There were times last season, when the St. Thomas men’s basketball team was rolling to a 19-win season and a fourth-place finish in the Summit League, that it was fair to ask, Where would this team be without Andrew Rohde?

Beginning Monday night, when they travel to the Bay Area to play the University of California Golden Bears, this year’s version of the Tommies will start to provide the answer.

Coach Johnny Tauer’s team returns 11 players, but the loss of the do-everything Rohde, who transferred to Virginia after a brilliant freshman season in St. Paul, ensures that the Tommies, while still relying on their share-the-ball, team-basketball approach, will have a new look.

“Part of our job as coaches is to use the offseason to develop guys,” Tauer said. “You figure out their unique skill sets, then you put them in the right spot. One of our biggest challenges is, how do we get this group to grow into their roles?”

In particular, the Tommies will be counting on sophomores Kendall Blue, a 6-foot-6 guard, and Ahjany Lee, 6-9 forward/center,  to take a step forward.

“They got a lot of experience last year,” Tauer said. “Some of it was tough lessons — all of it was valuable. Ahjany, I think, has probably improved in every facet of the game. He’s stronger, he’s shooting it better. Last year he had a lot of ‘freshman’ fouls. This year I think he’s going to be one of the premier defenders around.

“Kendall has improved his shot, which I think is important. Probably more than anything, the mental tenacity, understanding what it takes every single possession on a college court. For most of these guys, you could take a possession off in high school and not necessarily get burned for it. So for him, we’re looking at his defensive mindset and toughness.”

Tauer said he has not yet settled on a starting five, adding that the group that takes the floor on Monday won’t necessarily be the Tommies’ starters moving forward. A pair of 6-6 graduate-student forwards, Parker Bjorklund and Brooks Allen, are locks. Blue and Lee also are good bets, leaving one guard position uncertain.

Technically, the Tommies will be starting a new point guard due to the loss of Riley Miller to graduation, but the guard positions are interchangeable in Tauer’s system. Holdovers Ben Nau, Ryan Dufault, Dom Martinelli and Drake Dobbs, Division III transfer Raheem Anthony and freshman Hayden Tibbits are all in the mix.

“When you look at what Andrew Rohde brought last year, and Riley Miller, we’ve been very transparent that we’re not going to go and replace them,” Tauer said. “But I think there are
things we can do to be really good in the backcourt.

“Raheem Anthony isn’t a classic point guard, but he and Kendall Blue are versatile playmakers. We’ve always felt that having multiple ball-handlers on the court at all times is the key. Passing and catching have been two hallmarks of our program. That’s shown up in our low turnover numbers over the years.”

Tauer said eventually he will settle into a nine- or 10-man rotation. One other player who figures to be part of that is redshirt freshman forward Carter Bjerke, who at 6-9, 250 pounds, is best know for his three-point shooting ability. Tauer said Bjerke used his redshirt season to improve his strength and conditioning.

“Carter is a prolific three-point shooter, but he’s also a really smart, crafty basketball player,” Tauer said. “His passing, I think, is underrated, and he’s developing a low-post game that, I think over the next four years, he is going to be a fun guy to play offense with because of all different things he can do.”

Briefly

The Tommies will play another high-profile nonconference opponent on Dec. 14 when they travel to Milwaukee to face Marquette. Tauer said the goal is to continue to schedule teams from nationally known private Catholic schools moving forward.

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The Wild gave fans a treat on Sunday. Instead of the usual drills in what has become an annual outdoor fall practice, Minnesota staged a 3-on-3 scrimmage at the Recreation Outdoor Center in St. Louis Park.

As an additional surprise, the overflow crowd got to see Jared Spurgeon on the rink, skating in competitive hockey.

Spurgeon’s white jerseys, featuring teammates as Kirill Kaprizov, Mats Zucarello and Jonas Brodin, rallied from a 5-2 deficit to edge a green team featuring Matt Boldy, Ryan Hartman and Joel Eriksson Ek, 6-5.

It was the first time since preseason games that any fans were able to see Spurgeon competing, and the veteran defenseman is set to travel to New York on Monday for a three-game road trip.

That doesn’t mean he’ll play against the Islanders on Tuesday night.

“I don’t know,” coach Dean Evason said. “Obviously, he’s progressing to the point he can be out there playing this (but) he’s still not in contract drills, so we’ll see how he progresses. … We’ll obviously have to evaluate day by day.”

Injured veterans Freddy Gaudreau (upper body) and Alex Goligoski (lower body) were at what has become a family event for the team, and fans, but each was in street clothes. Neither has progressed to skating, and both will stay in Minnesota this week.

Spurgeon hasn’t played since sustaining an upper body injury when he was checked into the boards in an Oct. 5 preseason game in Chicago but has been practicing with teammates since Wednesday.

“If he’s cleared to play and he feels he’s ready to go, then we put him in the lineup,” Evason said. “We obviously want him back, but we also want him healthy for the entire rest of the season.”

Rookie leaders

Center Marco Rossi scored on a pass from Kirill Kaprizov for a 4-3, third-period lead over the New York Rangers on Saturday as the Wild ended a four-game winless streak with a 5-4 shootout victory at Xcel Energy Center.

It was the fifth goal in 11 games this season, tying him with Chicago’s Connor Bedard for the lead among all NHL rookies on Sunday.

Since Evason juggled his lines in the second period of a 5-3 loss to New Jersey last Thursday, Rossi has been playing with wings Kaprizov and Matt Boldy. In those five periods, that trio has combined for three goals — one on a power play — and six assists.

Boldy, who has played in two games since returning from a seven-game injury absence (upper body), scored the deciding goal in Saturday’s shootout.

“They played with a lot of pace. They all have a skill set that helps them find each other,” Evason said “Bolds has only played a couple of games and he’s gonna get better and better, and obviously Rossi and Kirill seem to have a bit of chemistry.”

Briefly

Wing Marcus Johansson did not participate in Sunday’s scrimmage for what Evason called “precautionary reasons” and is expected to practice on Monday before the team leaves for New York.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Gaza came under the third total communications outage since the start of the war, while Israel’s military announced late Sunday that it had encircled Gaza City and divided the besieged coastal strip into two.

“Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters, calling it a “significant stage” in Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group. Israeli media reported that troops are expected to enter Gaza City within 48 hours. Strong explosions were seen in the northern Gaza Strip after nightfall.

But the “new collapse in connectivity” across Gaza reported by internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org and confirmed by Palestinian telecom company Paltel made it even more complicated to convey details of the new stage of the military offensive.

“We have lost communication with the vast majority of the UNRWA team members,” U.N. Palestinian refugee agency spokesperson Juliette Touma told The Associated Press. The first Gaza outage lasted 36 hours and the second one for a few hours.

Earlier Sunday, Israeli warplanes struck two central Gaza refugee camps, killing at least 53 people and wounding dozens, health officials said. Israel said it would press on with its offensive to crush the territory’s Hamas rulers, despite U.S. appeals for even brief pauses to get aid to desperate civilians.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said more than 9,700 Palestinians have been killed in the territory in nearly a month of war, a number likely to rise as Israeli troops advance into dense, urban neighborhoods.

Airstrikes hit the Maghazi refugee camp overnight, killing at least 40 people and wounding 34 others, the Health Ministry said. The camp is in the zone where Israel’s military had urged Palestinian civilians to seek refuge as it focuses its offensive on the north.

An AP reporter at a nearby hospital saw eight dead children, including a baby, brought in after the strike. A surviving child was led down the corridor, her clothes caked in dust, an expression of shock on her face.

Arafat Abu Mashaia, who lives in the camp, said the Israeli airstrike flattened several multi-story homes where people forced out of other parts of Gaza were sheltering.

“It was a true massacre,” he said. “All here are peaceful people. I challenge anyone who says there were resistance (fighters) here.”

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Another airstrike hit a house near a school at the Bureji refugee camp in central Gaza, and staff at Al-Aqsa Hospital told the AP at least 13 people were killed. The camp is home to an estimated 46,000 people and was struck on Thursday as well.

Despite appeals and overseas demonstrations, Israel has continued its bombardment across Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas and accusing it of using civilians as human shields.

On the ground, Israeli forces in Gaza have reported finding stashes of weapons at times, including explosives, suicide drones and missiles.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, a day after talks with Arab foreign ministers in neighboring Jordan.

Abbas, who has had no authority in Gaza since Hamas took over in 2007, said the Palestinian Authority would only assume control of Gaza as part of a “comprehensive political solution” establishing an independent state that would also take in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, lands Israel seized in the 1967 war.

His remarks seemed to further narrow the already slim options for who would govern Gaza if Israel succeeds in toppling Hamas. The last peace talks with Israel broke down more than a decade ago, and Israel’s government is dominated by opponents of Palestinian statehood.

Earlier in his tour, Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Sunday reiterated while visiting an air force base that “there will be no cease-fire without the return of our abductees.”

Arab leaders have called for an immediate cease-fire. But Blinken said that “would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7,” when it launched a wide-ranging attack from Gaza into southern Israel, triggering the war.

Swaths of residential neighborhoods in northern Gaza have been leveled in airstrikes. The U.N. office for humanitarian affairs says more than half the remaining residents, estimated at around 300,000, are sheltering in U.N.-run facilities.

Israeli planes once again dropped leaflets urging people to head south during a four-hour window on Sunday. Crowds could be seen walking down Gaza’s main north-south highway carrying baggage, pets and pushing wheelchairs. Others led donkey carts.

One man said they had to walk 500 meters with their hands raised while passing Israeli troops. Another described seeing bodies in damaged cars along the road. “The children saw tanks for the first time. Oh world, have mercy on us,” said one Palestinian who declined to give his name.

Israeli’s military said a one-way corridor would continue for residents in the north to flee to the southern part of Gaza.

The U.N. said about 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70% of the population, have fled their homes. Food, water and the fuel needed for generators that power hospitals and other facilities is running out. No fuel has come for nearly one month, the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency said.

The war has stoked tensions across the region, with Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group repeatedly trading fire along the border.

Four civilians were killed by an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon Sunday evening, three of them children, a local civil defense official and state-run media reported. The Israeli military said it had attacked Hezbollah targets in response to anti-tank fire that killed an Israeli civilian.

Hezbollah said they fired Grad rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel in response.

In the occupied West Bank, at least two Palestinians were shot dead during an Israeli arrest raid in Abu Dis, just outside of Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The military said a militant who had set up an armed cell and fired at Israeli forces was killed.

At least 150 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the war, mainly during violent protests and gun battles during raids.

Many Israelis have called for Netanyahu to resign and for the return of roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas. Some families are traveling abroad to try to make sure the hostages aren’t forgotten.

Netanyahu has refused to take responsibility for the Oct. 7 attack that killed more than 1,400 people. Ongoing Palestinian rocket fire has forced tens of thousands of people in Israel to leave their homes.

In another reflection of widespread anger in Israel, a junior government minister, Amihai Eliyahu, suggested in a radio interview that Israel could drop an atomic bomb on Gaza. He later called the remarks “metaphorical.” Netanyahu suspended Eliyahu from cabinet meetings, a move with no practical effect.

Among the Palestinians killed in Gaza are 4,008 children, the Gaza Health Ministry said, without providing a breakdown of civilians and fighters.

The Israeli military said 29 of its soldiers have died during the ground operation.