University of St. Thomas men’s basketball head coach Johnny Tauer spoke with WCCO Radio host Vineeta Sawkar to discuss the excitement surrounding the Tommies’ home opener at the new Lee & Penny Anderson Arena against Army.
From the conversation:
Sawkar: Tell me a little bit about the arena. Hockey already opened their season and they’re part of it. What makes this such a spot? What makes it different, this arena and the facilities that you have?
Tauer: There are so many things, and we have only a few minutes, so I’ll hit on a couple. One, what it represents, both the generosity, the gratitude we have, and the commitment that St. Thomas has toward athletics, and not just athletics, but the student-athlete experience.
There are actually seven teams housed over there: men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, and softball. All seven of those teams benefit from incredible facilities, including the training room and the weight room, which are both phenomenal.
Then our team spaces are really remarkable, from a locker room to a lounge to a film room with stadium-style seating and our own practice court. If you look around the country, I don’t know that there is a better facility from an amenities perspective, but also in terms of the fan experience.
I could go on and on because the way it was designed by our leadership team, led by Phil Esten, was so artfully created with no detail spared.
Sawkar: Before we get to the festivities tomorrow, how about this team of yours? You’re coming off a loss, 84 to 58, against St. Mary’s College. How does this team look for the season as you face Army tomorrow?
Tauer: Yeah, we’re really excited about this team. It’s got a lot of new faces. Against St. Mary’s, we were tied 18 minutes into the game, but we ended the first half slowly. They’re one of the best teams in college basketball, with 17 straight 20-win seasons, and they don’t lose at home. So we knew it was going to be a formidable challenge.
I think we learned a lot. We’ve only got four guys on our roster who have really played meaningful minutes in college. Part of the early season nonconference schedule is about getting those guys acclimated to the pace of college basketball and helping them learn and grow.
They’re just a wonderful group when you look at them as people, even before you look at them as students and basketball players.
Tomorrow against Army, they’re a very disciplined team. They had 17 wins last year. You can imagine kids who are at West Point; they’re tough, smart, and disciplined. I think it’s going to be a really fun matchup between two teams that play basketball in a very unselfish way.
It’s also such a special game, the perfect game to open the arena with, because Lee Anderson went to West Point and played basketball at Army. For him to have these two teams playing at St. Thomas in the opening of Lee and Penny Anderson Arena, I cannot imagine a better situation or a more fitting way to honor and thank the Andersons.
