Northwestern's head coach seems intent on establishing a rotation that makes sense for this year's squad.
Northwestern's basketball season is off to a fairly frustrating start. Coming off a blowout victory over Jackson State at home, the 'Cats now sit at 6-4. The main issue has been on defense, as the 'Cats were routinely allowing close to 80 points vs. power conference competition before this game.
To head coach Chris Collins' credit, he said after losing to Ohio State that he was going to exhaust all options to fix the issue, and it did look better on Saturday. There's still a ways to go, and they have to prove it against a better team, but it was a step in the right direction.
After the game, Collins let reporters into his mind a little bit once again. He said he's hoping to establish a more consistent rotation -- early in the season, he'd previously been very open about the fact that he was trying out lots of different things. Now, it seems like he's ready for something to stick.
"I wan to get in a better flow rotationally," Collins said. "For us as coaches but also the players, so they have a better idea of when they'll be called on ... We've been coming into games not having a clear decisive path ... tried to use this week to get clearer."
In my opinion, Collins is stuck in an interesting dilemma. He's right -- it's absolutely better for a college basketball team when its players know their roles and have the opportunity to lean into those roles each game. On the other hand, this team is full of players trying to prove themselves, and mismatching the rotation is a product of Collins trying to get players to earn minutes.
In some ways, it does have to happen organically, but this team also needs some organization right now. So, the question becomes, what is the correct balance?
Collins seems to have decided on a 1-6 in the rotation, at least for now. Jayden Reid and Jordan Clayton are starting at the guard spots. Nick Martinelli and Angelo Ciaravino are his starting forwards. Arrinten Page is the center, and freshman Tre Singleton is coming off the bench as a sixth man.
"Right now, I just wanted to take a look at it ... nothing is set in stone ... I wanted another big body off the bench," Collins said of moving Singleton out of the starting rotation.
I like that structure, and I think Collins should give it an extended look. There's no reason Singleton HAS to start as a first-year. Maybe playing him off the bench will take some pressure off.
Past those six, though, it becomes incredibly unclear who deserves playing time. Against Jackson State, Max Green and Jake West each played 20 minutes. Justin Mullins logged 18, and Tyler Kropp played eight.
Of those guys, Green and Mullins strike me as the players who should play the most, Green for his shooting and Mullins for his defense.
Kropp, meanwhile, doesn't seem ready for Big Ten competition. Northwestern needs a big man when Page comes off the floor, but the best answer might be running a small lineup with Martinelli at the five.
West is perhaps the most interesting piece. The freshman guard is averaging 2.8 points per game so far this season. He's looked exciting at times and immature at others, but he's clearly taking playing time away from second-year K.J. Windham.
The Windham situation is down-right weird at this point. Once thought of as a future building block for this team, Windham played just one minute against Jackson State. I can't say what's going on because I don't know what's going on, but I think he needs to play more.
It's crucial to this year's team, and to Northwestern's future, that Windham pulls himself out of this rut. West has earned some time, but it's unclear to me what he's done to pass Windham in the rotation.
Overall, it seems like Collins is going to give the current structure at the top of his rotation a chance to gel. That's a good thing. It's the bench that remains unclear, and I'm not sure there's anything Collins himself can do about it besides continuing to see who flashes.