Men’s Basketball Preview: Northwestern Wildcats

What’s going on, y’all? It is time once again for another Men’s Basketball preview for the upcoming college basketball season, and today we are focusing on the Northwestern Wildcats. The Wildcats finished the 2024-25 season with a 17-16 record (7-13 in conference), taking a big step back from the previous season where they went 21-10, and missing the NCAA tournament.

Head coach Chris Collins is coming back for his 13th season coaching the Wildcats, but he’ll be doing so with a few new faces. Gone are three of NU’s top four scorers from last season in Brooks Barnhizer, Jalen Leach and Ty Berry. Those four players were responsible for 42 of the 72.4 points per game the Wildcats scored last year, so they’ve got a whole lot of offensive production to make up for.

Lucky for NU fans, though, top scorer and second leading rebounder Nick Martinelli rescinded his name from the NBA draft and opted to return to school. That’s 20.5 points and 6.2 rebounds coming back to Evanston, which is a massive win. Some new faces to look for are South Florida transfer guard Jayden Reid, guard Jake West, and forward/center Cade Bennerman.

Reid is a bit undersized at just 5’ 10” and 160 lbs., but the kid is fearless, with 40% of his made baskets last season were at the rim. He’s also capable of knocking down the long ball, shooting about 39% from deep over two seasons at USF. He averaged 12.6 points per game last season.

West is a true freshman and was rated as a consensus three-star recruit. He turned down offers from teams like Florida and Mississippi State to play at NU, and they expect him to take the reins right away as a lead guard. West averaged 18.2 points per game his senior season of high school.

Bennerman comes in as the number one recruit in the state of Tennessee, and the #34 center recruit in the country. At 7’0” 205 lbs., he averaged 13.6 points, 4.5 rebounds, and a block and a half per game his senior season, leading his school (Father Ryan HS) to 21 wins, the most the program has had since 2009.

Normally I would expect a team with a 13-year head coach to finish the season near the top of the conference, just based on coaching experience alone. But, with the projected starting lineup featuring at least two true freshmen, who weren’t very highly touted in high school, I am hesitant to project them any higher than they finished last season, which was 13th. They could very well surprise me, and finish closer to the top of the standings, but they have a whole lot of production to replace. And I’m not positive they’ll be able to do so.

The Ducks will take on the Wildcats in Evanston this season, date TBD.

As always, ‘Sco Ducks.