A dream season came to an end exactly seven days ago when Wash U stormed back to throttle the previously undefeated Tommies in the Elite 8. The Bears are currently on the verge of their second straight national title.

Is this news late? Absolutely, but that was a little by design. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to write. I didn't want to gloat about the collapse and run the risk of turning into the D3 equivalent of Mercury Morris — Don't call me when you're in my neighborhood, call me when you're on my block — while cracking a Mountain Dew in celebration. But I didn't want to rush to pat the Tommies on their collective backs, either. The Minnesota media had done enough of that for my taste. So I abstained...until now.

As I tried to collect my thoughts over the previous week, I ran into a couple coaches who offered their own opinions.

1. Mark Hanson asked how our runner-up Gustie squad would fare against these Tommies. As I hemmed and hawed, he spoke the obvious — we wouldn't have had trouble with their press. Wash U might be the only team UST played this year that can make that statement, if only for a half. We all saw how that turned out.
2. A Division II coach of some reknown also shared this quip: I don't care what anyone says, there's no way in hell this Tommie team is better than that Gustie team that played for the title.

So what's the truth? I'm of the opinion that my 02-03 Gusties would win roughly 60 percent of the games in this fantasy matchup. I could accept arguments as high as 70 and as low as 50. As I've stated before, I think the teams are extremely comparable in their styles and personnel. I simply like GAC's post combo of Newell/Nelson and Espo's presence off the bench as the deciding factors.

Some might point to the Bracket of Death as the reason why UST fell short, but GAC survived a comparable path. Nothing is ever easy. The six teams the Gusties played in their postseason run had a combined record of 131-17 (.885).

So what's the final verdict? Both teams are left with the frustrating feeling of "What if?" after blowing solid leads against great teams. In that sense, I feel their pain. Unfortunately, that feeling returns every March.

Minnesota Wrap
• D3hoops corrected the MIAC coaches with its postseason awards. I wonder if Zach Johnson feels vindicated?
• The Gustavus men's hockey team is playing for the Division III national title this afternoon. I hope the Strib has that back page reserved again!
• SJU football coach John Gagliardi will give the keynote address at the April 19 College Football Hall of Fame banquet. It will be held at St. Thomas and include such figures as Randall McDaniel, John Randle and former Concordia football coach Jim Christopherson.

Both Puget Sound and St. Thomas ran the table in their respective conferences, but only one emerged unscathed in Friday's Sweet 16 showdown. The Tommies shot 54 percent in their 86-69 victory. It's apparently the first road victory in St. Thomas history, a fact I find stunning.

The top-ranked Tommies advance to Saturday's game against No. 2 Washington University, the defending national champion.

I don't have any details since I was "stuck" doing my day job, but St. Thomas Vice President Doug Hennes went all newspaper guy on his recap. SID Gene McGivern was busy updating his blog and doing an in-game blog.

What's next? The Tommies are three wins from the greatest basketball season in MIAC history, and one of the most impressive seasons in the history of college basketball. If you believe the rankings, Saturday's game is the de-facto national championship game. Too bad the crowd will likely be small and quiet compared to what it deserves.

Naturally, I'll be working again and miss all the fireworks. Perhaps even worse, I'll be watching a stud headed to St. Thomas next year tear apart "my" team. The rich get richer, I guess.

What was Tubby Smith doing five hours after coaching his way out of the NCAA tournament? He was giving pre-game speeches to both St. Thomas and Steven's Point, apparently.

I didn't make an official sighting, but the stats can't be mere coincidence. How else do you explain the horrendous perimeter shooting (22.5 percent), rash of missed layups and general offensive malaise on display? The Tommies scored 26 points less than their average and shot almost 20 percent below their season average. The Pointers finished 24 points below their average and shot 14 percent worse than normal.

Plain and simple, it was Tubby Time in the final game ever played at The Shoe. It made for an ugly display of basketball between two of the best teams in the nation, though the Tommies survived and that's all that matters in March. They travel to Wheaton next weekend to play Puget Sound, who finished the #7 in the final D3Hoops.com poll.

Joking aside, was the slow start by design? Tommie assistant coach Johnny Tauer had asked Gustavus coach Mark Hanson for advice in beating the Pointers earlier in the week. The response was classic Hans.

"Let them get ahead by 10 early so they don't take you seriously. Being up at halftime certainly didn't work for us."

The Tommies tried to follow that advice. Here's a glance at their possessions over the first eight minutes of the game: turnover, miss, miss, miss, MAKE, turnover, turnover, miss, turnover, miss, turnover, miss. The Pointers were equally as inept, leaving the score at a very Gophers-like 6-5 with 11:52 remaining. It never really got much better. Somewhere Tubby had to be smiling.

Even on crutches, I'm pretty sure I could have played a more aesthetically pleasing game of 1v1 with former Macalester scrapper Adam Denny. Assuming no fouls would get called, anyway. We were hackers.

For the first time in awhile, I've got no major beef with the way things were officiated. The fouls and free throws were almost exactly even and there were no egregious mistakes. But that doesn't really tell the whole story, judging by the reactions from the UWSP coach and the various MIAC coaches sitting in my section.

Every game is filled with 50/50 calls, some of which are called and some that aren't. As a largely unbiased observer, I'd say the Tommies owned the 50/50 calls by a count of at least 80/20. I'm not sure that it changed the outcome, but it certainly was a factor — the Pointer big men battled foul trouble all night. You could literally see the Steven's Point coach begin to boil as every close call went against him, particularly down the stretch.

So what's the bottom line? The Tommies claimed an ugly, impressive win over one of the best programs in Division III. In many ways, it finally legitimized the product St. Thomas has been putting on the court all year.

As I reflected on the performance while crutching down the stairs, Hanson disappeared for a few minutes. I've got to imagine he either spotted Tubby or wanted to help pull the playoff gorilla off Fritz's back.