Skip to main content
purdue logo

GoldandBlack.com Saturday Simulcast: Catchings, Purdue hoops and more

Karpick_headshot500x500by:Alan Karpick•06/08/24•

AlanKarpick

Saturday Simulcast June 8 - Front Page

GoldandBlack.com’s Brian Neubert and host Alan Karpick discuss Thursday’s release of his NLI for Kanon Catchings, how it changes things for Purdue in 2024-25, and much more.

Audio only

More on Catchings from Neubert

Thursday’s news that heralded freshman Kanon Catchings won’t enroll at Purdue after all came as a bombshell of sorts just days before summer school commenced on Monday and off-season practice tips off Tuesday.

Catchings’ decision occurred after speaking on the phone with Matt Painter about his projected role as a freshman, GoldandBlack.com has learned. Painter has long avoided making promises of any kind with recruits — Caleb Swanigan being the one notable exception — and the conversation apparently went in a direction that compelled Catchings to ask out of his letter-of-intent, a request Purdue granted.

Make no mistake here: From an ability perspective, this is a blow. Catchings is immensely talented and physically gifted, to the point NBA people already know his name. He is a high-effort player, a big-time shooter and the sort of interchangeable wing that rules basketball these days.

He would have played at Purdue this season and maybe down the road been great at Purdue.

But ever since Catchings committed extremely early, in part to avoid the hassle of being recruited and having to talk to coaches on the phone, there was a tenuousness to that commitment from a consistently impulsive player. Purdue long ago dealt with a decommitment made outside his support system’s knowledge, an issue that just kind of went away and only became public knowledge because fans online noticed changes to Catchings’ social media profiles.

In a recent interview arranged by Overtime Elite, where Catchings spent his senior year, he spoke of how being away from home had helped him mature and improved his personal consistency, changes his family said they’d noticed as well. But there was always an erratic streak to Catchings that showed up during the ups and downs of recruiting and in his plainly obvious mood swings and temper issues on the floor, inordinately prone to technical fouls.

Point is, there have always been undercurrents here that coaches have wanted to help Catchings with to help make him successful enough to cash in on his immense potential.

That may happen somewhere, but it won’t be Purdue. Whether Catchings sticks with college basketball or stays with OTE remains to be seen, but the Purdue chapter that never really began is closed.

Purdue loses a high-level talent, but also an unknown on a team that should be very good this season, maybe great the year after, barring any surprises. Camden Heide and Myles Colvin should have Catchings’ presumed positions well accounted for. Purdue will have to rely on freshmen in roles this season, but it has starters, players who just played for a national title.

Catchings’ loss hurts, but given the story of his recruitment, there were never going to be any surprises here. And the Boilermakers were always going to win a lot of games the next two seasons with or without its talented incoming freshman.

You may also like