OT: Notre Dame (Wichita native) hoops recruit loses eye

[MVCfans]

Terrible story. Let's hope he gets his coursework done and gets his full Notre Dame scholarship.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the Sporting News and a handful of other sources, recent high school graduate Eric Katenda, who was expected to play for Notre Dame in the 2011-12 season, may not be able to play on the Notre Dame basketball team because he has gone blind in one of his eyes. Katenda's blindness was caused by an injury sustained in a pickup basketball game in Washington, D.C., where an opponent accidentally hit Katenda's left eye, creating a massive build-up of blood behind his eyeball which eventually severed his optic nerve.

In the meantime, Notre Dame is adamant that it will honor his scholarship, provided Katenda completes the coursework he was scheduled to finish before enrolling at the school in September. Fighting Irish basketball coach Mike Brey is now encouraging the Wichita, Kan., native to take the fall off and enroll in the spring.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog ... ool-wp4318

[panther-state]

Thats terrible, and sounds like an awful injury. Ugh..

[Aargh]

Katenda is a Nigeria native, not a Wichita native.

Wichita has a prep school with some great international players. Katenda was one one of them.

Sunrise Academy's next highly-regarded international recruit is Buddy Hield, who absolutely blew up this summer. He's originally from the Bahamas. WSU has been on him for a while and he's played in WSU's pickup games a couple of years. He attended WSU's elite camp this summer and appeared eager to play with WSU's players.

His stock went through the roof this summer.

Most of Sunrise prep's exclusive players come there with BCS offers already in place. WSU recruits them, but their presence in Wichita for a year or two doesn't seem to give WSU any advantage in their recruitment.

Hield has indicated he likes WSU and WSU's players. WSU has a commit from a 2012 player that is one of Hield's best friends. The chances of WSU signing Hield appear slim.

If WSU should, by some miracle, get Hield in the 2012 recruiting class, WSU would have the two guards who probably got the most attention in AAU games this summer. VanVleet went up against the number 1, 3 and 5 rated PG's in the 2012 class. He was the better PG in all those matchups. The coach of the AAU team that has Indiana's #1 ranked recruiting class said that they tried every defense they had against VanVleet and couldn't stop him with any of them.

VanVleet is 5'11" and hasn't played a single D1 game, so I'm not putting much stock in the ratings until I see him play. He has gotten great reviews from every scouting service.

The other guard who got the biggest run this summer is Hield. There's a good possibility WSU will be on Hield's short list, but I have no optimism that WSU can land him. If WSU can sign Hield, WSU will have the PG and SG who got the biggest run of this summer's AAU season.

[MVCfans]

Katenda is a Nigeria native, not a Wichita native.

Wichita has a prep school with some great international players. Katenda was one one of them.

I figured as much considering I didn't recall hearing anything about his recruitment. For whatever reason, the article mentions that he was a Wichita native.