Connaughton Picks Notre Dame
Pat Connaughton made a verbal commitment to the University of Notre Dame late Saturday morning after having visited the South Bend campus officially last weekend.
Connaughton will head to Notre Dame on a basketball scholarship although he is also expected to pitch for the Fighting Irish baseball team.
The six-foot-five swingman made national headlines this summer, breaking out as the surprise performer at the AAU Super Showcase and Nationals, and scoring a plethora of high major scholarship offers in the process from the likes of UCLA, Tennessee, Boston College, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, and many others.
But in reality, some people had the foresight to see Connaughton’s potential stardom much earlier.
The first, and most enthusiastic, of those supporters was the late Mike Crotty Sr.
It was thirteen months ago, following the 2009 AAU Nationals, when Crotty Sr. told the New England Recruiting Report that he believed Connaughton was the best player in the state of Massachusetts and had the ability to play in college at the highest level.
At the time, such a statement seemed bold as Connaughton was still relatively unknown and far from a proven commodity. But Crotty couldn’t say enough about his swingman, praising his length, toughness, skill set, athleticism, and, above all else, his will to win.
When Crotty tragically passed away in early February, Connaughton and the rest of his AAU teammates dedicated their upcoming season to their fallen coach, and their couldn’t be a more fitting tribute to the former Middlesex Magic director than to validate his deep belief in his program’s biggest star.
“He’s the best player we’ve ever had,” said current Middlesex Magic director Mike Crotty Jr. “He’s as tough as they come and the best player to ever wear a Middlesex Magic uniform.”
Connaughton’s commitment to Notre Dame is fitting because of all the high-major programs who ended up pursuing the talented swingman, the Irish were the first on the scene, having begun to evaluate and recruit him early in the month of July, long before most of Connaughton’s eventual suitors even knew his name.
“I couldn’t be happier for Pat, his family, and Mike Brey and the whole Notre Dame coaching staff,” Crotty Jr. said. “I think it’s a wonderful it on both ends. Pat is the most tenacious, willful, athletic, and skilled player I’ve ever been around, and on top of that he’s a wonderful kid. I think he’s going to have a great career in the Big East.”
And it seems all too likely that Crotty Sr. is looking down with a huge smile thinking the exact same thing.
Pat Connaughton