Purdue Basketball Recruiting: Kanon Catchings Commits!

Matt Painter and the Boilermakers lost a commitment around a month ago and have now picked up another. This time, it is class of 2024 wing, Kanon Catchings, who announced his commitment to the Boilermakers Friday night via Twitter.

Catchings committed during his official visit to Purdue this week for the season opener in football against Penn State. He had been linked to the Boilermakers for awhile, but decided to set it in stone with an early pledge to Matt Painter and company.

From Brownsburg, Indiana, Catchings is a 6’6 shooting guard/small forward mix. He is not ranked by 247 Sports or Rivals, but those rankings should come soon as a new high school season is approaching shortly. Purdue and Xavier were the only two schools that had offered him at the time of his commitment, but both Illinois and Indiana were recruiting him as well.

Last season, he scored 11.6 points per game and shot over 42% from three point range. Seeing his frame and shooting ability thus far, he could be a new type of player Matt Painter has been searching for over the last decade or so. At 170 pounds, he will have to gain some muscle to compete in the Big Ten but that is two years away so he has time to grow into his frame and start building strength.

His mother, Tauja Catchings, was a standout at Illinois from 1996-2000 where she scored over 1,500 points and was an All-Big Ten player for the Illini. Tauja’s sister should also ring a bell for those who live in Indiana, as she is Indiana Fever legend and Hall of Famer, Tamika Catchings. It’s safe to say Kanon has some pretty good basketball genes in him.

Catchings joins another Indiana native, Jack Benter as the Boilermakers two current commits in the class of 2024. Benter is a 6’4 guard from Brownstown, Indiana. With two wings in 2024, look for Matt Painter to pull out all the stops to try and land five-star center from Kokomo, Indiana, Flory Bidunga. 2023 also only has one commit in Myles Colvin, so Purdue could either bring in another recruit or try and pluck somebody from the transfer portal next off-season if needed.

Matt Painter is continuing his run on in-state players in recent years. He has also been securing players who are not being heavily recruited, such as Brian Waddell and Braden Smith in 2021. There is a long list of guys that have come to Purdue under recruited and turned out to be integral parts of successful Boilermaker teams like Zach Edey, PJ Thompson, Grady Eifert, Sasha Stefanovic and others. With Catchings’ god given tools, Purdue fans should be excited come the fall of 2024 as we could see another explosive player come through Mackey Arena.