

Unlike St. Thomas, Plitzuweit’s Gophers (14-1) are NCAA tournament eligible and projected as one of the last teams in the field on ESPN analyst Charlie Creme’s recent mock bracket. That’s likely based on Minnesota’s top 30 NET, the seventh best among Big Ten teams before Tuesday’s 59-50 win at Wisconsin. In comparison, the 8-5 St. Thomas women are 187th in the NET.

The U women didn’t look the part of an NCAA tourney caliber team in a 19-point loss at Nebraska in early December. That game seemed to knock the Gophers' soft schedule that ranks 294th nationally. But they learned lessons in Lincoln, Neb.

“I thought Nebraska out-toughed us in a lot of different ways,” Plitzuweit said. “When you go on the road, you have to have it at another level on top of that. We didn’t have that.”

Aside from their NET ranking, it was hard to determine if the Gophers were legit before the blowout over the Nittany Lions. They won 12 nonconference games by an average of nearly 32 points against mostly smaller conference foes. They also won by 40 points or more three times.

Some might call that manipulating the NET. But not so fast. The NCAA no longer uses scoring margin in that formula. It does use offensive and defensive efficiency, though.

Plitzuweit started out 10-0 this season with leading scorer Mara Braun limited to just five games with injury. The coach said the Gophers were strategic to schedule opponents to prepare for certain styles in the Big Ten.

“We’ve had different games where we faced teams that pressured us, made us play fast and changed their defenses,” Plitzuweit said. “Penn State’s a hard team to prep for. Except we had other teams on our schedule that did similar-type things. Obviously not a Big Ten team, but teams that made you feel uncomfortable and made you play sped up.”

The Tommies are one of the least experienced teams in college basketball based on D-I experience with a ranking of 263rd nationally, per Ken Pom. Their leading scorer Miles Barnstable (13.3 points per game) played D-III at Wisconsin Whitewater last season.

But Tauer had his longest win streak at the Division I level this year, including victories against Big Sky preseason favorite Montana and at Northern Colorado. The Tommies, who played road games at Arizona State and Oklahoma State, have a schedule ranked higher but not by much than Ben Johnson’s Gophers men at 270th to 285th. That helped the Tommies rate higher in the NET (106th to 154th as of Monday) than their Big Ten counterpart as well.

How that translates to a better season in Summit League play remains to be seen. St. Thomas starts off with a tough slate at North Dakota State and North Dakota in January.

“Every single game is an opportunity,” Tauer said. “It’s been a really, really fun group to coach. It’s been fun to see what we’ve accomplished in the transition in three years.”

Five Minnesota ballers who stood out:

Paige Bueckers, UConn

The former Hopkins star had 23 points Sunday in a win vs. Providence, which was her fifth straight 20-point game, including 22 vs. USC’s Juju Watkins.

Maddyn Greenway, Providence Academy

After a 36-point game Friday in a win vs. No. 1 Class 4A Hopkins, Greenway kept her team undefeated with 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists Saturday vs. Duluth Marshall’s Chloe Johnson, who had 42 points.

Gianna Kneepkens, Utah

The 6-foot junior from Duluth had back-to-back 24-point performances in wins vs. Arizona State and Washington during a five-game win streak that also included an upset over No. 3 Notre Dame.

Brogan Madson, Mankato East

The 6-1 Sioux Falls recruit had 27 points, seven rebounds and six assists in an 81-77 overtime win against Alexandria in the matchup of top 5 teams in Class 3A at the Capitol Classic at Concordia-St. Paul.

Spencer Swenson, Sauk Rapids-Rice

The 6-6 senior led his team with 32 points last Friday in an 87-73 win vs. Champlin Park in the top-5 Class 4A battle at the Granite City Classic.

4,000 Career points milestone for Minnehaha Academy senior Addi Mack, who now ranks second in state girls history behind former Braham star Rebekah Dahlman’s 5,060 points.

23 Seconds remaining when Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards nailed the game-winning three-pointer Friday in Houston.

8 Consecutive field goals for Gophers senior Mike Mitchell Jr., including 6-for-6 on three-pointers in the first half of Sunday’s win vs. Morgan State.

6 Consecutive games scoring 32 points or more for Richfield guard and boys state scoring leader C.J. Armstrong, who has high games of 38, 39 and 53 points this season.

Basketball Across Minnesota will be published weekly on startribune.com. Don’t be a stranger on X after reading, as chatting about these stories makes them even more fun to share. Thanks, Marcus (@Marcus_R_Fuller on X).