I'll admit, I had considered the possibility during the season that Tre Singleton would transfer. I think anytime that you combine a highly-coveted recruit with a tough season, as Northwestern had, they likely start looking toward the portal. Still, today's news caught me by surprise.
Here were some of my instant reactions to Singleton's anticipated departure:
- Tre Singleton was recruited by Purdue and is from Jeffersonville, Indiana. He clearly was a starter at the Big Ten level and showed promise in his time on the court, so I'm assuming he's going to stay at a power school. I would not be surprised if either Purdue or Indiana came calling.
- A lot of people viewed Tre as the successor at power forward behind Nick Martinelli, but I feel like his defensive versatility and lack of a punishing offensive game definitely projected him as more of a 3 in the long term. Northwestern's size deficiency forced him to play much larger than he was clearly comfortable with, and he may have believed his best chance to play his natural position was elsewhere.
- Tre was very talented on defense and the potential was there, but he also shot less than 17% from three and averaged three fouls per game. His loss is significant, for sure, but it may not be world-ending.
- It's definitely not a 1:1 comparison because Pete Nance and Ryan Young were both graduate transfers, but I did think back to when Chris Collins lost two of his top players, was effectively a lame duck coach and ended up bringing Northwestern to the NCAA Tournament the next two years. Singleton's loss hurts the 'Cats more because he still has three years remaining.
- Who fills Singleton's shoes on the wing? I'd currently project Jake West and one of Jordan Clayton/Jayden Reid to start in the backcourt, then Arrinten Page or [insert transfer center here] at center. As long as Collins addresses the frontcourt in the portal, I'd expect Tyler Kropp to play as a stretch-4. That leaves top-100 recruit Jayden Hodge (coming off a torn ACL), Max Green and Angelo Ciaravino as the most-likely candidates to fill Tre's spot.
- A lot of the reasoning behind Northwestern's difficult season this year seemed to be based on how NU flipped over half its roster from the year before and needed some time to rebuild and figure things out. Thanks to the transferring Singleton, Cade Bennerman and K.J. Windham, and the graduating Nick Martinelli, Justin Mullins, Blake Smith and Gus Hurlburt, the 2026-27 Wildcats will also be turning over roughly half its roster. That can't be an excuse anymore if things go wrong.
- At the time of National Signing Day, the five-man recruiting class of Singleton, West, Kropp, Bennerman and Phoenix Gill was ranked No. 10 in the nation. The fact that only three are set to return after one year is a testament to how much the college sports world has changed with NIL and the transfer portal.
You can check out our story on the breaking news below. What were your thoughts about Tre Singleton's transfer and did you share any of the same instant reactions as I did?
