When Fran Fraschilla signed on to coach the UNM men's basketball team, he said he was committed to bringing "blue-collar" players to the program - players who would work hard in practice, in the classroom and on the floor at game time.
One of his first signings was 6-foot-3-inch guard Eric Chatfield, a Queens, N.Y., native, who was touted as a hard-nosed, pure basketball player, competent on both offense and defense.
But more important, as Fraschilla points out, Chatfield is a good student and citizen and has come to embody Fraschilla's definition of a blue-collar player.
"He especially epitomizes it because he's from the same area I am," Fraschilla said. "Eric comes from a tough environment. The area he grew up in New York, very few people take the right way out. They go the selling drugs route or they turn to committing crimes."
Before the Lobos' game at Stanford University last year, Fraschilla described Stanford guard Casey Jacobsen as a sort of silent assassin, in that he made quiet but solid contributions and at times was deadly from the floor.
That description also seems to parallel the unassuming Chatfield, who tends to be less of a vocal leader on the floor but is at any time capable of exploding offensively.
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"I get emotional when we're making a run or somebody makes a good basket," Chatfield said. "But I'm kind of like a quiet guy and I like to keep my stuff in unless a big play happens and the crowd's into it, or we need a big stop."
Chatfield began his UNM career on a hot streak.
He scored double figure points in the Lobos' first 17 games, and hit 15 of 33 shots from 3-point land. He hit a lull with the onset of Mountain West Conference action - he finished with a 9.0 points per game average in league play and 12.9 points overall - but there was never a time that Fraschilla considered sitting Chatfield.
"We stuck with him because he was really hurt for quite awhile," Fraschilla said. "What we thought was originally a groin injury was really a kidney stone that took a while to pass. So, we stuck with Eric because we could count on him even when his shot wasn't going down."
Chatfield said he also knew that as talk swirled around his shooting slump, he could not get down on himself or he would not be able to shake it off.
"When I was out there, and I was hurt and not shooting the ball well, I did other things to help my team win," Chatfield said. "I played good defense and I distributed the ball well."
Although Fraschilla will count on Chatfield for his senior leadership and abilities on the court this year, it's clear that the relationship between the two goes way beyond basketball.
"Knowing that Eric's a long way from home and that I'm a long way from where I grew up, and that we do have New York City in common, I see a lot of what I want not only in a player, but as a friend, and in many ways a son, in Eric," Fraschilla said.
It's also clear that Chatfield and his teammates have high postseason expectations.
"This year, Tim and I and Pat Kelly are seniors," Chatfield said. "And we don't want an NIT season. We've got to savor this because it won't last long."
