According to the Big Ten Men's Basketball Availability Report, Northwestern will be without center Arrinten Page tonight in the opening round of the conference tournament.
After a solid performance in the penultimate game of the regular season against Purdue, Page missed the team's regular season finale against Minnesota with an unspecified illness. Now, he will miss his second-straight contest vs. Penn State in what could be the final Northwestern game of the season if it loses.
Without Page, freshmen Tyler Kropp and Tre Singleton will have more pressure put on them playing interior defense. Ivan Juric leads the Nittany Lions in rebounds this season and stands at 7-foot-even, according to ESPN. That's a lot for Kropp and Singleton to try to handle at 6-foot-9 and 6-foot-8, respectively.
Page's absence will highlight a weakness of Northwestern's that teams have been exploiting all year -- outside of Page, it doesn't have another true center on the roster. As a result, Kropp especially has been forced to play out of position, and the 'Cats have struggled mightily against teams with more size on the glass.
But losing Page isn't a death sentence. The transfer big has had an up-and-down season in his first year in purple, one defined by high offensive highs and low defensive lows.
Arguably, the 'Cats are better off defensively without Page on the floor, but when the ball gets in the air, problems arise. It's a big deal for them to have a 7-footer patrolling the paint, if anything more than to box out the other team's 7-footer.
The good news is, Page missed the team's most recent game, and they almost won late at Minnesota. If not for a brutal sequence at the end of a missed free throw-quick bucket-bad offensive possession, Northwestern wins that game without its starting center.
Penn State is a worse team than the Gophers, having finished 3-17 in conference, good enough for last place. So, not having Page is far from ideal, but it doesn't define Northwestern's chances of living another day.
Should the 'Cats handle business, they will move on to tomorrow when they would meet Indiana who is waiting off a single-bye. It remains to be seen if Page would be ready to play in that game, and expect Chris Collins to give no sure-fire answer in his presser tonight. Unless Page's illness is clearly long-term, the team will likely keep a lot of info in-house.
Northwestern's chances at a miraculous Big Ten Tournament run aren't great, but eventually getting its 7-footer back on the court would be a nice boost.