Of all the athletes that I’ve covered at the University, Joevan Catron might just be my favorite.
You might be tempted to call me crazy, considering the presence of LaMichael James, Darron Thomas, Casey Matthews and, well, pretty much every other player on the football team. It’s no secret that basketball takes a back seat to football in Eugene, particularly with Chip Kelly’s squad rising to such great heights while Dana Altman works to rebuild a program.
Regardless, I’m not backing down from this sentiment. Last Friday’s 29-point performance put the finishing touch on what proved to be a masterful season for Catron.
Now, you might take a peek at the season statistics and wonder, “How, exactly, does 15.9 points and 6.7 rebounds per game translate to ‘masterful’?”
You’d be right to ask this question, if basketball was a game strictly dictated by numbers.
Unlike football, where helmets and pads cover up any emotional expressions, or baseball, which is filled with nuance and a lot of standing around, basketball has everything out there for the eye to see.
I watched a good majority of Catron’s home games this year, and I can tell you firsthand that the brunt of his impact cannot be determined by statistics. He consistently demanded double- or even triple-teams in the paint, freeing up space for Oregon’s shooters. When in a groove, his perimeter shooting could be deadly, and he was absolutely the emotional centerpiece of the Ducks.
This last point demands elaboration. There were a lot of reasons Oregon enjoyed its surprising success this year. Head coach Dana Altman obviously deserves a great deal of credit for turning the program around so quickly, and I’ve mentioned his name many times in this space before. Role players like Jay-R Strowbridge, E.J. Singler and Tyrone Nared also had significant contributions. But I would argue that no one outside of Altman had a bigger impact upon the mind-set of this team than Catron.
After many of his peers fled the program upon Ernie Kent’s firing, it was Catron who remained loyal and bought in immediately to Altman’s system. It was Catron who stepped up after an injury-plagued year and provided an example for his younger teammates to follow.
Make no mistake, it requires considerable resolve to dive head-on into a system you know little about, under a coach whom you’ve barely met. Catron did it without so much as a shrug, bringing his teammates right along beside him.
The result of this leap of faith was on full display Friday night in the College Basketball Invitational. I couldn’t have been happier to watch Catron dominate the paint in the second half, demanding the ball and willing the team to victory. It was only fitting that, when it was all over, he accepted the Most Valuable Player trophy with the crowd lovingly chanting his name.
As a student-journalist, I’m not supposed to have any rooting interests. Over time, I have trained myself to watch games completely devoid of emotion, observing with clear eyes and without bias.
For the most part, I have succeeded in capturing this mode of thought. And yet, I’m not ashamed to admit that I was pulling for Catron and the Ducks to end the season on a bright note.
In a career filled with ups and downs, the senior deserved to see a happy ending.
As Altman pointed out in the postgame press conference, Catron’s career has not followed a traditional trajectory. Rather than a steadily rising slope, it has consisted of more than a few twists and turns.
None of that matters now. Catron always did the right things as a student-athlete at the University, and though he will be remembered for many reasons, one sticks out in particular.
He went out on top.
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