Hunter Cattoor is back at Virginia Tech as an assistant coach under Mike Young, the men's basketball program announced on Thursday.
"I could not be more excited to welcome Hunter back home to Blacksburg as a member of our coaching staff," Young said in Tech's release. "Hunter represented Virginia Tech men's basketball the right way from the moment he stepped on campus. He's tough, competitive, unselfish and understands our culture, our standards and what it means to wear 'Hokies' across your chest. I am very much looking forward to the impact he'll have on our program."
The 2022 ACC Tournament MVP joins the Hokies after a G League season with the Long Island Nets, where he averaged 8.4 points across 27 games.
Cattoor spent five seasons in Blacksburg, totaling 1,523 points while setting the school record for 3-pointers made (332) and career games played (152).
"I'm excited and grateful for the opportunity to be back in Blacksburg and work with Coach Young and the rest of the staff," Cattoor said in the release. "I look forward to meeting the student-athletes and bringing a championship mindset into the locker room."
He always had an interest in coaching, from drawing up plays on a whiteboard as a kid to installing plays for the Hokies. Back in 2023, Cattoor became Young's first player in 38 years of coaching to install a play.
"He wants to be a coach," Young said then. "I had him install [a play] yesterday. I don't think I've ever done that in 38 years as a coach. He commands a great deal of admiration and respect for what he's done here. [It] permeates throughout the program. I think he has embraced that and has done quite a good job thus far, and it'll be very important for this bunch."
"The trust [Coach Young] has for me to go out there and to tell the team, 'This is how we're going to run the play,' it means a lot," Cattoor said then. "He could have just went out there and told the team, 'This is how we're going to run it,' but the trust he has for me to go out there and explain it to the players that don't know the play and remind the ones coming back how we run it, it was pretty cool to do that."
Cattoor was always known for his high-IQ plays in his time with Tech, like his game-clinching steal in the team's 78-75 win over Duke on Jan. 23, 2023.
"As soon as I saw him line up to throw it, I saw there was no space, so I shot the gap and stole it," he said then.
He's the fourth assistant coach on the Hokies' staff entering the 2026-27 season, which includes associate head coach Chester Frazier and fellow assistants J.D. Byers and David Moats. Programs can have up to five assistants.