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Post by Wiswell on Apr 24, 2021 19:27:34 GMT -5
So are they the Lady Tommies? Or just the Tommies? Tommies would be kind of a weird name for a women's team. Not the worst by any stretch, but a little odd. I would argue Lady Tommies is weirder Is Tommi Stockton transferring? It could be like Inky and the Inkettes. |
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Post by Wiswell on Apr 24, 2021 19:29:50 GMT -5
or if they can get onto some of the Nebraska/Iowa talent, that would be big too and Wisconsin. We get our talent out of state more than in state. It's probably been 15 years since WI preps had DI serious talent. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 24, 2021 19:44:10 GMT -5
I don't know. Concordia has had several elite volleyball players who may have had an impact in D1. But there have been several Concordia stars who first tried D1 with little success. Great players and a great coaching staff, but size is size. You don't see a Melville or Juhnke going to Concordia. But I could see them go to St. Thomas under the right circumstances. If I'm not mistaken, I think Concordia has had a bunch of top MN Select players since I think a big coach there has ties to the program? What I understand is that St. Thomas was basically kicked out of their conference (made up of more small academic schools who don't really care about sports) because they'd boosted enrollment so high it's crazy.
St. Thomas, not exactly known as a great academic school, has tried to exponentially increase their enrollment over the past couple of years. To the point where they have so many students that they can crush their former conference opponents in any sport. The thing is, the colleges in their former conference don't care.
Take for instance, one of their former competitors. Macalester College is one of the top liberal arts colleges in the nation and is about ten blocks away from St. Thomas. They don't really give a %*$# if they win at any sport. Academics is much more important. Sports is something you do in your free time.
Anyway, I do think St. Thomas may pull in some good players in the Twin Cities metro area. For a very good player, there might be the choice of the U of M, St. Thomas, or Concordia. Yes. Padjen coaches at Select. They get good players, but not top D1 players. Hilley, McGraw, Martin, Wolf, etc. didn't go to Concordia. St. Thomas has a good academic reputation, imo. Yes, it's a big school, compared to the others. But that wasn't done to improve their teams. Also, not true that the other MIAC schools don't care about sports. They just can't compete -- some schools, some sports. |
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Post by clob on Apr 24, 2021 20:12:19 GMT -5
OK, let me rephrase that. Macalester and Carleton don't give a crap about sports. They're in a much different academic world than the rest of the conference.
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Post by pavsec5row10 on Apr 24, 2021 20:20:05 GMT -5
We get our talent out of state more than in state. It's probably been 15 years since WI preps had DI serious talent. It's those MN setters I was talking about.  |
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Post by Wiswell on Apr 24, 2021 21:35:12 GMT -5
We even got a spare from there!
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Post by vbcoltrane on Apr 24, 2021 22:57:45 GMT -5
If I'm not mistaken, I think Concordia has had a bunch of top MN Select players since I think a big coach there has ties to the program? What I understand is that St. Thomas was basically kicked out of their conference (made up of more small academic schools who don't really care about sports) because they'd boosted enrollment so high it's crazy.
St. Thomas, not exactly known as a great academic school, has tried to exponentially increase their enrollment over the past couple of years. To the point where they have so many students that they can crush their former conference opponents in any sport. The thing is, the colleges in their former conference don't care.
Take for instance, one of their former competitors. Macalester College is one of the top liberal arts colleges in the nation and is about ten blocks away from St. Thomas. They don't really give a %*$# if they win at any sport. Academics is much more important. Sports is something you do in your free time.
Anyway, I do think St. Thomas may pull in some good players in the Twin Cities metro area. For a very good player, there might be the choice of the U of M, St. Thomas, or Concordia. Yes. Padjen coaches at Select. They get good players, but not top D1 players. Hilley, McGraw, Martin, Wolf, etc. didn't go to Concordia. St. Thomas has a good academic reputation, imo. Yes, it's a big school, compared to the others. But that wasn't done to improve their teams. Also, not true that the other MIAC schools don't care about sports. They just can't compete -- some schools, some sports. Yeah, i honestly think STU wanted to increase it's profile as a university generally. The enrollment surge wasn't to win at sports, though that was probably a side effect. It may not be the MOST highly regarded school in terms of academics, but all I hear are that academics are decent to very good and I've never heard that they're bad. Plus, an STU degree seems to carry some weight around the Twin Cities - and degree prestige/weight doesn't have to be completely parallel with academic rigor.
7000 undergrads and a 500 million+ endowment. They're achieving their goal of establishing themselves as a university at a higher level.
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Post by lovebugsm on Apr 25, 2021 9:43:16 GMT -5
St. Thomas has been on this track for a while now. They are consistently making people angry/jealous with their D1 Transfers they have been getting for years. I’m not so much talking volleyball but the athletic programs as a whole. Their AD has spent time at Minnesota and Penn State. I believe he was hired to get them to D1
They were kicked out of the MIAC for “Winning too much”, however I heard it had more to do with money. The MIAC doesn’t give athletic scholarships, but an average student can end up on a basically full academic scholarship at St. Thomas and the other schools could just not financially hang with them. Is the rumor I heard. Which makes me believe it was their financial status that made the NCAA change their rules for them.
With that said. I am very excited about Minnesota having another D1 school. It’s time. I’m very excited to watch the transition and I believe they will be towards the top of the summit league by the time they are eligible for the tournament. Especially with the way kids transfer these days. I hope they can compete with the U eventually. (Not beat though, Minnesota is still my team haha) I would way rather watch and cheer for a Minnesota kid not “good” enough for the U, play at St. Thomas then all the way across the country.
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Post by kiyoat on May 5, 2021 15:21:20 GMT -5
We get our talent out of state more than in state. It's probably been 15 years since WI preps had DI serious talent. I don't know, I'd say mid majors in the region pull quite a bit of talent out of Wisconsin. I understand what you mean, though. "serious talent" meaning Big Ten talent. That doesn't mean WI doesn't turn out a ton of talent. Some of those young women simply got "missed" in recruiting by P-5 schools. Just last year South Dakota's best Libero in program history graduated: class of 2020 Anne Rasmusen from Oak Creek, WI
- Summit 2X DPOY
Our best Setter in program history graduated a couple of years before that: class of 2018 Brittany Jessen from Mendota Heights, MN
- Summit 3X SOYSo far our best OH have been: Class of 2015 Kendall Krittenbrink from Gretna, NE
- Summit POY, 2x HM AVCA All-American and Class of 2023/4 Elizabeth Juhnke from Lakeville, MN
- 2019 Summit FOY, 2020 Tournament MVP, HM AVCA All-American, future 2x POY)My point is not to beat my chest about my team. I'm just saying that all of those young ladies I listed could have started at P-5 programs. (Sami Slaughter DID of course play at Nebraska, and could have started at a ton of P-5s) Recruiting isn't a perfect science and kids get missed. That's why there are so many elite mid-majors in this upper midwest region IMHO. Just too many good athletes for the top programs to get them all. JMHO The Tommies will do very well, I think. Does that worry me as a USD fan? Not really. Playing in MSP has recruiting benefits, too. Just like playing in Denver, Omaha and KC on a yearly basis (well, not this year). |
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Post by kiyoat on May 5, 2021 15:33:14 GMT -5
Oh, also: Since there is so much discussion on the topic, the "Tommies" used to be called the "Tommys" before they started enrolling women in 1977. They changed the spelling to be more inclusive, according to Wikipedia:
I guess that is the 1970's form of inclusiveness?
Based on Twitter, looks like they also go by "Toms" for short. The more you know....
(looks like this is post #100 for me... yay?)
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Post by Brutus Buckeye on May 5, 2021 21:42:25 GMT -5
How about the Tomboys?
Okay, okay... I'll show myself out.
Yeesh, tough crowd...
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Post by AmeriCanVBfan on May 6, 2021 9:17:30 GMT -5
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Post by reader on May 6, 2021 10:07:47 GMT -5
St. Thomas has been on this track for a while now. They are consistently making people angry/jealous with their D1 Transfers they have been getting for years. I’m not so much talking volleyball but the athletic programs as a whole. Their AD has spent time at Minnesota and Penn State. I believe he was hired to get them to D1 They were kicked out of the MIAC for “Winning too much”, however I heard it had more to do with money. The MIAC doesn’t give athletic scholarships, but an average student can end up on a basically full academic scholarship at St. Thomas and the other schools could just not financially hang with them. Is the rumor I heard. Which makes me believe it was their financial status that made the NCAA change their rules for them. With that said. I am very excited about Minnesota having another D1 school. It’s time. I’m very excited to watch the transition and I believe they will be towards the top of the summit league by the time they are eligible for the tournament. Especially with the way kids transfer these days. I hope they can compete with the U eventually. (Not beat though, Minnesota is still my team haha) I would way rather watch and cheer for a Minnesota kid not “good” enough for the U, play at St. Thomas then all the way across the country. Beyond the money for individual students there is also a very serious gap in institutional goals that separates STU from the rest of the MIAC. They have built a very sizable series of graduate schools (business, law, and now a health care program that directly attacks the small but respectable programs at St Kate's and St Scholastica) and really want to be much larger school than anyone else in the conference. Their undergrad enrollment is already nearly twice the size of the next largest school, for example, and they desire more. As mentioned above, it was time and they'll probably do pretty well in VB and hockey within a couple years, though they'll never draw the athletes a Big Ten team will. The football success they've become accustomed to might not return for a long time, but I've heard the plan is to try to create excellent basketball programs as the tentpole and work out from there, similar to Xavier or Creighton. They're the only D1 Catholic within a huge radius, and the last one from Milwaukee to the coast, so they can play that angle as well. They'll probably end up stealing a few recruits from the rest of the conference, but the rest of the conference will get to play in the Twin Cities which is enough of a benefit to make it a wash. The Northern Sun conference might suffer the most, TBH. Regardless, it'll be fun to have another program around. |
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Post by vbcoltrane on May 6, 2021 10:22:47 GMT -5
St. Thomas has been on this track for a while now. They are consistently making people angry/jealous with their D1 Transfers they have been getting for years. I’m not so much talking volleyball but the athletic programs as a whole. Their AD has spent time at Minnesota and Penn State. I believe he was hired to get them to D1 They were kicked out of the MIAC for “Winning too much”, however I heard it had more to do with money. The MIAC doesn’t give athletic scholarships, but an average student can end up on a basically full academic scholarship at St. Thomas and the other schools could just not financially hang with them. Is the rumor I heard. Which makes me believe it was their financial status that made the NCAA change their rules for them. With that said. I am very excited about Minnesota having another D1 school. It’s time. I’m very excited to watch the transition and I believe they will be towards the top of the summit league by the time they are eligible for the tournament. Especially with the way kids transfer these days. I hope they can compete with the U eventually. (Not beat though, Minnesota is still my team haha) I would way rather watch and cheer for a Minnesota kid not “good” enough for the U, play at St. Thomas then all the way across the country. Beyond the money for individual students there is also a very serious gap in institutional goals that separates STU from the rest of the MIAC. They have built a very sizable series of graduate schools (business, law, and now a health care program that directly attacks the small but respectable programs at St Kate's and St Scholastica) and really want to be much larger school than anyone else in the conference. Their undergrad enrollment is already nearly twice the size of the next largest school, for example, and they desire more. As mentioned above, it was time and they'll probably do pretty well in VB and hockey within a couple years, though they'll never draw the athletes a Big Ten team will. The football success they've become accustomed to might not return for a long time, but I've heard the plan is to try to create excellent basketball programs as the tentpole and work out from there, similar to Xavier or Creighton. They're the only D1 Catholic within a huge radius, and the last one from Milwaukee to the coast, so they can play that angle as well. They'll probably end up stealing a few recruits from the rest of the conference, but the rest of the conference will get to play in the Twin Cities which is enough of a benefit to make it a wash. The Northern Sun conference might suffer the most, TBH. Regardless, it'll be fun to have another program around. I thought I read something about the health care program being in conjunction with St. Catherine's or something and not "taking over." I can't be certain, I just remember seeing something. Maybe it was just a comment to an article. But honestly, why, unless it's what's best for STU. |
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Post by kiyoat on May 6, 2021 12:29:37 GMT -5
I’m not 100% sure, but I think they go by UST, not STU. IIRC, the old Big 8 schools are the only ones that do the illogical “XU” thing when their actual name is the “University of X”. With some exceptions, of course...
Of course, I’ve been wrong before...
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