What’s up y’all! We are back once again with another Big Ten basketball preview, and today we’re going to take a look at the Northwestern Wildcats. The Wildcats finished last season with a 15-19 record, 5-15 in conference, in head coach Chris Collins’ 13th season. The Wildcats will be looking to rebuild a majority of their roster, losing 12 players from last season, most notably Nick Martinelli, who was their leading scorer and rebounder with 23 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.
They’ll be looking to replace Martinelli’s production with a slew of transfers, namely Jack Karasinski, LA Pratt and Colin Smith. Karasinski is a 6’7” forward from Bellarmine, who averaged 21.7 points per game last season. Karasinski is an elite 3-point shooter, knocking down 41.5% of his shots from deep last season, and shooting 56% from the door overall.
Pratt is a 6’5” guard from Northeastern University, coming off a lost season, where he played just three games before a broken foot sidelined him the rest of the year. In those three games, though, he averaged 17 points and 2.3 steals which is a big leap from the previous season where he averaged 11.2 points per game. Hopefully whatever adjustments he made going into last season stuck, and he gets to showcase his skill set this year.
Smith is a 6’8” wing from UC Santa Barbara, with a smooth jumper. Smith averaged just under 12 points a game last season, on 45% from the floor and 40% from three. He’s also got a soft touch around the rim, and the ability to finish with either hand. I think that in the right system, he could really flourish.
The Ducks will play host to the Wildcats this season, but at time of writing we do not know when.
As always, ‘Sco Ducks.