A former Northwestern Wildcat, who was not a part of this year's mass exodus, officially committed to Grand Canyon yesterday out of the transfer portal.
Blake Barkley, who played his freshman season with the Wildcats two years ago, is the player in question. He spent this past season with ETSU, where he smartly transferred to have a better opportunity to see the floor.
With the 'Cats, Barkley played in just four games, averaging one point per game. This past season, he took a gigantic leap, averaging 14.6 points in about 28 minutes of action per game. Barkley also tacked on 5.8 rebounds per game and 0.8 steals on the defensive end.
GCU is definitely an upgrade over ETSU, but Barkley probably could have chosen a school with an even more prestigious basketball program if he wanted to. It seems the rising junior instead wants to prove he can do it at a level in between the two teams he's played for thus far.
With Northwestern's roster currently at seven players, and Barkley's history with head coach Chris Collins, some figured the Wildcats might actually bring him back for another shot. When he announced his decision yesterday on X with the caption "Back in purple," some 'Cats' fans probably did a double take.
But Barkley is not coming back to Evanston, despite the fact that it made a lot of sense. Instead, he'll look to build on his time at ETSU at GCU.
With Northwestern two seasons ago, Barkley looked like a player who maybe wasn't ready for Big Ten action. But he did have some things going for him -- his 6-foot-7, 210 lbs frame above all else.
Barkley is truly not too small to play a forward position in a power conference. The issue was that his offensive game was not refined at all as a freshman. Now, just a year later, it's certainly better, but the decision to give it even more time makes sense.
Who knows, he could love Grand Canyon and stay there for the remainder of his career. But don't be surprised if Barkley becomes a four-year, four-program player if he takes another jump in 2026-27.
Northwestern was his starting point, but Barkley needed to reset after a disappointing freshman campaign in which he did burn a redshirt. Now, we get to see if he works his way back up to a power conference with a real chance to get playing time this go around.