The week leading into JR Konieczny’s junior season featured an auspicious speed bump.
Three days before he and his South Bend Saint Joseph teammates were scheduled to open their basketball season, he suffered an ankle sprain while playing in a pickup game. He missed the first game and was limited in the next two.
Not exactly the dream start to a season, especially when it followed a commitment to Notre Dame and a debut in the Rivals150 for the 2021 class.
“That kind of dragged along the whole season,” Konieczny said.
After those first few games, though, the season had no appearance of a weight pulling it down.
Konieczny and Saint Joseph went 17-6 and ended the regular season on a five-game win streak. Their year ended in the first round of the Indiana Class 3A sectional with a loss to Marian March 6. Konieczny averaged “23 or 24” points per game, building on his celebrated summer.
“Toward the end of the season I was feeling healthy,” Konieczny said. “All my averages went up. I ended the season on a high note … I definitely feel myself getting stronger and could hold my own in the paint. I was able to guard bigger players.”
It added even more value for Konieczny as a high school player. He’s known for his scoring ability and shot making on the wing. At 6-7, one of the remaining goals for high school — and one that will be an emphasis when he enrolls at Notre Dame — is adding strength and bulk to his 195-pound frame.
“I like JR’s size, I like his skill,” Rivals analyst Eric Bossi said in the fall. “I love the quick release on his jumper, and I really like the idea of him as a skill guy who could stretch the floor as a small ball four man in some situations as he gets stronger and finishes growing.”
When Konieczny had time outside of his own basketball schedule, he drove to the Joyce Center for every Notre Dame home game he could and stopped by the locker to meet with future teammates and coaches. He is still in regular contact as always, he said, with head coach Mike Brey as involved as anyone else.
“He checks in every week or so,” Konieczny said. “Same with the assistant coaches. Everything’s going well so far.”
That has been his mood ever since since Notre Dame left the July NCAA Basketball Academy in Champaign, Ill., impressed by him and began its pursuit from there. Konieczny, Rivals’ No. 136 overall player nationally, committed to the Irish a month later, over offers from Butler, Creighton, Iowa, Miami (Ohio) and Valparaiso.
There was hometown appeal at play, comfort with the situation and an understanding of Notre Dame’s track record of turning players ranked outside the top 50 or 100 into all-conference selections. But its conference affiliation stood out just for its allure alone.
“I grew up being a huge Duke fan and Coach K fan, just all about the ACC,” Konieczny said. “Playing in arguably the best conference in the country is big time, just playing in places like Chapel Hill and Cameron Indoor will be surreal. I’m looking forward to it definitely.”
Konieczny remains Notre Dame’s lone 2021 commitment, but the Irish are still tracking another local star, South Bend Riley’s Blake Wesley. He is a four-star prospect and the No. 89 overall player in 2021. His offer list also includes Purdue, Indiana, Butler, Xavier and Iowa, among others. Notre Dame has hosted him on campus.
“I’ve been on him since I was committed,” Konieczny said. “He’s enjoying the process right now. He’s taking it slow. But he enjoys the love from the hometown. I’m not sure what he’s going to do, but he’s going to take it slow.”
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