The transfer portal decimated the Wildcats' roster. Is the team left over doomed to the Big Ten's basement?
Chris Collins' incoming transfer class this spring left a lot to be desired. With only three players returning from the 2025-26 roster, the possibilities were endless.
However, Northwestern's roster rebuild fell short of expectations. Only one of the Wildcats' seven transfers played for a high-major program last season.
Jake West highlights NU's roster after an exceptional close to his true freshman season, but the rest of the group is shaky at best. Outside of West, only Angelo Ciaravino has significant Big Ten experience, while BYU transfer guard Aleksej Kostic and UC Santa Barbara transfer wing Colin Smith — who began his career at Vanderbilt — have played at the power conference level.
The Big Ten is as good as it's been in a long time. Michigan snapped the league's 25-year title drought. Half of the Final Four and Elite Eight were teams from the midwestern conference as well.
Factoring in the strength of the Big Ten with Northwestern's clearly undermatched roster, is it possible that the Wildcats could finish in the conference's basement for the first time since 2018-19?
Mar 10, 2026; Chicago, IL, USA; Northwestern Wildcats guard Jake West (3) drives to the basket against the Penn State Nittany Lions during the second half at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn ImagesCBS Sports' Isaac Trotter thinks so. In his way-too-early Big Ten standings preview on Monday, Trotter picked Northwestern to place last out of 18 Big Ten teams.
"When you have resources like Northwestern's, your roster looks a bit like a mid-major All-Star team," Trotter wrote. "It's a tough pill to swallow for Chris Collins, who lost 23-points-per-game scorer Nick Martinelli to graduation and his in-the-lab fill-in (Tre Singleton) to Iowa State... Collins has only finished outside the top-100 on KenPom once in the past decade. He's significantly raised the bar at Northwestern, but the raw talent on this roster does not pass the Big Ten sniff test."
In addition to West and Ciaravino, Trotter projected transfers LA Pratt (Northeastern), Jack Karasinski (Bellarmine) and Okku Federiko (Drake) to round out the starting five. That would once again put Northwestern at a significant size disadvantage from its Big Ten counterparts, as 6-foot-7 Karasinski and 6-foot-9 Federiko would very closely mirror NU's frontcourt from last season.
Instead, it's far more likely that the slim-built Federiko comes off the bench, while either 6-foot-10 Luke McEldon (Mount St. Mary's) or 6-foot-10 Ryan Soulis (Columbia) starts.
Four-star freshman Jayden Hodge could also make a compelling case to start on the wing, depending on how far along he is in his recovery from a torn ACL. Smith additionally provides an intriguing 3-and-D option and 7-foot-3 freshman Symon Ghai features limitless potential.
Next season's Northwestern team could very well be a deep one, but the top-end talent is just not there on the roster. It should not surprise anyone if the Wildcats finish at the bottom of the Big Ten in 2026-27, and there's only so much Collins can do about it.
