Nolan Minessale committed to St. Thomas basketball in the summer of 2023, before his senior year at Marquette University High School in Milwaukee — well before he became the school’s all-time leading scorer and well before he helped lead his team to a state championship.
In choosing the Tommies over Wisconsin-Green Bay and South Dakota State, the 6-foot-5 guard pointed to the connection he made with Tommies head coach Johnny Tauer and his staff. Minnesale also was inspired by the trajectory of the program, as it made the transition from Division III to Division I.
There was something else, too.
“About a year after he signed,” Tauer said, “I asked him about his decision. He said he just wanted to get the recruiting process over with. He didn’t like talking with all those adults on the phone.”
Nolan Minessale, left, goes up for a shot against Army’s Jorn Everson in the Tommies’ 83-76 victory Nov. 8 at Lee & Penny Arena. The 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Brookfield, Wis., was the Summit League’s preseason player of the year and ranks fifth nationally in scoring with a 22.4-point average per game. (Kylie Macziewski / University of St. Thomas)
The self-described introvert boasts a quiet confidence that makes him comfortable in his own skin — and on the basketball court. Combining that with his talent, hard work and competitiveness has created a recipe for success.
Minessale started in all 34 games last season as a freshman, averaging 11.2 points, and 3.5 rebounds a game, enough of an impression to be named the Summit League preseason player of the year this fall.
Fourteen games into this season, Minessale has made the prognosticators look good. He ranks fifth in the nation in scoring at 22.4 points a game and aready earned Summit League player of the week honors four times.
Don’t count him among those who are impressed.
“I just want to win,” he Minessale said while talking to an adult on the phone. “It’s really the only thing I care about.”
His interview with the Pioneer Press took place late Monday morning as Minessale was just setting out on a road trip home for the holiday break. It was supposed to occur at the Tommies’ new Anderson Arena, but despite an open line of communication, the connection wasn’t made.
Perhaps the phone call was deemed the lesser of two evils.
Through conversations with Minessale’s mother, Michelle, Tauer knows that the young man of few words once was a boy of few words. And he’s fine with that.
“He’s got a great sense of humor,” Tauer said, “and when you watch him with his teammates, they love him, and he’s really funny. Put him around adults … . As coaches we joke with him that he could talk a little more around us.”
Tauer lauds Minessale’s parents for raising a thoughtful, humble and determined son.
“He’s very low maintenance,” Tauer said, “because what he needs is the opportunity to play and compete, and then he goes and does his thing.”
From a basketball perspective, it all but screams for a nickname — a handle for the guy with the handles.
Quiet Riot? Silent Knight? Something, one assumes, Minessale would be happy to live without.
Tauer first set his sights on landing Minessale after watching him play for his club team at a tournament in Louisville, Ky., in April of 2023.
“I was just enamored with how hard he played, what a phenomenal passer he was and his versatility,” Tauer recalled. “I said, ‘This kid is a basketball player.’ ”
Minessale spent the past offseason working on his 3-point shot and gaining weight by adding muscle to a frame that is now a sturdy 200 pounds. The result has been the emergence of a player who can score in every way possible.
“I could see all summer the tireless work he was putting in,” Tauer said. “I told people, ‘You’re not going to believe it when you see him.’”
After filling a team need by playing as an undersized power forward last season, Minessale has moved to the backcourt this season and has flourished.
“His 2-point shooting percentage (66 percent) looks like a post player who only dunks,” Tauer said. “Yet, he’s a perimeter player who has the ball in his hands a lot. And he leads our team in assists. Those are the things that highlight the versatility I saw in him.
“We don’t call a lot of plays for him,” Tauer added. “He’s able to find ways to score, and he doesn’t force things. I think he’s a perfect fit here in the sense of how we play position-less basketball.”
The Tommies lost some veteran leadership through graduation, and as a returning starter and the team’s leading scorer, the Tommies would benefit from having Minessale assume some of that responsibility.
Minessale said he’s working on it.
“That’s one of the harder parts for me,” he said. “I’m not a huge talker. I’m trying to be better at it. It’s hard to lead if you don’t talk.”
But not impossible, not with the respect he has earned from his teammates by working hard and having his priorities in order.
“We’ve talked to him about it,” Tauer said. “We told him that he doesn’t need to be overly verbose. But when he huddles the guys up, they’re going to listen.”
The Tommies, who open Summit League play on January 4 at home against Denver, are the preseason favorite. Winning the conference tournament would earn them a spot in the Division I NCAA Tournament for the first time.
Tauer and his charge know that opponents undoubtedly will game plan a strategy aimed at keeping Minessale in check. His focus will be on taking what the defense gives him.
Tauer is confident his best player will be focused on doing what is best for the team.
“He doesn’t pay attention to statistics,” Tauer said.
Minessale ended the phone call on Monday by saying, “Appreciate you,” and it was easy to believe he meant it.
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