Saint John's basketball opens its 2023-24 season with a 7 p.m. game at Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Tuesday, Nov. 14. – Listen Live (WBHR-660 AM) | Live Stats | Live Video

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Experience will not be in short supply on the Saint John's University basketball team this season. 

The Johnnies – who finished 17-10 and advanced to the MIAC Championship game last season – return four of the five players who started the title matchup. The group is led by senior wing Ryan Thissen (Rosemount, Minn./Eastview), who led the team in scoring with an average of 18.1 points per game and earned All-MIAC honors in 2022-23. 

But that veteran leadership will be put to the test by one of the strongest schedules the program has faced in recent years. 

Here is a more complete look at how the 2023-24 Johnnies look to stack up:

All-Region Returner
Thissen was named All-MIAC and selected to the D3hoops.com All-Region 9 third team after leading the Johnnies in scoring (18.1 ppg.), minutes played (34.9 mpg.), 20-point games (10) and steals (22) with a .546 shooting percentage in 25 games last season. He led the MIAC in assist/turnover ratio (+3.7) and was second in free-throw percentage (.866), fourth in shooting percentage (.562) and seventh in scoring (17.6 ppg.) in 18 conference games. 

Thissen was named to the MIAC All-Playoff team after he played all but one minute and averaged 24 points, five rebounds and two assists per contest, while shooting 63.6 percent (21-for-33) from the field in two postseason games. He begins his senior season 88 points away from becoming the 40th Johnnie to reach 1,000 in their career.

Off the court, Thissen earned his second consecutive MIAC Elite 22 Award, which last year was presented to the individual with the highest GPA among the student-athletes who played in the MIAC Tournament. He also became the fifth Johnnie basketball student-athlete, and the eighth overall, to be named an Academic All-American with College Sports Communicators first-team honors.

Kooper Hooper
An All-MIAC third-team selection in 2021-22 and All-MIAC honorable mention last season, Vaughn played 25 games and led SJU in both three-pointers (59) and free-throw percentage (.890, 65-for-73), and was second in scoring (11.8 ppg.). He finished fifth in the MIAC among those with 100 attempts or more from three-point range, at 38.3 percent (44-for-115). His 44 treys were good for seventh in league play. 

Vaughn joined Thissen on the MIAC All-Playoff team after he averaged 12.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 2.0 assists in the two postseason games. He begins his junior season tied for second in program history with a .870 percentage (127-for-146) from the charity stripe and needs 15 three-pointers to crack the program's top-10 list.

Guard Power
SJU returns six guards who played 19 games or more in 2022-23. Senior Blake Berg (West Fargo, N.D./Sheyenne) played 26 games last season, including 12 starts, and averaged 6.6 points and 2.5 rebounds per contest. He shot 47.9 percent (69-for-144) from the field. 

Senior Brandon Adelman (New London, Minn./New London-Spicer) also played 26 games, averaging 6.4 points and 3.5 rebounds. He shot 52.8 percent from the field (56-for-106), including a team-best 51.1 percent from beyond the arc (23-for-45). 

The lone returner who played all 27 games (22 starts) last season, junior Zach Longueville (Eagan, Minn. St. Croix Lutheran), averaged 5.3 points per contest and dished out a team-leading 89 assists. Junior Andrew Wagner (Prospect Heights, Ill./Hersey) and sophomore Kyle Johnson (Prior Lake, Minn./DeLaSalle) each played in 22 games last season. Wagner shot 45.2 percent from the field (14-for-31), while Johnson shot 44.4 percent (24-for-54) and 42.5 percent from beyond the arc (17-for-40). Junior Luke Healy (Hudson, Wis.) appeared in 19 games, with five starts, in his first season as a Johnnie and averaged 10.3 minutes per contest.

More Depth
Two other Johnnies - senior wing Connor Schwob (Waconia, Minn.) and junior wing Griffin Rushin (Baxter, Minn./Brainerd) – return after playing 15 games or more last season. Schwob shot 64.3 percent (9-for-14) from the floor with an average of 7.1 minutes per contest and Rushin shot 53.8 percent (14-for-26) in 6.3 minutes of play per game.

Pair of Transfers
The Johnnies' 2023-24 roster includes two Division II transfers in sophomore guard Chris Mitchell (Green Bay, Wis./Notre Dame Academy) and junior post Jonathan Zinniel (New Ulm, Minn./Cathedral). Mitchell played 20 games, with one start, last season at Newman (Kan.), while Zinniel spent three seasons at Southwest Minnesota State. 

Home-Court Advantage
The 2023-24 season is the 51st for Saint John's in the Warner Palaestra/Sexton Arena, where the Johnnies boast a 460-150 (.754) all-time record, including a 63-9 (.875) mark over the last six years.

The 2023-24 Schedule
Based on last year's records, the schedule features the toughest non-conference competition the program has seen in quite some time. The five non-conference opponents combined for a 106-37 (.741) record in 2022-23 and include two NCAA Division III Tournament teams. 

Four of the five non-conference games will be played in two out-of-state tournaments. SJU opens the 2023-24 season Nov. 14 at Wisconsin-Eau Claire, then ventures to Aberdeen, S.D. for Small College Basketball's 2023 Champions Classic on the campus of Division II Northern State University. The Johnnies face Wisconsin-Platteville Nov. 17 and Stockton (N.J.) Nov. 18. Platteville finished 14-12 last season and fell to Eau Claire (17-10 record) by two points in the quarterfinal round of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) tournament. Stockton, meanwhile, tallied a 24-6 and advanced to the NCAA's Sweet 16.

Non-conference play wraps up for SJU with a pre-Christmas trip on Dec. 19-20 to St. Petersburg, Fla., for two more neutral-site games against Mount Union (Ohio) - ranked No. 5 in the D3hoops.com preseason poll - and Nazareth (N.Y.). Mount Union posted a 30-3 record and could have won the 2022-23 national championship had Christopher Newport (Va.) not scored a last-second basket to take the title with a 74-72 score. Nazareth, meanwhile, finished 21-6 with a loss in the Empire 8 Conference's championship game.

SJU begins MIAC action Nov. 21 at Carleton – a rematch of last season's MIAC championship game – before returning home for three-straight contests against Saint Mary's (Nov. 29), Hamline (Dec. 2) and Augsburg (Dec. 4). The Johnnies visit Concordia Dec. 6 and play host to Macalester Dec. 9 to wrap up the fall-semester portion of the conference slate before their trip to Florida.

Five of the Johnnies' first six games of 2024 are on the road as only two contests – Jan. 15 vs. Gustavus Adolphus and Jan. 24 vs. Carleton – out of the month's nine are scheduled to be played at home. The rugged road schedule means that the month of February will be a bit more friendly for SJU, which plays four of its last five games in Collegeville: Feb. 3 vs. St. Scholastica (Alumni/Senior Day), Feb. 5 vs. Concordia, Feb. 7 vs. St. Olaf and Feb. 14 vs. Bethel. The Johnnies boast a 460-150 (.754) record at Sexton Arena (Warner Palaestra), including a 63-9 (.875) mark over the last six seasons.

The MIAC quarterfinals are set for Tuesday, Feb. 20, and the MIAC semifinals follow on Thursday, Feb. 22. The MIAC championship game, with the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Division III tournament on the line, is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 24. The high seed hosts in all three rounds.

A LOOK AT THE BLUGOLDS: Wisconsin-Eau Claire (0-1 overall) opened its 2023-24 season with a 76-64 home loss to St. Norbert (Wis.) on Saturday (Nov. 11). The Blugolds held a narrow 39-38 lead at halftime, but a second-half surge propelled the Green Knights to victory. SNC started the second half with an 8-2 run to gain a 46-41 lead, but UWEC responded with a 6-0 run later and led 53-49 with 12:50 to go. A three-pointer from St. Norbert at the 11:02 mark gave the Green Knights the final lead change of the afternoon as the visitors went on a 17-0 run to seal the win. Senior (6-foot-5) guard Cade Hall finished with a double-double – 16 points and 11 rebounds – and senior (6-foot-7) forward Carter Huschka had a game-high 21 points with seven boards.

UWEC ended the 2022-23 season with a 17-10 record, including an 8-6 mark in the WIAC to finish fourth. The Blugolds return two starters from last year's team, senior (6-foot-1) guard Michael Casper (2022-23 All-WIAC honorable mention) and senior (6-foot-2) guard David Ijadimbola. Casper led the team in 3-point attempts (171) and makes (68), while finishing second in scoring (11.9 ppg.). Ijadimbola led the team in assists (51) and finished second in steals (21) with 6.6 points per contest. Huschka started 12 of the 23 games he played in and finished second on the team in rebounds (105) with 7.2 points per game. UWEC was picked to finish sixth out of eight teams in the WIAC's preseason coaches' poll released Nov. 2.

LAST YEAR: Longueville hit a 3-pointer with 29 seconds left to play in the second overtime and then-No. 25 SJU held on to edge Wisconsin-Eau Claire 71-70 last Nov. 12 (2022) in Sexton Arena. The score was tied at 61 at the end of regulation and 63 after the first overtime. UWEC's Brock Voigt then hit a layup and a 3-pointer to put his team on top 68-63 with 3:18 remaining.

But Vaughn hit a jump shot with 2:44 to go, then followed that up with a 3-pointer with 1:10 to go that tied the score at 68. Longueville's 3-pointer gave SJU the lead, but Voigt followed with a layup to cut the gap to one. Longueville was fouled and went to the line, but missed the front end of a one-and-one. The Blugolds got the ball back, but a last-second jump shot fell short.

Vaughn finished with 16 points to lead the Johnnies. Berg added 14 points, while Thissen and post Carson Schoeller '23. Schoeller also added 11 rebounds to record the second double-double of his collegiate career.

Voigt led all scorers with 30 points and added nine rebounds.

SJU finished 28-for-68 from the field and 8-for-19 from 3-point range. The Blugolds were 28-for-59 from the field and 5-for-19 from beyond the arc. The Johnnies outrebounded UWEC, 41-39.

SERIES HISTORY: The Johnnies are 6-3 all-time against the Blugolds on the hardwood, but just 1-3 in Eau Claire, Wis.

-Dec. 8, 1951: SJU 73, at UWEC 71
-Nov. 28, 1952: at SJU 100, UWEC 78
-Dec. 28, 1968: SJU 59, UWEC 49 (in St. Cloud)
-Nov. 26, 1982: at UWEC 57, SJU 47
-Nov. 26, 1983: at UWEC 69, SJU 55
-Nov. 23, 1984: at UWEC 78, SJU 53
-Nov. 27, 2009: SJU 68, UWEC 66 (in Oshkosh, Wis.)
-March 7, 2020: at SJU 78, UWEC 69 (NCAA Second Round)
-Nov. 12, 2022: at SJU 71, UWEC 70 (2OT)