Reusse: Ryan Dufault is a unique player for the St. Thomas men’s basketball team

The St. Thomas men’s basketball team brought with it an 18-game home winning streak when moving across Summit Avenue in November to the new Lee and Penny Anderson Arena.

The current Tommies have added seven more home wins to that total, including three vs. Division III opponents in Lawrence, St. John’s and North Central (Minneapolis). There are 361 D-I schools as of now, and they are allowed to play as many as four regular-season games vs. lower-division opponents.

Which means: The Tommies’ current 25-game home winning streak is the longest in the D-I men’s game.

“We would like to keep that going in our great new arena, but it’s now Summit play, and getting wins anywhere becomes a fight,” coach John Tauer said.

At noon Jan. 4, as the Vikings and Packers are kicking off in a meaningless affair four miles away at U.S. Bank Stadium, the Tommies will open conference play vs. Denver.

The Pioneers will be leaving the Summit after this season for the West Coast Conference, where they might be less than an adequate hoops replacement for Gonzaga — the basketball power abandoning the WCC for the new Pac-12 in 2026-27.

Denver did play Tulsa tough on the road before Christmas. And Tulsa came into the weekend 13-1, with transfer Miles Barnstable averaging 13.5 points per game after being the Tommies’ leading scorer last season.

Ryan Dufault, a redshirt and mostly the backup point guard during the Tommies’ five seasons in Division I — and a player who has Tauer almost laughing in wonder when asked about the stocky lefthander from Waseca.

“When the Tommies were Division III, I was allowed to coach an AAU team,” Tauer said. “We were the Minnesota Heat, starting with the players as ninth graders. My son Jack was on that team; we had Will Tschetter who went to Michigan, Andrew Morgan, a big transfer now at Nebraska … really good players and great guys.”

None better in that second category than Dufault, according to Tauer.

“He was a lefthanded guard, on his way to 5-foot-10, and he looked more like a wrestler than a basketball player,” Tauer said. “Tough little lefty, and if you think you’ve cut him off, he just keeps going farther left.”

It was one of those left­handed forays that allowed Dufault to drill a 12-footer to give Waseca a 51-49 victory over Caledonia in the 2021 state boys basketball Class 2A final. Kyreese Willingham was a 6-5 star for those Bluejays before an excellent career at Minnesota State Mankato.

Monte Dufault, a Waseca guy through-and-through, a former baseball minor leaguer and Ryan’s father, said to Tauer: “I think Ryan could be a star at D-III, and a good player at D-II, but Division I, I’m not sure about that.’ ”

In a later conversation, Dufault said: “John Tauer told you that story, right? That’s his favorite one.”

Tauer describes Dufault as a “unicorn’’ among modern guards — a rebounder, a driver, a defender who doesn’t shoot three-pointers. He has averaged 17 minutes and taken 26 shots this season, and only two of those are threes.

This was Tauer’s favorite example of his unicorn guard.

“Over the last three seasons of college basketball, there have only been three seasons of the following: 10-plus minutes per game, 55 percent-plus true shooting, 3.5 percent offensive rebound rate, 3 percent steal rate, 1.5 assists-to-turnover rate, and five or fewer three-pointers from players 6-foot-2 or shorter.

OK, it’s a bit exotic here, but we should get the point: Dufault is in his fourth season as an effective guard (usually coming off the bench) for the Tommies by playing the position in a way that virtually no other D-I guard does it.

“I shot threes in high school,” Dufault said. “I still practice threes. I could take ’em and make a few, but me shooting threes is not the best option for this team. Get moving toward the basket, a pass, a layup, an offensive rebound … those work better for us.”

Monte Dufault is a Minnesota State Mankato Hall of Famer as a standout in basketball and baseball. He spent a brief time in the Twins’ low minors at the start of the ’90s.

A lefty … you must have been a pitcher in kid baseball, Ryan?

“Never got into baseball. Quit when I was a young kid.”

OK, your stats are puzzling, but this offensive rebound rate at 5-10. How does that happen?

“Not that I was ever going to be Dennis Rodman, but I did study him when I was a kid,” Dufault said. “You have to look at the ball in the air. You have to get to the weak side; that’s where 70 percent of rebounds will wind up. And also, don’t go for the ones you can’t get … I see that from a lot from players.”