2024-25 ITH Season Preview: Northwestern Wildcats

  • 09/11/2024 8:42 am in

With the start of college basketball season in early November, we’ll examine the conference as a whole and Indiana’s roster over the coming weeks.

Today, our team previews continue with Northwestern.

Previously: Penn State, Washington, Minnesota, USC

The Boo Buie era in Evanston is over. After leading the Wildcats to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances in 2023 and 2024, Buie will soon be in training camp with the Phoenix Suns, attempting to play his way onto an NBA roster.

After winning a March Madness game in each of the last two seasons, Chris Collins hopes the pieces are assembled to guide Northwestern back to the tournament for a third straight season.

Despite the losses of Buie and Ryan Langborg, the Wildcats return plenty of production from a team that won 22 games and earned a double bye in the Big Ten tournament. Three starters return to Evanston, including a strong All-Big Ten candidate in Brooks Barnhizer.

The 6-foot-6 Barnhizer, a Lafayette native, is one of the top returning players in the league. As a junior, he averaged 14.6 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.8 steals. Over Northwestern’s final 13 games last season, Barnhizer grabbed ten or more rebounds on eight occasions. He was also named to the league’s All-Defensive team and shot close to 42 percent on 3s in conference games.

Ty Berry returns for a fifth season after missing the final 11 games last season due to a knee injury. The 6-foot-3 guard shot 43.3 percent on 3s overall last season and 46.3 percent in conference games. As an excellent free throw shooter, Berry will have more opportunities to score and create for others with Buie’s graduation.

Nick Martinelli, a 6-foot-7 junior, saw his minutes go up last season after Berry’s injury. The Glenview, Illinois native poured in a career-high 27 points in a late February win at Maryland and scored in double figures nine times over the team’s final 15 games. Martinelli rarely turns the ball over and shot a stellar 54.4 percent on 2s last season.

Matthew Nicholson was a starter in the frontcourt for most of the season but was the victim of an injury late in the season that forced him to miss the final five games. The 7-footer isn’t much of a scoring threat but is efficient with the opportunities he does get. Nicholson shot 65.7 percent on 2s last season and 66.7 percent on 2s in Big Ten games, which led the league. Nicholson, like Berry, is using a fifth year of eligibility granted due to COVID-19.

Northwestern added just two pieces from the transfer portal and will count on former Fairfield guard Jalen Leach to start in the backcourt alongside Berry. A first-team All-MAAC selection last season, the 6-foot-4 guard averaged 16.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, three assists and 1.8 steals. The Wildcats had success last season with Langborg as a transfer moving up a level and they hope Leach can provide a scoring punch alongside Berry and Barnhizer.

The other transfer portal addition is Keenan Fitzmorris, a 7-footer who arrives from Stony Brook. Now, in his seventh season of college, Fitzmorris spent four seasons at Stanford and two at Stony Brook and he will now complete his eligibility in Evanston. Morris is expected to provide depth behind Nicholson and averaged 10.9 points and 4.4 rebounds last season for the Seawolves.

Additional frontcourt depth will come from Luke Hunger, a 6-foot-10 junior who got valuable experience down the stretch last season with Nicholson’s injury. A Montreal native, Hunger more than held his own in the NCAA tournament. In an opening-round overtime win against Florida Atlantic, Hunger finished with eight points, eight rebounds and four assists in 29 minutes.

The backup guard and wing depth is less proven, which will put pressure on Leach, Berry, Barnhizer and Martinelli to play heavy minutes. Walk-on Blake Smith returns as do Justin Mullins, Blake Barkley and Jordan Clayton.

Due to injuries last season, Smith was forced into regular minutes over the final nine games. The 6-foot-6 wing isn’t a scoring threat and will likely be a fringe rotation player if the Wildcats stay healthy. The 6-foot-6 Mullins transferred from Denver to Northwestern prior to last season and like Smith, rarely played until late season injuries. Clayton, a 6-foot-2 point guard, will provide depth behind Berry and Leach in the backcourt. Barkley redshirted last season.

The Wildcats also welcome a pair of freshmen in Angelo Ciaravino and a Ben Davis product, KJ Windham. Windham, a 6-foot-3 guard, was ranked the No. 138 player in the final 247Sports rankings for the 2024 class, while Ciaravino, a 6-foot-5 wing, was No. 153. Neither is likely to play much as a freshman, but Northwestern has done an excellent job of developing players over time and Ciaravino and Windham are both names to know for the future.

Bart Torvik’s preseason projections currently slot Northwestern in at No. 48 nationally. After back-to-back NCAA tournament seasons, Collins has taken the program to three March Madness appearances over 11 seasons, an impressive accomplishment for a program that was traditionally a league doormat before his arrival.

Bottom line: Most projections have Northwestern falling back into the league’s bottom half, which could be a mistake given what the program returns. Collins has done more with less than most of the league’s coaches over the last two seasons and has a solid core with Berry, Barnhizer, Martinelli and Leach. The Wildcats are always well-prepared and have developed a solid home-court advantage at Welsh Ryan Arena. A third straight NCAA tournament appearance isn’t out of the question.

Quotable: “I think we’ve turned the corner in a lot of ways. But you also look at the league and the margin for error. If you rest on your laurels a little bit, you’ll be right back in the bottom four. You have to stay hungry. But I think there’s a confidence level among our guys. We have six of our top eight back. I think there’s a confidence within our group that we can be good, and we can win—and it’s kind of an expectation.” – Collins to the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook.

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