Kanon Catchings entered BYU with sky-high expectations. The silky, 6-foot-9 small forward was the No. 41 overall prospect in the class of 2024 and before the season was popping up on some 2025 NBA mock drafts as a late first-round pick.
Fast forward one year and Kanon Catchings looks anything but NBA-ready and will be playing for the Georgia Bulldogs next year.
BYU coach Kevin Young has been clear that he wants to make BYU an NBA factory that consistently churns out pro prospects. Many Cougar fans thought Kanon Catchings would be “Exhibit B” to Egor Demin’s “Exhibit A” of the one-and-done pipeline from Provo to the pros. That’s not how it played out.
What happened?
The freshman's stats
In his lone season in Provo, Kanon Catchings started 15 of 31 games while averaging 17.4 minutes per contest. He averaged 7.2 points and 2.2 rebounds while shooting a ho-hum 41.1% from the field and a solid 35.0% from the 3-point line. He struggled at the free throw line connecting on just 58.7% of his free throw attempts.
Catchings’ season was a tale of two halves: Non-conference play versus Big 12 conference games.
The season began strong for the freshman. He scored 17 in his college debut against Central Arkansas. As the non-conference slate played out he went on to put up 14 points against Mississippi Valley State, 17 versus Ole Miss, and 21 against Florida A&M.
But throughout the non-conference slate it became increasingly clear that BYU’s coaching staff wanted more out of Catchings on the defensive end. By the time Big 12 play started, he was on a “short leash” according to Coach Young.
After 15 consecutive starts, Catchings was moved to the bench after four Big 12 conference games.
Things spiraled from there. Catchings’ body language was bad. He pressed when he was put in the game. He still looked generally lost on defensive rotations and sometimes was quickly yanked from the game if he didn’t know his assignment.
He suffered a knee injury on March 1st that effectively ended his season. He came back to play a total of nine minutes in the NCAA Tournament, but by that point it was clear he didn’t have a future in Provo.
The flashes of immense offensive talent
But there were some highlights that showed off Catchings’ remarkable talent. After several rough weeks of coming off the bench in Big 12 play, Kanon caught fire in an overtime win against Baylor, scoring 23 points in 25 minutes on a perfect 8-of-8 shooting and 3-for-3 from the line. BYU doesn’t win that game without his heroics.
Two weeks later he scored 11 key points in a four-point win at West Virginia. Three games after that he scored 14 huge points in just 15 minutes in a one-point road win at Arizona.
Without Kanon Catchings, BYU likely loses all three of those conference games (Baylor, West Virginia, and Arizona) and their season could have played out very differently had that happened.
I’m not going to be harsh here, but I think it’s fair to say this season was a major disappointment all around for Kanon Catchings. The high-potential freshman lost the trust of BYU’s coaching staff. They wanted more from him, especially on defense, and in fairness to Kanon he probably wanted more from them, too.
If Kanon Catchings can improve on the defensive side of the ball, or perhaps play in a different defensive scheme that’s a better fit for him, he can clearly develop into a really good college player with NBA potential.
But after his one and only season at BYU, it’s also clear he has a lot to work on before he reaches his full potential.
Final grade: C- (bumped up for the Baylor, West Virginia, and Arizona games)