Five takeaways from Northwestern men’s basketball at 2026 Big Ten Media Day

Chris Collins, Jake West and Angelo Ciravino ushered in a reinvented Northwestern roster on Thursday, addressing the media at Big Ten Men’s Basketball Media Day in Rosemont.

They had plenty to say. 

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After a max exodus in the transfer portal this spring — nine players from last season’s roster leaving, two players exhausting their eligibility, and Nick Martinelli drafted by the Clippers, Collins had his hands full welcoming eight new transfers to the team. 

Questions linger about how this hodgepodge of a roster will mesh by the time the season tips off, but all three said the same thing on Thursday: nobody has seen this team play yet, and they like it that way.

A clean slate

Collins didn’t try to sugarcoat how the spring unfolded for his program. 

“When I woke up one morning, and there were only three guys on the roster, [it] really gave me and my staff an opportunity to get together and say, okay, the slate is somewhat clean,” Collins said.

Those three players on the roster were West, Ciaravino and sophomore Phoenix Gill. Collins said the staff had three main goals for the portal this offseason, but gathering experience was placed above all else. Collins said he thought last year’s roster was too young with five freshmen and three sophomores, and that it wasn’t mature enough to compete at the level they needed to.

The second was positional size. Arrinten Page was the tallest NU had at 6-foot-10, and he eventually fell out of the starting role.

The last one was shooting. On the surface, Northwestern wasn’t a bad team offensively, shooting 46.1% from the field. But its three-point inefficiency was where it was hindered: 33% from deep in the 2025-26 season, 12th in the Big Ten.

Collins took blame for last year’s struggles, saying “[I] didn’t think I did a great job constructing last year’s roster,” and wished the now departed players well. He also said the emergence of the transfer portal era is changing how he thinks about recruiting high school players, expressing an intention to shrink his first-year classes to two or three prospects who can make an instant impact. 

Pertaining to the size issue, Collins (ironically) found his answer in first-year Symon Ghai, who stands at 7-foot-3, along with 6-foot-10 transfers Luke McEldon (Mount St. Mary’s) and Ryan Soulis (Columbia). 

The Martinelli model lives on through the returners

Collins had high praise for his three returners in West, Ciravino and Gill. 

“For them to stick and say, ‘Coach, let’s get this right’… I’m really proud of them for that,” Collins said. “Their games have gotten better because of it.”

Collins called the trio “instrumental” in recruiting the spring class, calling and texting targets and hosting campus visits. Once they arrived, Collins put the onus on the three to set the program’s standard, whether that meant lifting, extra shooting or watching film. 

Ciaravino, a Chicago native, said experiencing the peaks and valleys during his two years in Evanston is what has kept him with the team. 

“I stayed because I’ve seen so much. I’ve seen the good and the bad…I just trust this program so much.”

Both he and West said Martinelli’s example set the standard for what it means to be a Wildcat, noting that Martinelli hardly played as a freshman but stuck it out, became one of the conference’s best scorers en route to the NBA Draft. 

“He could have jumped ship, he could have gone to a different school, but he trusted in what he knew,” said West. “He’s a legend at Northwestern now. He can walk around Evanston; people know his name.”

Jake West has the green light

Collins made a point of turning West into a better scorer in his second season. 

“There’s no question that I want him to be a scoring guard, not just somebody that sets others up, ’cause we need his offense,” Collins said. “I want him to be the head of the snake.”

Collins pushed West to seek his own shot in practice, programming the aggressiveness he wants his point guard to exhibit this season.

Despite what his social media presence might suggest, Collins described West as more stoic than outsiders may think and he has urged him to be a more vocal leader. “We need his voice in huddles,” Collins said. “All of our guys look up to him.”

West jumped at both suggestions. Referencing last year’s offense that ran mostly through Martinelli, he expects his scoring production to rise this year while operating as the facilitator he was last season. 

“I’m still, at heart, a point guard playmaker able to step into a bigger scoring role with a little bit more of a green light. A little bit more of confidence,” he said.

West said much of that confidence came at the end of his freshman season, when he played heavy minutes. “Playing 30 minutes a game as a freshman in the Big Ten is not really heard of nowadays,” West said. “So I think Coach Collins has a lot of confidence in me, and my confidence is through the roof as well.”

Life after Martinelli

It’s no secret that much of Northwestern’s offense ran through Martinelli, who often worked in isolation. Collins expects to shift away from iso ball with an offense that cuts, moves and screens to prevent itself from stalling out. 

“I’d be shocked if we have a 20-point-per-game guy, but I think we could have four, five, six guys that are averaging double figures,” Collins said.

Ciaravino backed that up, saying replacing Martinelli’s production will require everyone on the roster to step up.

“Definitely losing some scoring from him, so everyone’s just got to give it everything they got,” he said. “We got a lot of shooting this year. Outside shooting will be key for us. Spreading the floor, playing faster.”

The specific pieces of the offense Collins outlined:

• West and L.A. Pratt in pick-and-roll. Pratt is a 6-foot-5 combo guard from Northeastern who missed most of last season with an injury and is still working back to form, according to Collins. 
• Jack Karasinski, one of the nation’s top scorers at Bellarmine, coming off screens.
• Aleksej Kostic, the BYU transfer, as a perimeter shooter.
• Ciaravino cutting and curling into the lane, with an improved mid-range jumper.
• McEldon as the best low-post scorer, as Ghai and Soulis work more as rim-runners.
• Okku Federiko, a 6-foot-9 Drake transfer whose long, versatile frame bring the program an asset it hasn’t had in a while, according to Collins.

Collins also mentioned his group of wings, all between 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-8, including Colin Smith (UCSB), first-year Jayden Hodge, Karasinski and Ciaravino. With that depth, West says he expects the lineup could look different every night. 

“Some games, you might start somebody different at the five or somebody different at the four based on the other team you’re playing,” West said. “You can give teams different problems and different scenarios.”

The chip on the shoulder comes with a push for resources

Now entering his 14th season with the Wildcats, Collins noted that Northwestern is always picked towards the bottom of the conference. He added that it never decides where such teams finish, citing Iowa and Nebraska last season, which built their success on overlooked veterans to exceed expectations. He cited some of his own successful former players, Boo Buie, Brooks Barnhizer and Martinelli, who developed into all-conference talents without receiving a Big Ten offer out of high school. 

“We’ve always wanted guys that carry a little bit of a chip on their shoulder,” Collins said.

West is one such player who’s adopted that mentality. “All my life I’ve had that kind of chip on my shoulder to not only prove others wrong, but most importantly to just prove myself right,” he said.

Ciaravino has his sights set on a March tournament appearance after missing his first two. 

“It gets me upset that we weren’t able to be there the past two years,” Ciaravino said, “and I feel like it’s just fuel to the fire.”

That motivation from the two leading returners has created buy-in from the rest of the locker room. “There’s no pouty faces, no bad attitudes,” he said. “You’re gonna be very surprised by this group of guys.” Asked what he’d say to the doubters, he kept it short: “We’re zero and zero. Every other team in here is zero and zero.”

Collins built on that optimism with the growing excitement around athletics. He called the scene at last Friday’s opening night at the new Ryan Field “absolutely incredible.” Collins also praised new president Mung Chiang, who came from Purdue, a school well familiar with basketball success, and athletic director Mark Jackson. He challenged the school to hold athletics to the same standard as academics. 

West made his call to the students deciding whether to show up for tip-off. “You should want to cheer on a team that’s got something to prove, got a chip on their shoulder,” he said. “We’re trying to take Northwestern back to where it belongs.”

Up next

The Wildcats have two exhibition tests before the season tips off Nov. 2 against Binghamton. They first head to Normal, Illinois, to take on Illinois State on Sunday, Oct. 18, where they’ll play on the court named after Collins’ father, Doug Collins, one of the ISU’s most decorated Redbirds, who later coached a young Michael Jordan with the Bulls. 

A week later, Northwestern hosts Iowa State in Welsh-Ryan Arena on Oct. 25, welcoming back a familiar face on the opposing bench: Tre Singleton. Singleton was the program’s highest-ranked recruit of the modern recruiting era when he committed to NU in October of 2024, and averaged 7.6 points and 4.8 rebounds before transferring to Iowa State this spring.

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