Gophers men's basketball passed by St. Thomas in latest KenPom ratings

The Gophers do not have the top men's basketball team in Minnesota.

Dec 14, 2023; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; St. Thomas (MN) Tommies head coach Johnny Tauer celebrates a call during the second half against the Marquette Golden Eagles at Fiserv Forum. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

After Thursday night's blowout loss at home against Purdue, Gophers men's basketball has been passed by crosstown foe St. Thomas in the latest KenPom ratings.

There are currently no metrics or data points to support that the notion that the Golden Gophers have the best Division I men's basketball team in the state, though we'll never know for sure because the Gophers and Tommies aren't going to play each other.

Believe it or not, all the way back in the preseason, the Gophers were rated 51st in the country according to popular analytical website KenPom.com. Following their disastrous 8-6 start to the 2024-25 season, they've plummeted all the way to No. 121.

The only other university with a Division I men's basketball program in Minnesota is St. Thomas andt the Tommies are off to an 11-5 start to the season, including notable wins over North Dakota State, Bowling Green and Montana.

KenPom rates St. Thomas as the No. 119 team in the nation.

KenPom ratings (as of Jan. 3, 2025) / Pic via: KenPom.com

Prior to the 2021-22 season, St. Thomas made the jump from Division III in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) all the way to Division I, competing in the Summit League. Fast forward to this season, they're tied with NDSU for the best overall record in the Summit League.

Minnesota hired Ben Johnson as head coach before the 2021-22 season, the same year the Tommies made their unprecedented jump. This is not the first time the Gophers have fallen behind St. Thomas in KenPom, as the Tommies finished 202nd in 2023 while Minnesota was 216th after a disastrous 9-22 campaign.

The Summit League is a substantially different level of competition than the Big Ten, but St. Thomas has out-paced the Gophers in wins by a margin of 60 to 49 since the 2021-22 season. 2024-25 will be the final season that the Tommies are ineligible for the NCAA Tournament due to their leap from DIII to DI. Starting in 2025-26, the Tommies will be a legitimate threat to make the NCAA Tournament, putting even more pressure on the Gophers to represent Minnesota at a tourney level.

The Gophers have not faced St. Thomas since they've transitioned to Division I and it sounds like Minnesota has zero interest in scheduling a nonconference matchup anytime soon. Minnesota now trails the Tommies in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) and KenPom, which are commonly viewed as the top two metrics to rank teams in college basketball. Anyone who has watched both St. Thomas and Minnesota play this season would be well aware that a neutral site game might be a true toss-up.

St. Thomas is currently building a state-of-the-art, $175 million basketball arena. Conference affiliation gives the Gophers an upper hand in the future outlook of both programs, but if Minnesota doesn't act fast, the Tommies' men's basketball program could soon become the premier program in the state.

Look no further than how BYU — a private school like St. Thomas — landed the No. 1 recruit in the national class of 2026, AJ Dybantsa. Dybantsa is receiving a reported $7 million Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal, which is said to include $5 million from BYU's NIL collective and additional compensation from brands like Nike and Red Bull.

St. Thomas has had no trouble with private funding to boost its athletics department, and if that trend continues then the Tommies might be offering more money and newer facilities to high-end recruits and standout players in the transfer portal for years to come.

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