What to make of a busy April.
Chris Collins appears to have put the finishing touches on his 2025-26 roster with the addition of transfer big man Arrinten Page on April 24, completing an offseason that saw Northwestern add three players through the portal and lose two.
Holy Cross guard Max Green, USF guard Jayden Reid and Cincinnati forward Arrinten Page in. Redshirt freshman Blake Barkley and redshirt sophomore Luke Hunger out. The ‘Cats have their 15, and barring anything unexpected, it is this 15 that will be tasked with bringing tournament basketball back to Evanston.
Inside NU EICs Harris Horowitz, Yanyan Li and Miguel Muñoz take a look back at Northwestern’s busy offseason at what it means for the 2025-26 season:
What do you make of Northwestern’s strategy in the portal?
Harris:
To kick things off, it’s clear that Collins came into this offseason with a different ethos than years prior. Each of the three portal additions have at least two years of eligibility remaining, with Patriot League Rookie of the Year Max Green sporting three. In both 2023 and 2024, Northwestern was very predictable in the portal, nabbing a graduate student backup big (Blake Preston, Keenan Fitzmorris) and a graduate student starting guard (Ryan Langborg, Jalen Leach). Justin Mullins, who came to Northwestern from Denver as a sophomore in 2023, was an exception, not the rule.
In the cases of Langborg and Leach, those were two plug-and-play guys brought in to fill an immediate need in the rotation with the respective departures of Chase Audige and Boo Buie. Preston and Fitzmorris were back-end rotation pieces who each averaged under 12 minutes per game. Collins had used the portal as a tool to supplement the roster he had built on the high school recruiting trail and the development done in-house.
This time around, it was clear that the strategy was more geared towards the future. Eight of Northwestern’s 13 players on scholarship are underclassmen. 11 of 13 have more than one year of eligibility remaining.
The offseason wasn’t perfect — we’ll get into the big man situation in a minute — but it’s worth reframing expectations. Green, Reid and Page will all help the ‘Cats win this year, and Green is perhaps the highest profile transfer Collins has landed in recent memory when you look at the schools Northwestern beat out to land him (Florida, Florida State, St. John’s and Illinois, to name a few). 247Sports has Green and Reid as the highest-rated portal duo in NU history.
Yet the priority was clearly not to maximize the potential of the 2025-26 side. Northwestern lands a big man before April 24 if it was. Collins set out to toe the line between Nick Martinelli’s final push to the tournament and positioning his historic class of 2025 recruits for success well after No. 2 gets his degree.
Again, 11 of 13 guys on scholarship have two or more years of eligibility, and each of the three new additions will likely start for at least the next two seasons. Given that Northwestern has just Jordan Clayton remaining from its three-man class of 2023, I’d say it’s a job well done.
Yanyan:
I agree with Harris that recruiting transfers with more than one year of eligibility left is a new trend for Northwestern. I will say, part of that has to do with the COVID-19 year not being a factor anymore, as most athletes who competed during the 2020-21 season have graduated. For that reason, we won’t see as many guys with degrees from their previous schools looking for a place to play for a year as a grad student.
That said, I think getting transfers with multiple years left is a good thing, not just because they’ll be here for the ‘Cats longer, but because the whole team can build chemistry together. With Martinelli and Mullins being the only two players gone after 2025-26, the majority of this roster will have at least two years to play together (assuming nobody transfers out or gets hurt, which is a big “if”). With Collins being known for player retention and development, this is a great sign.
Yes, I have the same concerns as everyone else about Northwestern’s lack of depth in its bigs rotation. In addition, as much as a small-ball lineup is feasible, I’m also worried that the team’s backcourt will be too crowded. However, I don’t think any of the players that Collins added from the portal are net negatives, and all three of them are going to be good for the team long-term if they pan out.
Miguel:
Repeating the same sentiment, it’s clear that Collins is going for a more long-term strategy this year in the portal as compared to years past, where he seemed to filling an imminent need, usually with a fifth-year guy. But it feels like Collins knows he’s “hit the jackpot,” so to speak, with the star-studded recruiting class he’ll be bringing in this coming fall.
So, the long-term goal that the team seems to have in mind is something I’m all for. We’ve seen the success that Northwestern basketball has had when it has gone to the portal looking to add key pieces to a solid core of guys, looking to go into “win now” mode. It worked really well in 2023 for example, when the addition of Princeton transfer Langborg helped NU reach the NCAA Tournament a second-straight season, and even win a game.
But Collins is looking for something more substantial. Now that he’s returned to Evanston after a period of speculation that he would be headed elsewhere, it seems that he wants the program he’s built from scratch to take that next step on the rung of college basketball. Going from a somewhat-competitive Power Five school up to a tournament regular doesn’t just happen from one season to the next: it’s something that needs to be fostered over a longer trajectory.
I’d say Collins did a fantastic job, all things considered. Northwestern is unlikely to ever be the place where the cream-of-the-crop recruits or transfers go, but he’s certainly elevated the program to a place where mid-major studs can get more exposure while learning under one of the best coaches of this era. The mixture of immediate talent and young potential on next year’s roster should provide a level of excitement comparable to the Boo Buie days.
Center was a major position of concern going into the offseason — did Collins do enough to shore up the front court?
Miguel:
The short answer: no.
Now, that’s not to say there isn’t plenty to be happy about regarding Northwestern’s roster for the 2025-26 season. The guard and wing rotation is as deep as it’s ever been in the Collins era; there’s a great combo of veteran returners and exciting underclassmen; but the biggest missing piece of the puzzle seems to be a severe lack of depth from the big men.
The Arrinten Page get does change things. The Cincinnati transfer will most likely be slotted into the starting lineup immediately, and is a great potential long-term replacement for Matt Nicholson, with a similar big and burly frame (Page stands at 6’11”, 240 lb.) and a solid touch around the rim.
What concerns me is who comes after Page. He is far and away the tallest player on the roster who has any college basketball experience, with incoming freshmen Cade Bennerman and Tyler Kropp the only other guys above 6’8”. If Page ever gets into foul trouble, it could spell disaster for the ‘Cats; and that’s an unavoidable hypothetical, especially in such a physical Big Ten. Bennerman and Kropp will need to grow up quickly to help shore up those concerns.
Yanyan:
Nope, and I’m sure Collins and Co. would agree. Northwestern was linked with several bigs in the transfer portal before Page’s commitment, showing interest in names like Cooper Schwieger, Gabe Dynes and Duke Brennan. Schwieger and Dynes even went as far as scheduling visits with Northwestern, with Dynes actually coming to Evanston before committing to USC. Collins’s unsuccessful pursuit of these bigs makes me wonder if the team felt like it left more on the table this season.
Like Miguel said, I think Page will be a great addition for Northwestern. Just from his sheer athleticism, I think he’ll be a player who has a good chunk of his contributions come from outside the stat sheet, just like Nicholson. However, I also think it’s a bit much to expect a player who started a combined four games across two seasons (and two teams) to completely hold things down in Big Ten competition as Northwestern’s primary player at the center position.
And looking beyond that, I agree that things could get murky when he’s not on the court. Miguel summed up most of my concerns, but I will add that Northwestern brings in 6’9 freshman Tyler Kropp — the third-tallest player on the 2025-26 roster. Although he’s undersized compared to your average five, Inside NU’s Ascher Levin projects him to get some backup minutes in that center position, which I don’t think is a totally unreasonable prediction.
Harris:
Obviously the answer here is no, and my primary concern is that Northwestern is clearly worse on defense than it was a year ago — at least on paper.
Neither Max Green or Jayden Reid profile all that well defensively (more on that later), while Page flashed some potential on defense at Cincinnati, it wasn’t enough to earn regular minutes on a team with two established rim protectors in Aziz Bandaogo and Dillon Mitchell.
Page does move very well on defense, and he led that Bearcats team in blocks per 36 minutes with two. His 247 recruiting profile out of high school featured a bit of a concerning note regarding his motor (“When everything is clicking, and he’s fully engaged in the game, his tools and impact can jump right out at you. There are, however, other moments when he is less active and involved with the game.”), but in the same paragraph praised his “accelerated rate of improvement” from his junior to his senior season. The Page addition is a bet that Collins, assistant coach Chris Lowery and the rest of the Northwestern staff can mold a competent Big Ten interior defender out of a kid who has all the tools to succeed but hasn’t shown it yet.
However, if the question is “did Collins do enough to shore up the front court,” Page has to be judged against the other potential options. Without pretending to know any specifics, Northwestern clearly struck on its first few big man options in Gabe Dynes and Grand Canyon’s Duke Brennan. Given the lack of experience behind him, it is completely reasonable to be disappointed with Page relative to the other names out there — and relative to the talent Collins added to the front court.
To quickly add onto Miguel and Yanyan’s concerns regarding foul trouble, Cade Bennerman is not a pure center despite his 6’11 frame. In his interview with WildcatReport after his commitment, Bennerman called himself “a natural forward that thrives playing along another big,” while adding that he feels most comfortable playing under the basket on offense. He will have to put on some pounds as well if he is to back up Page right off the gate — 247Sports currently lists him at 195 lbs. The 6’9 Kropp weighs 25 pounds more than him at 220 lbs.
Which new addition are you the most excited for?
Yanyan:
I’m very curious about how all the transfers and incoming freshmen will fit on this Northwestern squad, but the addition that I’m most excited about is USF transfer guard Jayden Reid. One of the Wildcats’ biggest issues last season was the lack of an experienced true point guard, and Reid’s playmaking abilities and court vision will fill that gap. He’s very speedy and dishes out phenomenal passes, and I think he’ll be able to spark the type of fast-paced transition offense that I enjoy watching.
At 5’10”, I understand that Reid will be undersized for the Big Ten, but if he does see success, that will make for an exciting “unsung hero” narrative.
Harris:
I agree with Yanyan that it has to be Jayden Reid.
He is outrageously fast in transition with a highlight reel of “how did he make that pass” assists longer than any Wildcat point guard in recent memory. Yeah, he’s undersized, and defense is a major question, but I implore anyone worried about his transition to the Big Ten to watch the kid shoot. Reid has to have one of the smoothest releases in the country, and the form remains steady from well beyond 25-feet. He made seven from that distance in 2024-25. Northwestern was also without a true point guard last year, and Reid immediately plugs that hole.
From a pure ‘fun’ standpoint, the twitchy-fast undersized guard with a strap will be worth every penny it cost to bring him to Evanston.
As a side note, for those frustrated with Northwestern’s relationship with Big Ten officiating last season, Reid lists “acting” as a hobby in his bio on USF’s website. For how much pain Vladislav Goldin’s flair for the dramatic cost the ‘Cats in 2025, I’m sure Collins will take that.
Miguel:
I’ve got to go with Max Green. Just watching his tape, it’s obvious he’s got some serious talent. And while the other two transfers are definitely exciting, and the freshmen have caught serious attention, Green has stood out to me the most personally because of his immaculate combination of size and flow to the game. Despite his 6-foot-6 frame, you wouldn’t know it because he moves like a true guard.
Green has a great build, but has a smooth jumper — he shoot 38% from three last season — and knows how to get to the rack at will. There’s a reason he averaged 15 points per game as a freshman on his way to earning Patriot League Rookie of the Year honors.
The most exciting part of all of that? He’s going into just his second year. Collins got a good one who will grow alongside the highest ranked Northwestern class of all time (per 247Sports) and could turn the program into a serious contender.
Biggest question you have going into the summer?
Yanyan:
This isn’t specific to men’s basketball, but I’m sure we are all curious about how the House v. NCAA settlement will affect the future of Northwestern athletics. Right now, it hasn’t been officially approved yet, but it’s likely to be soon with potentially some minor tweaks relating to roster limits. With that comes a litany of questions.
If Northwestern opts in on revenue sharing, how will it distribute the money between teams and how much will the discrepancy be between football and men’s basketball? How will the Wildcats compete with Big Ten schools that have larger athletic budgets? And with the men’s basketball scholarship limit being increased to 15 starting next season, how will Chris Collins adapt when the roster limit is also 15?
Northwestern has no answers to these questions right now. However, in a constantly changing college sports landscape, the Wildcats will need to adapt.
Miguel:
Does Nick Martinelli take another step? We all saw how improved the Italian Stallion was from his sophomore to junior season, becoming the leader scoring in the Big Ten and earning Big Ten All-Second Team honors (although some might argue he deserved better).
But how do you improve on that heading into your senior season? Martinelli is obviously going to be the guy for Collins and Co. offensively, but with a whole season of dominance now on tape, opposing defenses are bound to adapt to his unique style of play.
So how can Martinelli respond? Firstly, a more consistent jumper would help. Martinelli definitely looked better this season from three-point land, but never really felt like a serious threat from beyond the arc in the way that other top scorers in the conference did. Getting to that next level of shooting will make guarding him a nearly impossible job, as his dominance from inside combined with a consistent outside shot provides defenders with no weakness to exploit.
Harris:
I alluded to it a bit earlier, but my biggest concern has to be defense.
Max Green was blanketly poor defender at Holy Cross. Going by Bart Torvik’s Defensive Box Plus/Minus stat, he finished 247th out of the 276 players who played at least 80% of their team’s minutes. As Inside NU’s Eliav Brooks-Rubin noted in his film review, many of his issues like his inability to get over screens and subpar help defense can be traced back to Holy Cross’ general ineptitude on that end (342 out of 364 in Torvik’s Adjusted Defensive Efficiency), but it’s still cause for concern. Add in the undersized Reid, who did average 1.8 steals per game in 2024-25 but will undoubtedly be targeted early into his Big Ten career, and I don’t think it’s ridiculous to say that the NU guards got worse on defense from a year ago.
Then there’s the Page-Big Matt swap, which certainly feels like a downgrade on defense right now.
Comparing last year’s pre-injury five of Leach, Berry, Martinelli, Barnhizer and Nicholson to this year’s projected five of Reid, Windham, Green, Martinelli and Page, Northwestern will need legitimate improvements across the lineup to match the production of what was not even all that impressive of a unit in 2024-25.
Did Northwestern do enough to make it back to the tournament?
Miguel:
I think so, yes. Although it lost a trio of veteran guys in Ty Berry, Nicholson and Brooks Barnhizer, Collins did a solid job replacing them with a plethora of new guys who are all hungry for minutes. Pairing that alongside Martinelli and rising star KJ Windham is a deadly combination, and will make guarding the ‘Cats a really tough task.
As I already discussed, the obvious weak link is the lack of big men to guard against the score of super tall, strong, bully-ball teams in the Big Ten. But a small ball lineup is definitely something Collins has considered, and a full offseason experimenting with it could lead to some unforeseen success on that front.
In summation, I’d say Northwestern has a solid opportunity to make the tournament. Now, I doubt most “experts” pick them in their preliminary bracketologies, but that’s nothing new for NU. Assuming the injury bug doesn’t devastate the team again, the overall structure of the roster gives me a lot of hope for this coming season, and even more for the long-term future.
Yanyan:
I don’t expect Northwestern to be on most people’s pre-season bracketology or high on any Big Ten power ranking, but I will add that CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein had the Wildcats ranked No. 42 in his “Rothstein 45” made after the 2025 national championship game. So there’s at least one person high on the team.
Now personally, I think this is a Northwestern team that has a high ceiling and a low floor — something to be expected of a team that trends younger. With the loss of veterans like Nicholson, Berry and Barnhizer, Martinelli, Clayton, Mullins and Blake Smith will be the only four players on the roster who saw sizable minutes during any Northwestern NCAA tournament run. That said, the Wildcats also bring in their best recruiting class ever and three strong transfers. Like any team with new rotations, it’s hard to predict its success until we see how they gel on the floor. The talent is there for the most part, and a lot of NU’s tournament chances hinge on how players develop and compete together.
Harris:
I think the preseason projection is pretty similar to what it was last year, and I agree with Yanyan that a lot of that uncertainty is due to this team’s inexperience.
I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the potential holes in this roster, so I want to close touching on Northwestern’s 2025-26 ceiling. With the exception of the center position, this team is a lot deeper than it was last year almost across the board. Clayton, Ciaravino and Mullins all have proven to be reliable big-game assets off the bench, and this record-breaking freshman class has the potential to make an impact out of the gate in some way shape or form. Assuming that the four-starred Singleton is a day-one player, the rotation projects to go 9 or ten deep depending on if Collins trusts Kropp or Bennerman to back up Page from the get go.
K.J. Windham, Max Green and Jayden Reid will be weapons on offense. If Windham takes a leap (is All-Big Ten too ridiculous?) and Martinelli continues to improve, the Wildcat offense could be up there in the Big Ten. What if Singleton can play 20+ minutes per game from the jump? Page has all the tools to be an impact guy if he puts it together.
The defense is a legitimate concern, and it’s impossible to project the impact of the freshman. Yet all things considered, the ceiling of Northwestern and All-Big Ten Nick Martinelli is undoubtedly a third tournament appearance in four years.