COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - When Troy Bigalke, Mike Nester and the rest of their teammates on the Saint John's University basketball team defeated Gustavus Adolphus 92-80 before a raucous crowd of over 2,400 in Sexton Arena on Feb. 24, 2001, they didn't just win an MIAC playoff title.

They also helped their head coach Jim Smith reach a very big milestone.

The victory in that season's conference title game also happened to be win No. 588 for Smith, tying him with legendary former Hamline coach Joe Hutton as the winningest coach at any level of college basketball in Minnesota history.

"We carried him off the court that night," recalled Bigalke, who won the second of two-straight MIAC Most Valuable Player awards that season. "That was definitely another incentive for us to go out and get things done."

Smith – who retired following 51 seasons at SJU after the 2014-15 campaign – finished his career with 786 career victories and his teams won seven MIAC regular-season titles, five conference postseason titles and made 17 trips to the NAIA and NCAA Division III national tournaments.

The 2000-01 squad was a group that checked each of those boxes, finishing 22-6 overall and advancing all the way to the national sectional semifinals before falling 71-65 to host school Christopher Newport in Newport News, Va.

Leading the way was Bigalke, who averaged 18.2 points per game his senior season to finish his career with 1,568 – a total that still ranks fourth in program history. 

But juniors Nester and Luke Witt, who averaged 13.4 and 12 points per game respectively that year, also finished their careers well over 1,000 points. Ryan Keating, a transfer from the University of Minnesota who quarterbacked the SJU football team to the 2003 national title, ran the offense at point guard.

Sophomore Shawn McGuire, a 6-foot-8 transfer from Division II St. Cloud State, provided another solid presence inside, and sophomore Kevin Buth, who came off the bench that season, would go on to be a 1,000-point scorer as well (meaning there were four eventual members of the 1,000-point club on that roster alone). 

Seniors Sam Bugbee, Ryan Dusha and Drew Gibson, junior Dusty Lamker and sophomore Mark Nagle were among others who also played a key role in the team's rotation.

"The talent we had was amazing," said Nester, who scored a team-best 23 points and had six rebounds in the conference title win over the Gusties. "Troy was our leader, but there were so many other guys who contributed night in and night out. Everything came together for us and gelled."

SJU fell 66-63 to second-place Gustavus when the two teams met for the first time that season on Jan. 3 in Collegeville. Senior Mark Gustavson drilled a 3-pointer with six seconds remaining to lift his team to the win.

But the Johnnies won 74-67 on Jan. 31 in St. Peter. Then, after knocking off Gustavus in the conference-title game, they won the fourth meeting 84-75 in the second round of the NCAA tournament on March 3. 

Bigalke scored 21 points and Nester finished with 18 and seven rebounds that night as the student section in the standing-room-only crowd of 2,500 relentlessly razzed a Gustie standout who'd just broken up with his girlfriend.

"That was wild," Nester said. "It always amazes me how much research some fans do to get into a player's head. I remember when we played St. Thomas down there the year before (a 78-64 victory in the MIAC championship game). Their fans were riding Troy mercilessly. He was usually kind of a quiet guy, but when he hit a big shot (part of a 33-point performance), he looked up at them and yelled 'I am the MVP.'"

"But during that last Gustavus game, we played really well. People talk about how hard it is to beat a good team three times in one year. I remember thinking about that before the game got started. But we went out there and took care of business."

"The atmosphere was just incredible," Bigalke recalled. "A lot of those games that season, you had to have a ticket in advance just to get in the door. The league was so deep and the rivalries were so strong. The top three or four teams were all so good. 

"Gustavus had a lot of talent, too. As a competitor, those are the kind of games you want to be part of."

The Johnnies continued to look good for most of their matchup against Christopher Newport in the tournament's round of 16 on March 9, leading by 10 points with 6:10 to go. But the talented captains came alive down the stretch, rallying to win 71-65 - an outcome both Bigalke and Nester admit still haunts them

"I wish we could have gone further," Nester said. "We had a big lead and things just got away from us. But it was still such a magical season. That was an incredible team.

"Being with those guys and having the success we did was the most fun I ever had on a basketball court," Bigalke added. "Everyone got along so well. There weren't a lot of egos on that team. Everybody shared the basketball and played hard. You couldn't ask for a better group."

•    Also 25 years ago, SJU senior wrestler Brandon Novak captured the national title at 197 pounds at the NCAA Division III national meet in Waterloo, Iowa.

Novak, an All-American in football who went on to become a longtime assistant coach for the Johnnies before leaving to take over as the head coach at Loras (Iowa) last month, topped Wartburg's Matt Buskohl 7-3 in the championship match.

40 years ago (1986)
Seven SJU swimmers qualified for the Division III national meet and the Johnnies set seven school records en route to a second-place finish behind only reigning conference titan St. Olaf at the MIAC Championships Feb. 20-22.

Chris Barta led the way by winning the 100 backstroke in a conference, pool and school record time of 52.60 seconds.

90 years ago (1936)
Iron Ranger Eddie Maus scored twice as the SJU hockey team handed Macalester its first loss of the season, winning 4-1 in St. Cloud on Feb. 20.