It will be a battle of similar names and familiar players when the Wildcats and Huskies meet this fall.
North? East? West? Which way is up?
It will be the battle of directions on November 27, when Northwestern men’s basketball will host the Northeastern Huskies in a Friday non-conference matchup.
These two programs met in December 2024, where the Wildcats took a 85-60 victory in Welsh-Ryan Arena.
On top of sharing similar names, this matchup cuts deeper for one Wildcat in particular: LA Pratt.
Pratt, who played his junior and senior seasons in Boston after two years at Elon, announced his transfer portal move to Evanston in April.
The 6’5” guard averaged 17 points per game with the Huskies this past season, but only appeared in three games before a season-ending foot injury.
A year prior, he posted 11.2 points per game in 29 games played for his junior season, which included a matchup against the purple and white.
Pratt was the leading scorer for Northeastern against the Wildcats, scoring 18 points on 8-12 shooting, with seven rebounds to add on top.
Northeastern finished the 2025-2026 season with a 7-24 record, missing Pratt in the backcourt and the scoring column.
With a grim outlook for the Huskies, Pratt decided to change course to the west for his fifth year of college basketball.
Northwestern will be looking for the same from Pratt, looking for scorers after a losing season of their own, finishing 15-19 and 15th in the Big Ten.
It will be only the second meeting all-time between the two schools, with two now coming in less than a two-year stretch.
Leading scorers for the Wildcats in the inaugural meeting between the two programs were Ty Berry (23) and Brooks Barnhizer (22).
Nick Martinelli, coming off his senior season with the Wildcats in 2026 and eyeing the NBA Draft, scored 16 points as a junior in the matchup, with these three names headlining a now-outdated roster that sports a plethora of names that are no longer with the program.
If you can't beat them, join them. And if you can beat them, you might as well try and get their best player in the process.
This November meeting will cap off a month of non-conference action, including another in-state installment against DePaul on November 13, with more dates and opponents set to be announced.
Fittingly enough, fellow transfer Aleksej Kostic will get a homecoming of his own against his former team, with the Wildcats set to take on the Brigham Young Cougars in Salt Lake City.
The date remains to be determined for the Northwestern-BYU meeting.
