The Summit League coaches’ preseason poll placed St. Thomas second when it’s all said and done at the end of the conference season. The Tommies advanced to the League Championship semifinal for the fourth consecutive season a season ago, and made the NIT in its first season of postseason eligibility.
“I think this team’s got big chemistry,” UST Assistant Coach Cameron Rundles told MSR after a practice. “We got guys who haven’t played in our system yet. But I’ll say this: I do think that we’re ahead of where we have been in the past.
“We got four or five guys that are old guys that’s played for us, and then to blend these guys with the JoJo Mitchells and some of these other new younger guys. It is kind of a nice mix.”
UST’s 2026-27 season tips off Monday, Nov. 2, at Presbyterian, then plays at Minnesota Friday, Nov. 6, before its Nov. 8 home opener against Green Bay.
This year’s Tommies placed the most preseason first-team players of any Summit League team since 2021-22, certainly a program high: Graduate students Kendall Blue and Carter Bjerke and junior Austin Herro all were selected to the six-player first team.
Blue, a 6-6 guard/forward from Woodbury, returns to St. Thomas after spending last season at Nebraska. He previously played three seasons as a Tommie and left as the team’s Division I leader in career starts. However, due to legal reasons, Blue’s status at press time still is unclear as he and other players are awaiting a court decision whether they can play a fifth year this season.
Minneapolis native JoJo Mitchell III is a highly touted freshman who St. Thomas hopes will be a key contributor this season. He played his high school ball at Cretin.
“I’m really impressed with JoJo’s adjustment” thus far, observed Rundles of the 6-2 guard. “Because if I tell him something once and show him something once, he got it. He impressed me and surprised me with his IQ, and how he reads and knows the game and doesn’t turn (the ball) over a lot.”
Coach Rundles, also a Minneapolis native, a De La Salle and Wofford College grad, begins his sixth season on the staff. He’s the only Black coach on Johnny Tauer’s staff.
“I’ve grown a lot,” he admitted. “I’ve grown so much. I’ve grown every year, and it’s the reason why I took this job.” After a 10-year professional playing career overseas and a year as an assistant coach at his college alma mater, Rundles came to St. Paul five seasons ago, largely on the insistence of the veteran head coach.
“I just knew how much I was gonna learn and grow just being around (Tauer) every day,” said the Tommies assistant coach, who pointed out that his coaching has expanded this season. “I’m in a different role where I’m really controlling the defense,” stressed Rundles, the team’s “defensive coordinator.” “It’s really gotten my view broader, and it’s allowed me to coach in a different way. I think I coached really a lot harder before in terms of nitpicking … but now with my position, I’m able to just look at the overview and kind of see what our team needs more.
“We got a great staff,” surmised Rundles.
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