D3hoops.com Release
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – The Saint John's University basketball team was ranked No. 25 in the D3hoops.com Preseason Top 25 poll released Wednesday, Oct. 26.
SJU (23-5, 17-2 MIAC) won its second consecutive MIAC regular-season championship (10th overall) and third consecutive MIAC Playoff title (eighth overall) in 2021-22. The Johnnies made their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in a row and ended the regular season ranked No. 24 nationally.
Pat McKenzie '04 was named the MIAC Men's Basketball Coach of the Year for the second time of his career (2017-18) and returns a pair of All-MIAC honorees in junior wing
Ryan Thissen (Rosemount, Minn./Eastview) and sophomore guard
Kooper Vaughn (St. Charles, Minn.). Thissen was named to the All-MIAC second team and earned the MIAC Elite 22 Award, which is presented to the individual with the highest GPA among the student-athletes who played in the MIAC Playoff Championship Game. He shot 52 percent (145-for-279) from the field and led the Johnnies in scoring (13.0 ppg.), while finishing third in assists (61) and rebounding (4.5 rpg.). Thissen shot 62.5 percent (20-for-32) overall and averaged a team-best 14.7 points in the three MIAC-tournament wins.
Vaughn earned All-MIAC third-team honors and was also named to the five-man MIAC All-First Year team. Vaughn broke SJU's single-season record for three-pointers made by a freshman - 53 by Chris Schwartz '11 in 2007-08 - with 70 and finished second on the team in scoring (11.6 ppg.).
Although the Johnnies' 2022-23 schedule is bookended by road games, four of SJU's first seven games are at home and eight of the final 14 games will be played in Sexton Arena.
The season starts Nov. 8 with a matchup at a fellow NCAA Division III Tournament team in 2021-22, Wisconsin-La Crosse, before SJU hosts back-to-back games against Wisconsin-Eau Claire (Nov. 12) and Buena Vista of Iowa (Nov. 16). The Johnnies' five non-conference opponents combined for a .654 winning percentage (87-46 record) last season.
MIAC play begins with a pair of road games at St. Olaf (Nov. 19) and Gustavus Adolphus (Nov. 22), before the Johnnies welcome two consecutive opponents to Collegeville in St. Scholastica (Nov. 30) and Augsburg (Dec. 3).
SJU end the 2022 calendar year with four-straight road games, including the final two non-conference games Dec. 20-21 in Spokane, Wash. The Johnnies face host Whitworth, which went 22-5 and made the NCAA Tournament last season, in the opener and take on Linfield (Ore.) the following day.
The D3hoops.com top-25 poll is voted on by a panel of 25 coaches, sports information directors and media members from across the country, and is published weekly. Points are awarded on a 25-24-23-22-etc. basis.
