With the start of the basketball season of the college at the beginning of November, Inside the Hall takes a team-for-team to the Big Ten and a player-per player looks at the schedule of IU basketball in the next two months.
Today our team reviews continue with Northwestern.
Earlier: Penn State, Rutgers, Minnesota
After consecutive round of 32 AD Tournament -performances in 2023 and 2024, Northwestern missed the late season last spring.
Injuries had a lot to do with the wildcats that took a step back. Northwestern had Brooks Barnhizer for only 17 games and senior Guard Jalen Leach also missed 10 games. Despite those injuries, Chris Collins still led a general record of 17-16, seven Big Ten victories and a number 44 ranking in Kenpom at the end of the season.
Barnhizer and Leach graduated, but Northwestern returns the most important scorer of the competition in senior wing Nick Martinelli. The 6-foot-7 Martinelli had an average of 20.5 points last season and became the first northwestern player to led the conference in scoring since John Shurna back in the 2011-2012 campaign.
Martinelli returns to Evanston after testing the NBA concept waters and is one of the best disputed shotmakers in all college basketball. Martinelli can score from all three levels, but excels in the Midrange. He was also an average of 6.2 rebounds last season.
Breakout -candidate KJ Windham, a resident of Indianapolis, scored in double digits in six of the last nine games of Northwestern last season. The 6-foot-3 second-year citizen was on average 11.5 points from the bank during that piece and had 20-point matches against Oregon and Iowa.
The likely answer to Point Guard for Collins is the transfer guard of Zuid-Florida Jayden Reid, a 5-foot-10 junior. Reid was on average 12.6 points, 3.6 assists and 2.6 rebounds while he shot 35.8 percent for the bulls last season.
Jeffersonville Native and class 4A State Champion Tre Singleton should play an important role for the Wildcats from the first day. An Indiana All-Star and Top 100 player National in the 2025 class, the 6-foot-8 Singleton Koos Northwestern above offers from Clemson, Xavier, Purdue, Louisville and others.
The graduation of Matthew Nicholson, a bruise in the paint, means that the Wildcats will have a completely different view of the five in season 13 of the Collins era.
Former four-star Recruit Arriten page, a one-off IU basketball recruit goal, is now in three seasons at his third school. Page started his career at USC before switching to Cincinnati last season. He has had little success for two seasons and on average only 3.5 points and 2.3 rebounds in 9.1 minutes per match for the Bearcats. The 6-foot-11 big man could get the first crack when starting.
A trio of returners, Justin Mullins, Jordan Clayton and Angelo CiaraVino, will give Collins some continuity while looking forward to integrating transfers and freshmen.
Mullins, a 6-foot-6 senior, an average of 4.4 points in 22.3 minutes last season, while Clayton played in the last 10 games (all starts) after the injury of Leach after initially planning to be Redshirt. Those 10 games were valuable experience for the 6-foot-2 Clayton, which had an average of 4.7 points, 2.5 assists and 2.4 rebounds in 20.7 minutes.
CiaraVino, a second -year student of 6 feet, started seven games last season and had two double games, including 19 points from the bank in a road loss at the beginning of January.
Holy Cross Transfer Max Green, a resident of Kentucky, will be a wing rotation piece after a very successful first -year season. The 6-foot-6 green was on average 14.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists during shooting of 38 percent at 3s last season.
Four other first -year students round the rest of the northwestern schedule.
Jake West, a 6-foot-3-Combo guard from Philadelphia, was the number 159 player in the last 247sports Composite ranking for 2025. Tyler Kropp, a 6-foot-7 Vooruit from Powell, Ohio, was the number 193 player in the same rankings. Both can challenge for rotation finances.
The Wildcats also welcome 6-foot-2 guard Phoenix Gill from St. Ignatius in Chicago and 7-foot Gift Benerman from Nashville, Tennessee.
In general, the north -western selection is an interesting mix of impact returners such as Martinelli and Windham, promising transfers such as Reid, Green and Page and pieces for the future in Singleton, Kropp and three other first -year students.
Collins has continued to prioritize high school recruiting and has the job security to develop players over time, a luxury that many coaches do not have in the contemporary portal landscape. Now a veteran Big Ten coach, Collins has earned his job security by building Northwestern in a respectable Big Ten program and showing loyalty by staying in Evanston.
Bottom Line: The Wildcats are number 68 Nationally in the current projections of Bart Torvik for the 2025-26 season and were chosen to end 15th in the conference by the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook. The ceiling of Northwestern is highly dependent on the game of Reid and Page, a few transfers that take over in essential positions. Reid must offer reliable Point Guard game and Page must be able to keep his own in the paint, something he still has to do during his first two seasons from the university.
Sacrifice: “Northwestern is my family’s house – I am really proud of what we have built in the last 12 years with our basketball program and can no longer be excited to continue the journey together.” -Collins last spring after agreeing to a long -term contract extension.
(Photocredit: Northwestern Athletics)
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