To start this season, junior transfer Jayden Reid was Northwestern's unquestioned starting point guard. Bringing experience from USF, Reid was notably undersized, but the 'Cats hoped his blazing speed and frenetic style of play would translate to the Big Ten and help jolt the team.
Very quickly during the conference season, it became clear that it wasn't exactly working out how they planned.
Reid is able to create opportunities on the break, and he is averaging 10.2 points per game and five assists per game. The issue has been that he is, in fact, too small to cover a lot of the elite guards in this conference.
He's also often faded in big spots and tends to chuck up some pretty poor shots over the course of a game. He can shoot the three-ball a little, but it hasn't been a consistent threat, and he's just not effective driving the lane in half-court basketball.
Enter Jake West, the freshman who has been absolutely electrifying in a couple games this season for the Wildcats and took over starting duties in mid-January. West is still only averaging 4.1 points per game, but he's coming off a career high 18 in a whopping 35 minutes of action against Iowa.
Chris Collins is showing more and more trust in his young guard, and it's paying off.
The question becomes: what should Collins be doing for the remainder of the season with these two players? It's a more complicated question than you might think, because the obvious answer for most teams would be: ride the freshman. He's the future of the program, anyway.
For Northwestern, though, it matters that Reid has another year of eligibility. Depending on how it evaluates him as a player, it might want to keep him in the fold for next season. If that's the case, it probably won't serve that goal to make him a non-factor on this team down the stretch.
The other complication is that these two players can share the court. Only one can play the point at one time, but both Reid and West have played the two over the course of this year. The 'Cats haven't been able to rely on other guards like Jordan Clayton, Max Green or K.J. Windham to pick up the slack, so maybe playing them together is the right move.
That's sort of where I come down on this issue, but I think it's probably time to make one more impactful decision -- moving West to PG full-time. Reid can play the position when West needs a breather, but he should be primarily a shooting guard for the rest of the season. If West is on the floor, he's running the show.
I think this for a few reasons. For one, West seems like he might just be the better man to run the offense right now, even as a freshman. He has an ability to create his own shot from the perimeter that Reid doesn't have. He drives the lane with much more confidence and has a far better success rate getting around the first defender. His passing has really impressed me, especially as of late.
But I also want to see what Reid can do when the pressure isn't on him as much to facilitate. One of the most positive things I can say about his season is that he's certainly capable of knocking down shots when he's open. He just doesn't get himself open all that often, and it's hard for him to shoot over bigger defenders.
If he's the consistent two, then maybe we see a different side of Reid down the stretch. In an ideal world, I'm sure Chris Collins would love him to become a sharp-shooter to give his team a real threat from beyond the arc besides Nick Martinelli. At the two, it might be easier for his teammates to help him get open.
The rest of this season should be about two things at the guard spot: getting West more experience running the point and determining on both sides if Reid and Northwestern are a good fit in 2026-27.
It wouldn't be prudent to deny West's ascension. But it also isn't smart to completely bail on a transfer who has some flash to his game. Reid shouldn't bring the ball up the floor anymore, but that doesn't mean he's automatically useless, especially with another year of potential development in this system.