The “leap before The Leap” is not a foreign concept in college basketball. A freshman may come in with sporadic playing time, or just be in a hyper-fixated role with specific responsibilities. As a sophomore, they show modest improvements with some leaps in certain areas, but still flash inconsistency. Then, in their upperclassman years, they pop and arrive on radars.
As we inch closer to the college basketball season, I want to focus on two players who are prime candidates for taking The Leap after a leap.
First up, Kanon Catchings out of Georgia.
Catchings has intrigued me since he was with Overtime Elite. He fits the archetype of the “big wing” many analysts and teams are enamored with—enormous on the perimeter, moves so swiftly and smoothly, can jump out of the gym, and can shoot. I identified him as a potential surprise one-and-done prospect due to how he leveraged those tools. I may have over-indexed on his adjustment to the Big 12 and on BYU’s system. Inconsistency, injuries, and a veteran wing rotation led to Catchings’s playing time dwindling over the course of the year.
However, Catchings may have found his stride with his move to Georgia, shown in the leaps he took as an offensive player in SEC play. How can he pull off The Leap to firmly establish himself on NBA radars?
