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I know the Virginia Football team is now 5-1 after that win over North Carolina, but we can’t forget about basketball! The Hoos will take the court in 27 days against UNC-Greensboro to kick off the 2017-18 season.
Our countdown continues with our player profile for incoming walk on first year Austin Katstra. If the last name rings a bell, that is because he’s the son of Dirk Katstra, the Executive Director of the Virginia Athletics Foundation. Poppa Kats played basketball for the Hoos from 1988-1991 where he played on three NCAA tournament teams and was the captain of the 1991 squad.
Austin played his high school ball at Albemarle High School in Charlottesville, where he averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds a game his senior year. He was the Virginia 5A State Player of the Year last season, and earned first team All-State, All-Region, All-Conference and All-District honors from his sophomore year on. Katstra is the all-time scoring leader for Albemarle High School.
Katstra will play a pivotal role for the Hoos on the practice squad - affectionately called ‘the Green Machine’ - to help prepare Virginia for each game. He hopes it could turn into more, however.
“Obviously for me,” Katstra told NBC29, “I'm going to work hard every day in practice, putting forth the perfect effort is a big thing for me and I think if you do that, things will take care of themselves. As far as expectations, I'm not really sure what to expect, but I'll figure that out over the next few years.”
According to Katstra, UVA was a lifelong dream and he’s looking forward to playing for Coach Bennett. "He's a fantastic coach. His pillars are really something that speak to me and the coaching staff as a whole are really great guys. That was one of the biggest reasons I chose to walkon at UVA, they're just really great guys, player development they're really good, but they also build good character and that was really important for me."
The Stats:
Position: Forward
Height: 6-6
Weight: 214
Twitter: @akatz45
Check back tomorrow for more UVA Basketball coverage!