MULTISPORT ATHLETES RARE
Three basketball standouts bucked specialization trend
Back in middle school, throughout high school and even now in college, everyone has told Pat Connaughton the same thing: Pick one. Baseball or basketball. One or the other. Specialize in something. Connaughton never listened. “There was always pressure,” Connaughton says. “The biggest thing forme was, keep playing both sports for as long as you can no matter how many times you’re told what you’re good at, what you should be playing.”
Since the end of junior high, those around Connaughton told him his future was in baseball. He figured he’d see if he could make his high school’s varsity basketball team anyway. He did. When those same people told him to simply focus on landing a Division I baseball scholarship, he figured he’d see if he could land one in basketball, too. He did. Connaughton was picked by the Baltimore Orioles in the fourth round of the 2014 Major League Baseball draft ( and signed a contract with them), yet he decided to come back to Notre Dame this season to complete his college basketball career — and see if he has any pro hoops potential.
Connaughton is a rare breed: the twosport college standout. But he’s not alone as an athlete who refused to specialize in one sport at a young age — though they, too, are in the minority of college basketball players.
At least three NCAA tournament Sweet 16 teams are led by star players who played multiple sports throughout high school: Kentucky ( Willie Cauley-Stein), Wichita State ( Ron Baker) and Notre Dame ( Connaughton).
FINDING VALUE IN VARIETY
For Baker, specializing was never an option. “My dad coached baseball in high school, so I was going to play that sport regardless,” says Baker, a native of Scott City, Kan. “Our community really backs football, so I’mnot not going to play that. My first love was basketball. For me, there was no real pressure to it, and I did what I wanted.”
Baker quarterbacked the football team, pitched and played shortstop for the baseball team and led the basketball team to a 58- 11 record ( including a state title). He says he fielded scholarship offers in all three sports but the chance to play Division I basketball made him choose that sport.
As an athletic program, Notre Dame has a history of successful two- sport athletes, including Golden Tate and Jeff Samardzija in recent years.
Kentucky basketball does not often receive two- sport athletes. Cauley- Stein is the only one on the roster who played football through high school, according to teammates. The 7- footer played pretty much everything in high school in tiny Spearville, Kan., from tennis to baseball to soccer to track. After he transferred to Olathe Northwest, he continued to play football, recording 15 touchdowns and more than 1,200 receiving yards as a senior.
“If you just played one sport at the age of 10, I’d worry about you,” Cauley- Stein says. “It just keeps your mind fresh. … It gives you a wider variety of things that you think you could be good at and do.”