The 6-foot-9 senior forward from Wichita, Kan. (Sunrise Christian Academy) has made three official visits and is close to making that decision. After making trips to Wake Forest and Iowa, Katenda had the Demon Deacons as his leader, but they have company following his official visit to Notre Dame this past weekend.
“It went really well,” he said of the Notre Dame visit. “I learned a lot about the program. I really got a chance to know what the coach expects of me and what it would be like if I went there.
“I learned a lot about their academic program and I learned a lot about the guys and how much they like the coach.”
Katenda enjoyed the Irish campus, “It’s a beautiful campus, it really is.”
He also got the chance to play pickup ball with the returning players.
“It’s different playing with them than seeing them on TV,” he said. “Everybody does everything, they don’t really have a (center). Pretty much everybody can do everything. I remember a lot of times this year the center brought the ball up the court and sometimes I remember seeing (Tim) Abromaitis posting.”
Katenda didn’t attend the Blue-Gold Game because the basketball team decided to skip it due to the weather. He did get the opportunity to sit down with head coach Mike Brey.
“He told me that with the skill set I have, I have a chance to play in the Big East right away,” Katenda said of Brey. “But he has a couple players above me like Tim Abromaitis and Carleton Scott, who might be coming back. He said I would learn from them before I got a chance to play, but he thinks I could learn from those guys instead of just being thrown into the Big East.
“I’m thinking about what I want…If I want to do that or if I want to go to another school where I could get a chance to start.”
Wake Forest is offering a more immediate opportunity to get on the court.
“Wake will give me a chance to play right away and starting depends on me,” he said. “It’s just a matter of how much I work out, but they never offered me a starting spot.”
There is still a third ‘mystery school’ lurking in Katenda’s recruitment.
“I’m thinking about visiting, but it’s still kind of up in the air,” he said of the unnamed school.
If he does make another visit, it’ll have to be soon because Katenda says he’ll make his decision, “next week for sure.”
The recruiting calendar allows high school basketball players to sign National Letters of Intent twice during the year. Other dates to watch out for:
