Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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pretty confident that we were going to get it, but there was definitely some thinking and some conversations about what I need to do if it doesn't work out. Those conver- sations didn't get too far, thankfully." Now the conversation is about meet- ing high expectations next season. "I've been very excited … now that there have been some definitive answers to our roster with Scott's answer and Tim's [Abro- maitis] answer," Brey said. "I found myself thinking a lot about our team and how to play a little differently in what we do. I think it gives our staff great direction. ond nature to him. A cruel and uncommon accident in the summer left the 6-9 forward permanently blinded in his left eye, the re- sult of a pickup game in a park, and NCAA Clearinghouse issues held him up from enrolling in the summer. "I WAS A LITTLE BIT DISAPPOINTED BECAUSE I WAS HOLDING OUT A LITTLE BIT OF HOPE THAT [THE NCAA WOULD] GRANT ME THE EXTRA YEAR, BUT NOT TOTALLY SHOCKED BY IT. THE MESSAGE I WAS GETTING ALL ALONG [WAS] THAT GETTING THE EXTRA YEAR WOULD BE UNLIKELY." TIM ABROMATIS "It starts with [Martin's] leadership. What he did this year in crisis, as we talked about many times during the season, get- ting us through that November and De- cember was one of the best examples of leadership we've had in our program since I've been here. tored the French native during the second half of last season, which included red- shirting and limited scrimmage time in practice, and was happy with his progress. It's still unclear whether or not Katenda will ever suit up for Notre Dame, though everyone involved continues to be opti- mistic. However, with Scott Martin receiving a sixth year of eligibil- ity recently from the NCAA, there's no rush to push Katenda into action before he's completely ready. The Fighting Irish coaching staff moni- "He's an experienced guy that really knows how to play … he stirs the drink with the other guys. These three freshmen don't know it yet, but he'll do a great job teaching them how we play. … I'm very excited about next year." Eric Katenda came to Notre Dame last January a semester behind schedule while trying to adapt to a game that was once sec- PATIENCE REQUIRED FOR ERIC KATENDA "I think for him [it's] still being very pa- tient," head coach Mike Brey said on May 14. "We had workouts in the spring; I'm impressed with the development. To throw this young man into this academic environ- ment and playing basketball and right into practice, I thought he survived it pretty well. But I think we need to be really pa- tient. ing basketball and practicing with us before he's a factor. If he moves the clock ahead, we can work with that too. I'm going to be patient with him." "Maybe it's just another year of him play- Katenda averaged 15.5 points, 7.2 re- bounds, 3.0 blocks, 2.0 assists and 2.0 steals as a senior at Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire, Kan. He was supposed to fill out a 2011 class that included Massachusetts star JUNE/JULY 2012 97