In his second season at the helm, men’s basketball coach John Tauer was named the MIAC Coach of the Year Wednesday while seven of his players also received all-conference honors.

Tauer is in his 17th season with the men’s basketball program: four as a player, 11 as an assistant coach and one as interim coach after former coach Steve Fritz stepped down in 2011 after winning the national championship.

As an All-MIAC and Academic All-American, Tauer played under Fritz’s leadership during his time at St. Thomas. Fritz said it was clear that from day one, Tauer was going to be a prominent figure for St. Thomas men’s basketball.

“He went about everything the right way,” Fritz said. “When he took over the program, I had no doubt that he was going to be successful.”

Fritz said he wasn’t surprised that it only took two seasons for Tauer to be awarded his first Coach of the Year honor.

“He’s a very bright coach and understands the game well,” Fritz said. “He’s experienced on a lot of levels … He’s very deserving, going 18-1 through the conference and ranked number one in the nation.”

Center Tommy Hannon and guard Will DeBerg weren’t surprised either.

“I was really happy for him,” DeBerg said. “It’s only his second year as the head coach so that’s pretty cool. I expect a lot more good things from him in the future.”

Hannon said that the team feeds off of Tauer’s energy.

“He has a passion for basketball,” Hannon said. “St. Thomas is really, really lucky to have him. He played here and hopefully he can have success for a long time.”

Some of the players who helped Tauer to the team’s 26-1 overall record this season and to a No. 1-ranking by d3hoops.com are DeBerg, center Tommy Hannon and forward John Nance, all seniors and all of whom were named to the 15-player All-MIAC team.

DeBerg, along with Nance, was a repeat honoree and said a lot of hard work helped him get back to that point.

“I was named to the team last year and I continued to work hard all through the summer and a lot outside of the season,” DeBerg said.

Other Tommies the conference recognized were: Nance and guard Erik Tengwall to the six-player MIAC All-Defensive team, forwards Zach Riedeman and Noah Kaiser to the 12-player honorable-mention team and guard Taylor Montero to the six-player All-Freshman team.

The high number of honorees was a testament to the team’s hot season so far for DeBerg.

“I think it was awesome. It was really cool for a group of us to be on that team,” DeBerg said. “They all deserved it. It kind of represents the success we’ve had so far this year.”

St. Thomas will open its NCAA playoff run at 7 p.m. Saturday against Aurora University (Ill.) in Schoenecker Arena.

Johnnay Leenay, Briggs LeSavage, Kyle Jonas and C.C. Rode contributed to this report.