Prep’s Connaughton commits to Notre Dame

After being courted by some of the heaviest hitters college basketball has to offer, St. John’s senior Pat Connaughton has decided to take his talents to Notre Dame to play basketball and baseball in South Bend beginning this fall.As recently as Wednesday, Connaughton had been visited by head coach Ben Howland of UCLA but the Arlington native decided to head out and play for coach Mike Brey in one of the premier basketball conferences in the nation.The 6-5 senior averaged 24 points and 18 rebounds per game in leading the Eagles to the Division 1 North finals in basketball this past winter. He already had been on the radar of several colleges for his talents on the baseball diamond, where he possesses a 90-plus-mph fastball and an outstanding bat from his third base position as well.Connaughton’s baseball coach, Pat Yanchus, was thrilled to learn the news on Saturday during the Eagles’ 22-21 win over Central Catholic in football.”It was a win-win situation for Pat,” Yanchus said. “He had a lot of great offers from some great schools so he couldn’t go wrong. The question was what level of basketball he could get and this summer took care of that question.”This past summer, Connaughton popped up on the radar of Division 1 basketball coaches after excelling in several AAU tournaments that drew Notre Dame, Tennessee and Boston College among others to his door.”You can definitely see the difference physically with him this year,” Yanchus said. “The 20 pounds of muscle he put on really showed.”The Fighting Irish have been a consistent NCAA tournament team under Brey’s direction. This past March, Notre Dame was upset in the first round by Old Dominion after a stellar run in the Big East Tournament.The Notre Dame baseball team is also an up-and-coming program and will be guided by first year coach Mik Aoki. Ironically, Aoki was the coach at Boston College two years ago when Connaughton was offered a baseball scholarship by the Eagles.The Prep connections to Notre Dame also include current head football coach Brian Kelly, who is a St. John’s graduate.