Notre Dame: 5 best athletes named Patrick on St. Patrick’s Day
By Matt Clark
Pat Connaughton is best known for his basketball career at Notre Dame but was also an excellent baseball player as well. In fact, Connaughton was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 4th round of the 2015 Major League Baseball draft and could throw a fastball 96 miles per hour. Most experts believed he would have been drafted much higher if not for his commitment to play basketball at Notre Dame.
Connaughton would play shooting guard and small forward for the Irish hoops team and would average 13.8 points per game and 7.1 rebounds per game in 2013-2014 and 12.5 points per game and 7.4 rebounds per game in 2014-2015 for Notre Dame.
In 2015, he would help lead the Irish basketball team to an ACC Championship and would be named a third-team All-American. Following his collegiate career, Connaughton would be drafted in the second round of the 2015 draft by the Brooklyn Nets. However, he would be traded to the Portland Blazers during the draft and would play for Portland from 2015-2018.
In 2018, Connaughton would sign with the Milwaukee Bucks where he has played since. Last season with Milwaukee, Connaughton averaged 6.2 points per game and 6.2 rebounds per game. In addition, he would finish third in the 2020 NBA All-Star slam dunk competition after leaping over MLB National League MVP Christian Yelich, while wearing an outfit that resembled that of Woody Harrelson’s iconic character Billy Hoyle in the 1992 iconic basketball movie White Men Can’t Jump.