The Wildcats are less than a month away from kicking off their 2025-26 campaign at home against Mercyhurst. With eight new additions to the roster, there’s a lot of things changing about Chris Collins’ crew, but the team still has the same goals and expectations. Collins, senior forward Nick Martinelli and senior guard Justin Mullins made the trek down to Rosemont for Big Ten Media Days yesterday. Here’s everything they had to say.
Note: These quotes have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Martinelli
on the Purdue tandem of Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn: “They’re both amazing players. I actually have the opportunity to play a little with Braden this offseason. He’s elite, he’s a very good player. I don’t know if I could pick any player in the country over him, I would have to go with Braden Smith. But Kaufman-Renn is not a bad second option, let me tell you that.”
Mullins on Smith and Kaufman-Renn: “I have to agree with Nick. They’re both excellent players worth a lot to their teams, but I’m gonna go with Braden Smith. The way he just was able to lead their team the value that brings to the court, to the team…I’m going with Braden Smith.”
Martinelli on why he was sporting a new mustache: “I honestly don’t know. Yeah, I was just, like, in the shower this morning. I was like, ‘What are we gonna do today?’ And decided to go with the mustache.”
Mullins on how the players (specifically the seniors) built chemistry with the eight newcomers: “Yeah, this offseason we’ve done a lot of things to build our chemistry on and off the court. I think a lot of the stuff we do off the court, like simply just hanging out, spending time together, getting to know each other, those type of little things translate big to on the court. So just doing all of that stuff, welcoming these new guys into our culture, showing them what our culture is about. That’s been the key.”
Martinelli on which newcomer has been most impressive: “I think in terms of value, we really, really needed a big guy to step up out of the transfer portal. And I think AP (Arrinten Page) has done an unbelievable job. The energy that he possesses, the freak athleticism. Every time I’m driving to the rim, I’m looking around being like, ‘Yo, Where’s he at?’, and that’s a tribute to how hard he’s worked this offseason. He’s just done a great job listening to me and Justin and the coaches about how to take coaching and how to react in certain situations. He’s done a great job so far.”
Mullins on Tre Singleton (the program’s highest-rated recruit ever): “We’ve seen a lot out of him. He’s a really great freshman, very solid. He loves the game. He puts in a lot of work. When you have that level of dedication as a freshman, it’s scary, you know, like, his ceiling is just so high. And we saw that since day one. So I’m sure he’s just going to continue to keep getting better all the time. He takes coaching great, he takes criticism great. He’s just a great player overall. I’m sure he’ll have a great future.”
Martinelli on how he spent his offseason: “I mean, at the end of the day, we didn’t get done when we wanted to get done. So it was a working offseason for sure. I was obviously doing pre-draft stuff, so I took about a week off after the season. I was right to it. I really wanted to try to impress as much as I could at those draft workouts. And after that, it was getting ready to go for this season. I obviously wanted to expand my game a ton. And I was just getting better little by little, trying to push my conditioning. I know that I might have to have a similar workload this year. And I want to be able to battle even harder than I did last year. I truly think that this team can do a lot of good things. I’m super excited and motivated by this.
Martinelli on what he learned from the pre-draft workouts: “Full transparency, I think that obviously the two things they were looking for in my game, as everyone knows, is three point shooting and defense. But it was a super humbling experience. Coming off a pretty good season, I thought that, you know, I’d get a real look. And I definitely got the sense that I was kind of just there to be a sparring partner with those really high-level guys that teams were looking at. And that’s definitely a humbling experience, a motivating experience for me. Obviously in your own head, you consider yourself as good as anybody else in the country, and you know, going in there and kind of seeing that you’re kind of just there to kind of spar against guys that they’re actually taking seriously, it’s definitely a humbling experience. But, I mean, it was a great experience, nonetheless. It was a dream of mine to walk into those NBA facilities and put on a practice jersey. So it was an awesome experience, but definitely humbling.”
Martinelli on whether he’d bring out a windmill dunk he used in those workouts: “I mean, I can’t make any guarantees, but I’ll try my absolute best.”
Martinelli on using the humbling experience of the workouts as motivation: “Yeah, I mean, sports is all about humbling experiences. If you don’t get embarrassed a little bit, you’ll never really grow at anything. So, I’m obviously motivated just a bit by that, but I’m more motivated by a guy like this (gesturing to Mullins) that came in after transferring and has just worked his butt off and taken coaching and listened about how to get better at certain things. And just to see this guy’s jump and see my teammates, you know, that’s really more motivating — the guys that are in the room with me every single day. This year, there’s a lot of guys that felt like they’ve been undervalued at times, whether it be being recruited out of high school or even before they transferred. I think that we’re super hungry, and every player has a chip on their shoulder this year, and that’s what motivates me.”
Mullins on how the team plans to replace the lost perimeter production from last season: “I wouldn’t say it’s been one person. I think it’s simply just next man up. We all understand when we lose great players like that, that as a team, we all have to step up. And you know, there is no really filling their shoes to the fullest. But now, we all just take a step up, our role increases, and we just do what we have to do.”
Martinelli on his role on this year’s team compared to last year’s: “It’s just a little different. When we were doing that (referring to himself and Brooks Barnhizer pushing each other in practices), we were young guys just trying to figure it out. And now I’m in a different position of leadership, where guys are looking to me to be a role model. So I definitely think a lot of my focus has been on the team and the things that guys needed. If they need any advice, I’ve been through it. I’ve had such a great opportunity having leaders such as Boo (Buie) and Robbie (Beran) and Ty (Berry), that have taught me so many things, and I just want to pay that forward.”
Martinelli on Angelo Ciaravino’s growth: “Angelo has done a great job thus far in the summer and fall. I think Justin can attest to this. He’s definitely made a big jump. And Angelo’s being a guy from Chicago, we were working out a ton together — me, him and Justin, just getting after it. On a Wednesday morning, mid-August, everyone’s already probably on their way to school. You don’t want to wake up and go run sprints and get working, but he was here every single day, you know, grinding his tail off. And I think that it’s going to pay off in dividends.”
Mullins on which part of his game he wants to improve the most: “Definitely on the offensive side, I took shooting very personally. Just remembering last year, I was kind of left open a little bit on the threes at times. I took it very personally. So that was just something I wanted to attack, just being that solid shooter that can just make the simple catch and shoot threes. So, yeah, that was the biggest thing I was working on.”
Martinelli on the team being picked 15th in the conference’s preseason poll: “I didn’t know that, but I definitely think, as I said before, you can look at that and be like, ‘Oh, this is what motivates me.’ But a number doesn’t motivate any of us. As I said, as I’ll continue to say, we motivate one another. Our coaches, the guys that are in there every single day seeing the work that’s being done, those are the guys that motivate us. Obviously, we want to be thought of highly by people who are making predictions about how we’re going to be this year. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t change anything at all, whether or not we’re 15th or 1st or 18th. We’ve been predicted to be the lowest every single year. And I think we’ve done a good job just leaving it aside and focusing on what we have to get done.”
On how the defense is responding to losses of players like Barnhizer and Matt Nicholson: “I think Coach Collins, and even our assistant coaches, do a great job of just grounding us. Letting us know that without defense, we kind of just fall apart. That has to be our solid foundation. So we just continued to work on it, continued to get guys up to speed that we need to. I think just doing that, we’re going to be in a good place.”
Mullins on how the team has made up for the losses of strong rebounders like Nicholson: “I think with the incoming freshmen we have, and also the transfers, especially AP, we have some rebounding coming in. Definitely. We have some defensive guys that can really get after it, like Jayden Reed, for example. So I think we’ll really be fine. Like I said, we’re just kind of getting guys up to speed on the defense, and I think we’ll be fine with the rebounding, as far as where we left off a few times.”
Martinelli on what he saw during Barnhizer’s pre-draft process: “I think that day when he was drafted was an emotional one for all the people that have been around him, because we know how much he had been through. And yeah, he’s come back, and we’ve hung out and kicked it a couple of times. Just to see that joy back in his eyes for the game of basketball is something. It’s super awesome to see as a guy that grew up with him and grew in our games, but also as human beings. You begin to understand how a person rolls and seeing last year, during the end of the year, when his mental got just a bit off, just because he wasn’t able to play the game that he loves, it was a little sad. But him getting drafted, it just shows you what type of perseverance you have to have. A guy like that has fought for every little thing in his life. Even every practice, you know, fighting for every last ball, every last rebound, diving on it, diving on the floor. That’s just the type of guy he is. I wasn’t surprised, truly. I wasn’t surprised that he got picked. I was happy that he got picked, excited to see it, but I was not surprised whatsoever.”
Martinelli on what he’s learned from Buie and Barnhizer about leading the team: “I got to experience it firsthand, how they led. So that was something that I’ve gotten to take with me. But, yeah, Boo and Brooks have been around a ton, you know, and we’ve sat down and talked. They just love to talk ball, and I love to talk ball. So I’ve gotten a lot of advice, even about the draft process and things like that from them. So before doing that in the spring, I got to talk to them a lot about it. But yeah, leadership was something that Boo especially was super honed in on, and he’s really helped me in that aspect.”
Mullins on the younger backcourt players (specifically KJ Windham, Jayden Reid and Jordan Clayton): “We’ve seen a lot from those guys. Our expectation is that we’re going to have a great back court full of solid guys who can handle the ball, make open shots, make the right plays. All of those guys are good guys. I can’t really put it on like one guy who’s gonna, you know, take over. We can’t say that, we’re not that type of culture. But what we can say is that all of those guys are great players, and they’re all capable of being great backcourt players here.”
Martinelli on playing at the Greenbrier Invitational ahead of opening conference play: “It’ll definitely help prepare us. There’s a ton of really good mid and low major teams that have talent that really give us a run for for our money, but these teams (Virginia and South Carolina) obviously have the size, the strength, that you kind of get used to in the Big Ten. It’s a super defensive minded league, so you get a little bit of that with those teams. But, yeah, I mean, it’s just a great opportunity for us to see where we’re at. And for these eight new guys, we’re gonna see how we react to struggles, failures, being down in the game. So I think that it’s massively important for us. What do you think, Justin?”
Mullins on the same subject: “I agree, yeah. It’ll definitely be a test before we really get into Big Ten play. And, yeah, it’ll show us where we stand. So yeah, we look forward to those games.”
Martinelli on the guiding principles he believes will get the team back to March Madness: “Everything starts at the root. And I think the root of the guys that I’ve surrounded myself with in the Northwestern program that have been successful is just having that killer mentality. Practice, you know, it might not be the sharpest at times, but we need to expect that it’s going to be hard-nosed basketball every single day. And that’s what I love. I love getting my nose in there against whoever. You talked about, you know, maybe us not being as big or as able to rebound, but we have guys that can fly, that are going to just throw their bodies in there to grab rebounds, and that’s the type of guys that I want to play with.”
Mullins on the same subject: “We’re just teaching them really how to be the ultimate competitors on the court. That’s what got us to March Madness. And we understand that. That’s what we need to do to get back there. So, you know, me and Nick, we really just are trying our best to just lead the young guys, the transfers, show them what the culture is about, so we can get back there.”
Martinelli on which game he’s most excited for: “I mean, I’m really looking forward to practice tomorrow. But, yeah, I’d say Iowa State, that exhibition game, just to get out there. We’re all so amped up just to get out there. And, yeah, as a senior, I’m just taking it one day at a time. He knows (pointing at Mullins). You know, we’re taking it one day at a time. We’re trying to enjoy as much as we can. You know, as difficult as practice can be, it’s such a blast being out there every day.”
Mullins on which game he’s most excited for: “Yeah, you really try not to look ahead when you’re a senior. Really soaking up the moment, knowing this is going to be your last season at it. But if I had to pick, I would say Oklahoma State. Playing at the United Center. Being a Chicagoland type of guy as a kid, you just want to play at the United Center. Every kid who plays basketball in Chicago has that dream. So I’m super happy to get to play at the United Center for my senior year. I’m sure Nick is excited too.”
Martinelli on what he wants his senior class’ legacy to be: “I think just upholding those values that were there when I got there, that got us to March Madness. When I leave here, I don’t want that to be the last March Madness that we make. I want my kids to see Northwestern teams making March Madness. I want to see it myself. I want to be at those games. And I want to be a real — and Justin can attest to this — just be a true mentor for these kids that have come in so that they can be mentors to those that follow them. I know Coach is going to do an amazing job. All the coaches are going to do an amazing job getting these guys ready to go. But just leaving that in the locker room, that culture that we have, that brotherhood that we have, there’s truly nothing like it.”
Mullins on the same subject: “Yeah, just leaving that legacy and that culture that Nick just talked about. We would obviously love to end on a March Madness. But we want to leave it by becoming a program that, you know, makes March Madness every single year. We want to continue to keep that culture here. So, yeah, that definitely will be something big for us.”
Martinelli on his workload on compared to last season: “I’m just really honed in on doing my job. You know, if Coach wants to throw me out there for 40 minutes, I’ll give it my absolute best. And I’ll try to do everything he tells me during that 40 minutes. And if not, if it be 30 or 20 or 10 or five (minutes), I’m going to be in there every single minute, giving it my all. So that’s really all I can tell you.”
Martinelli on why he came back to Northwestern as opposed to transferring: “Coach talks about it all the time. People, with the transfer portal, people are struggling to find a home, and I wanted to have a home to come back to. It’s definitely suited me well, you know, the way that they developed me as a player and a person that has truly been special. I couldn’t have done it on my own. They were on me every single day, expected the best from me every single day. If I had left, you know, who knows what I would have been today? And he (Mullins) knows how hard it is to be a transfer, to pick up on things, to try to fit into the camaraderie of the team. So yeah, I’ve definitely benefited from staying here.”
Mullins on Tyler Kropp’s experience at the FIBA U19 World Cup this summer: “He brought the competitiveness with him over from there to practice. He’s just a competitive player, a dog. He likes to get after it. And I think that’s going to be his biggest thing, is just having that motor, bringing that over with him. Continuing to have that motor, that’s just going to help him have a great freshman season.”
Mullins on where he got his suit for media days: “I’ll shout out to the suit supply on Rush Street, Chicago.”
Martinelli on the same subject: “Yeah, I’m gonna shout out Gus Hurlburt. I called my mom a couple days ago asking about my suit, and apparently I had ripped my suit pants. So I called Gus, I said, ‘Yo, I need a suit.’ He said, ‘I got you, come over whenever and grab it.’ So shoutout to Gus.:
Martinelli on his eagerness to get back on the court for live competition: “That first four minutes, you’re just, like, you’re just itching to play. You’re nervous. There’s all the emotions that are involved. That’s for every game, but the first game especially, when you don’t really know. You’ve put in the work, but you don’t really know what it’s gonna produce. And so, yeah, getting out there and just seeing where you’re at, and then adapting after that, it’s huge. It’s definitely a bit of a sigh of relief getting out there.”
Mullins on the same subject: “Yeah, there’s like 30 practices before the first exhibition every year. So it’s like, by the time you get to that point, you’re so eager to just play against somebody else who’s not your teammates. So yeah, we’re definitely excited to play Iowa State and see what we’re about. It’s the ultimate test. We’re very excited.”
Collins on the decision to sign a contract extension: “At the end of every season, I’ve always tried to do self-reflection. About where the program was at, where I was at individually, what’s going on with my family. Everything that’s going on. And you have those discussions to see — Am I still happy? Am I still where I want to be? Am I still hungry about what I’m doing? And certainly, for me, a lot of my life has changed. I’m an empty nester now, my kids are out of the house. So you start to think about what your goals are, what you want to do. And honestly, at the end of the day, the legacy piece means so much to me. Being a part of Northwestern, I kind of feel like the program is my baby. And it wasn’t something that I was ready to leave. I was still hungry about what we were doing. I was still passionate about what we were trying to build, how we could get better. My heart was always leading me towards staying at Northwestern. That was where I wanted to be.”
Collins on what he was looking for out of the contract extension: “I think more than anything, it was to make sure that we were on par with what our competitors were doing, resource-wise. I mean, you guys have seen, we’ve done an incredible job with facilities. But now, from a resource perspective, are we investing in a comparable level towards what we have to try to be within our conference? That doesn’t mean we have to be at the top of the list, but you have to be in the ballpark in order to compete, especially in today’s day and age, with investment in players, investment in the resources and the program. Fortunately for me, Mark Jackson has been nothing but phenomenal since he’s been here. And not only Mark but the upper leadership of the board of trustees and everybody wanting this thing to keep moving in a positive direction. I think everyone sees the progress we’ve made, especially over the last three years, and I think we want to keep it going. So to be able to have those conversations about, okay, if we want to (keep it going), what is it going to take? So I think more than anything it was just being able to take care of staff, being able to have the resources in place — in my opinion — to be able to stay competitive and relevant in the Big 10 conference.”
Collins on the state of the team: “I’m excited. Knock on wood, we’re pretty healthy other than training camp bumps and bruises. We’ve been able to have our full complement of players on the floor pretty much every day. It’s an interesting team for me, and one that I’m learning a lot about. We have Nick, who everyone knows is a known commodity, one of the best players in the conference. And then I feel like we have a lot of guys who are good players. Certainly eight new guys that are learning a new system and kind of trying to find their way, and four returners that have all gotten better. So literally every day in practice, I’ve been mixing and matching lineups every day, putting new guys together. Not just for them, but also for me. You know, I’m trying to learn about this team and what kind of team we want to start. How do we want to close? What guys play well together?
I think we can play big at times. I think we can play smaller and quicker. You know, last year, we didn’t really have a true point guard, right? I mean, Jalen Leach was a terrific player — he had never played point guard in his life. All of a sudden, now the ball’s in his hands. KJ Windham had never played point guard in his life. Jordan Clayton had never played point guard in his life. So now we’re able to add a couple of guys, Jayden Reid and Jake West, that are point guards. And I think that’ll help those other guys play more of their natural positions and do the things that are gonna help them be even more successful.
And I think we have the opportunity to have more depth. I say opportunity. Everyone says they’re deep this time of year, right? It’s easy to say that in October. I think we have the opportunity to have more depth this year, which will be newer for me, too. You guys know, you’ve followed us. We’ve always played a shorter bench, you know, and I’ve never been afraid to play guys 35, 37, 38 minutes in a game. I think I would love to be in a position where we could get Nick’s minutes down a little bit, where he could be fresher at the end of games. Play more guys, and to do that, play a little bit faster. Our tempo’s been slower at times because of guys playing heavy minutes. I think with our speed and quickness, I think there’s going to be opportunity to play a little bit of a faster tempo, maybe play a couple more guys. But for me, that’s going to be an adjustment, you know, playing nine, 10 guys in a game versus eight. And their play is going to dictate that. I tell the guys that all the time. And I think we’re going to have the kind of team, honestly, where Michigan State was like this last year. They probably had the most depth in the league, played 10 guys, and on a nightly basis, you never knew who that leading scorer was going to be and they ended up winning the league. Now, I think Nick will be our leading scorer, but day to day in practice, there’s different guys on our team that emerge. And so the lack of clear separation, to me, hopefully, will be a positive. And you guys know, when there’s competition in practice and competition for minutes, it makes guys be better. It makes guys be more detailed. That’s what I’ve seen so far. And I’m excited about it.
It’s a new group. That group we had together for the last four years, it was awesome. It was amazing. But we kind of knew — Ty Berry, Matt Nicholson, Boo (Buie), Nick (Martinelli), Brooks Barnhizer, Chase (Audige) — we had that group of guys that kind of grew together. And now other than Nick, everybody else is gone. So it’s a new team, new energy, new guys, a lot of young guys, which brings a lot of energy and is exciting for me to teach. I love teaching, and so to develop these young players has been a fun process for me as well.”
Collins on the basketball team’s relationship with revenue sharing head Christian Sarkisian: “Christian’s been great so far, and he’s been really good in trying to learn more about the basketball landscape. He’s got great experience being in the NFL and understanding that there’s similarities with both sports, but there’s also differences. The agents that are involved with basketball are different than the agents that are doing football, in a lot of cases. But he’s been a really good resource. He’s dove in with us. Chris Lauten, who’s on my staff, he’s been my director of basketball operations. Before he came with me, he worked in the NBA in the G-League office, and he’s kind of been our liaison with Christian and doing a little bit more in that regard in terms of planning for revenue share. As we now transition from collective to revenue share, planning and putting together the numbers and seeing how we have to be smart. With a salary cap comes decisions that have to be made — when you’re offering guys salaries and contracts, you have to make smart decisions on how you put your team together. So I feel comfortable with our position that’s in place. Ideally, at some point, I’d like to have our own basketball GM. We’re not there yet, but hopefully down the road we can get to that point. And that’s not a knock on Christian, I’ve been pleased with the job he’s done and he’s really tried to dive in with us and see how he can be helpful. What it does too, it takes (revenue sharing decisions) off my plate. The last couple of years, it’s a tough dynamic for a coach when I have to be the coach and then I’m also the one heavily involved in contract negotiations. I mean, that’s a tough thing. I want to be the coach, I don’t want to be the GM. I want to help with decisions that are made, but to have Christian in place to be able to talk to these agents and go through the money aspect of things has been a big help.
Collins on how he dealt with losing last year’s team in the offseason: “I would have loved to say that I rested a lot, but it’s almost impossible in today’s landscape. I didn’t rest until the month of August. Now, the month of August, I got a little bit of rest, but I don’t think everyone realizes how chaotic it becomes as soon as your season ends in today’s landscape. The moment you lose your last game, that’s when the real season begins. Everyone’s trying to steal your players. Everybody wants more money. What do we have to do in the portal? What are we doing with high school recruits? How are we getting everybody’s money in? All that stuff comes to the forefront as soon as the season ends. And then that leads right into summer training, which was the middle to the end of June. So then we go into our summer training all the way through June and July, and we have July recruiting. Now in August, I rested a little bit. I played some golf, got away with my wife a little bit. She was mad at me. We didn’t get a vacation in the spring, so I had to give her some time in August, and that was good with us with the quarter system. That’s where it really came in, because we don’t start until mid-September. So it gave me a little bit of rest. And I feel great now. I’m recharged. I’m refreshed. I’m ready to roll. But I wish there were more breaks for us. There just aren’t right now in today’s landscape, which stinks, but it’s just the way of the world.”
Collins on the possibility of NCAA Tournament expansion: “I’m not against that. I’m an old-school guy, I don’t want to expand so much that you feel like everybody’s getting in. I still think there’s a merit of having a successful year to get yourself in. But what they’re talking about with adding eight more teams or whatever it may be, I’m okay with that in this landscape. And who knows, we’re probably not done yet. I mean, where is this all going to go, with the power fours? In the long run, I’m a big fan of the NCAA Tournament the way it’s currently constructed, and having the mid-major programs and the small league teams that win their leagues. And I hope it can stay that way for a long time because I think there’s beauty in that event. But with the money involved now and where things are headed, who knows where this thing’s gonna be in 10 years?”
Collins on how the program utilizes the transfer portal: “You guys know, with the transfer portal we really try to identify real needs for us in our roster. The first need was, we needed point guard play. We were losing Jalen Leach, played a couple guys in KJ (Windham) and Jordan Clayton that were more combo type scoring guards, that did a solid job. But we needed to address the point guard position. Jayden Reid, to me, was a big get for that. Two years of experience at South Florida. He brings an element of speed and quickness that we really haven’t had. Boo was quick, but this is kind of a different level. He (Reid) can play 94 feet both ends. He can pick up the ball, pressure the ball, which will allow us to extend our defense a little bit, which I’ve been wanting to do. His ability to get by guys, get into the lane, hopefully create some easier shots and not have so much of a grind on the offensive end when you have a guy who can break people down and he can make threes. But I love the fact that he’s got two years of high-level experience. He’s been on a good team. He’s been successful. I think he’s going to really be ready to step in and be an impact guy for us from Day One.
Max Green was another guy we really coveted in the portal. Wait until you see him. I mean, Max has got great size, he’s almost 6’7”. He’s really tall and he can really score the ball. When you lose a guy like Ty Berry, Ryan Langborg, guys that are just real weapons on the perimeter, he gives us that. Max can really shoot the ball and he’s got good size on the wing, so I think there’ll be switchability defensively with his size. And his ability to not only score, but he’s got really good offensive instincts.
And then obviously everyone knows we had to address the front line as well. Arrinten Page was a guy we just really felt good about as we did a deep dive. His talent is undeniable. And certainly he’s been at a couple of places and hasn’t fully come to fruition, but if you dive into some of the stretches he’s had…he’s 6’10”, 6’11”, really athletic, really good skill set. And he’s a guy where this is his third spot. So I think he understands the urgency of ‘It’s time for me to really step forward now as a junior and consistently be a good player.’ So all three of those guys were guys we felt we really needed to get. We feel like all of them will be impact players for us and have an opportunity to have a big role on this year’s team.”
Collins on the importance of Martinelli coming back rather than entering the NBA draft: “Nick coming back, obviously, it was the number one thing we needed. But people that have followed our program know that I’m a big fan of everyone exploring the process. Boo’s done that in the past, Brooks Barnhizer did that last year. I thought it was important for him to go on some workouts to see what it’s like to prepare himself for next year, but also get the feedback from the NBA people, about some of things that, for him to be an NBA player, what he needs to be able to do. Which is great because he’s such a worker. A lot of the time, I probably told him all of those things, but when you hear that from NBA GMs, NBA coaches, it rings a little bit clearer. But I know Nick is two feet in with what we’re trying to do. He’s trying to win. And I think the biggest thing for him is the leadership component. Nick is one of those guys — he’s a frontline soldier. He’ll run through the wall for his group. You guys know that. He’ll throw his body around. He’ll do whatever is necessary. But he wasn’t a very vocal leader. He was just a great player and a great fighter for us. Now he has to be that vocal leader. And I think those last 10 games last year, when Brooks and Jalen went down, it forced him to take that role on. And I’ve seen a lot of growth in him this summer using his voice, being good with the younger guys, being good with the new guys and being that vocal leader that we need him to be in addition to being our best player.”
On Tre Singleton: “Yeah, we love Tre. Tre has such a good demeanor. Nothing really fazes him too much. He doesn’t get overly rattled in a good way or in a bad way. He goes about his business. He’s physically ready to play, he’s 6’7”, 6’8”, 230 pounds, very skilled. I think him and Nick together are going to play really well off of each other. I think we can do some creative things with those guys, with their skill sets and moving those guys around. He’s ready to play right away. And we knew that, that’s why we recruited him. I always temper myself with freshmen because it is a whole new ballgame. But you look at what he did last year, taking his team to a state championship, what he was able to do on that stage in Indiana. All he’s done is get better and better every year. Those are the kinds of guys I love, guys that keep getting better. I’d be surprised if he wasn’t one of the more impactful freshmen in the league, but that’s going to be on him. It’s a big jump, but he’s going to be in positions to have a big, big impact on our team this year.”
Collins on the team’s lack of a traditional center rotation (Page is the only player on the roster listed at 6’10” or taller): “The reason why is because we have big wings. I think you can sometimes get away with a little bit more of an undersized big if you have bigger wings. Tyler Kropp’s a kid at 6’9” that I think is going to be able to definitely hold his own at our level. Especially if he’s playing with Nick Martineli and with Tre Singleton or with Nick Martinelli and Justin Mullins, or Angelo Ciaravino, who’s added 15 pounds of muscle at 6’7”. A kid like Max Green might be your two guard at 6’7”. I think when you’re positionally big at other spots, sometimes you can get away with it. It reminds me a little bit of our first tournament team. Dererk Pardon was 6’7”, you know, he was a center at 6’7”. But Vic Law was 6’8”. Scottie Lindsey was 6’7”. Sanjay Lumpkin was 6’6”. Bryant McIntosh was a 6’3” point. So we were able to get away with a 6’7” center then because we had bigger positional size, and he was a tough, battling guy. And I see that in Tyler Kropp. I think you’ll see lineups at times where even Nick could be the five. I think we’re playing around with that a little bit where we play Nick as a small ball five, and that becomes a tough matchup for other teams. And you know, we trap the post so that we don’t see a lot of one-on-one situations in the post. I think we’re playing around with it. Obviously we would have loved to have two, three, four seven-footers. Everybody would. But I think we’ve got to go with what we’ve got, and I feel comfortable because of our positional size that we can play a little bit smaller at the five, knowing that those other guys can help out.”
Collins on Jayden Reid (5’10”) adjusting to the size of the Big Ten: “He’s a tough kid. He’s a New York City kid, so he’s kind of been the kid that’s always played against bigger guys. He played at a highly rated high school team. He was at (Long Island Lutheran) High in Long Island, which is a nationally ranked team. He went down to South Florida, made an impact there. He’s tough-minded. I’m not worried about it. I mean, people thought Boo was undersized at six-foot, and I think if you’re tough, if you have fight to you, I think that height can be a little bit overrated sometimes. So I’m comfortable with him. I think he’ll translate. I think he’s ready to be a quality point guard in the Big Ten.”
On where KJ Windham will be in the lineup (backup point guard, starting shooting guard, or something else): “I think there’s going to be all of the above. I don’t think anything’s been determined. I think naturally, the way the game is played, you have multiple ball-handlers. Some of the best teams play two point guards. When we were at Duke, we had Chris Duhon and Jason Williams. We won the national championship. Tyus Jones and Quinn Cook, they won the national championship. That was two 6’1” point guards. So I think those guys (Windham and Reid) are going to play together, and they can play off of each other and handle the ball. I think inherently for KJ, he’s got a scorer’s mentality. And I don’t mean that negatively, I want to use that. We saw that we need his scoring, we need his ability to shoot the ball and make plays. But he’s still gonna play pick and rolls, and he’s still gonna enter offense, and there’s still going to be times he’s going to be the point. But I feel with Jayden and Jake West, those two guys are true point guards by nature. And it just adds. The more guys you have that can make plays, the better. And I think you’re going to see all kinds of different lineups. And it’s still to be determined. I mean, those two guys (Windham and Reid) are playing together. KJ’s playing with Jake some. There’s some times where KJ’s the point and he’s playing with Max and Angelo or Max and Justin. We’re playing around with stuff every day. I’m not really a position-baed coach. I mean, what position was Brooks Barnhizer? What position is Nick? I don’t think Tre Singleton has a position, I mean, he’s a do-it-all kind of player. So I’m less worried about who the point is. I just want guys that can all pass, handle, shoot, that can make plays. I’m excited to see KJ. He finished the year really strong. A lot of that was because of the injuries, right? It gave him an opportunity for us to say ‘Okay, we’re going to play him out of necessity,’ and he really responded and played well. I’m excited to see the jump he’s going to make this year now that he’s a sophomore.”
Collins on his preferences for timing college basketball games: “Yeah, I want quarters. I mean, I don’t get it. I’ve been beating the drum forever. We’re the only basketball game in the world that doesn’t play quarters. Internationally, men, women, high school — we’re the only game in the world that plays halves, and I just, I don’t know. I would be a big fan of the 10-minute quarters. I think that’s the next progression, but we’ll see when we can get that in.
I just think it adds to the strategy, right? I like the quarters, too, because it could reset the fouls. In a 20-minute half, you get in the bonus with 15 minutes to go. Now they’re shooting free throws. In quarters, you can reset the fouls every quarter. I like the ability to advance. I think it adds strategy to defense and offense. One step at a time. We’ve got coach’s challenges this year, so that’s one step I think will be added help, and hopefully we can get there (to a quarter-based game) over the next couple of years.”
Collins on his expectations for the returners, specifically the sophomores (Windham and Ciaravino): “I hope great seasons. Both of them had really good offseasons. I talked about KJ, his growth from the end of the year, he had a really good summer for us. And then I thought Angelo maybe had as good a summer as anybody in our program. We talked about his physicality — and he’s such a great athlete — but he lost a lot because of the physicality. He got knocked around, he went through the Big Ten. And he really got in the weight room. He’s added about 15 pounds of muscle from last year, and it shows. His athleticism now is really showing out more because he’s playing through contact a lot better. I’m excited to see his growth.
I thought Justin Mullins had a really good summer for us, just getting confidence. He was a really good defender, but I’ve seen the offensive confidence kind of come in the offseason, which is good. I thought Jordan Clayton, him playing in the last 10 games last year was great for him. He’s really solid, stable. He’s had a good offseason. We have options. We have options. And for me, that’s why I’m not really locked in on a rotation. I mean, I know Nick’s going to be in there, but other than that, I couldn’t tell you right now. I think we’re going to be the kind of team, and I’ve been preaching it with our guys, where we’ve got to be okay if a certain group of guys get it going on a certain night where other guys’ minutes might be down. And it might be your night one night and his night one night. I mean, Michigan State won a conference championship doing that last year, with 10 guys playing. I think we can be wired like that. Now, it might end up where there becomes separation and that might happen too. But right now, I see a lot of guys on a day-to-day basis doing a lot of good things. And there’s a lot of different ways we can go and that’s new for me. We really haven’t had that, that kind of learning my team. I think the exhibition games are going to be huge. I love the fact now that we can play these two exhibition games with fans, and I’m going to use those to play different lineups and kind of see what we’ve got as we head into the regular season.”
Collins on balancing the program’s present contention and building for its future: “It’s all about winning this year. And with that, how do we develop young players? But we have to have the urgency — with what Nick Martinelli has been to this program, I know it’s really important to him. Legacy, like I talked about, legacy is important to me. It’s important to him. It’s why he came back. I don’t know that any other players played in three NCAA Tournaments in our program history. He’d be the first. I know that’s important to him. Think about Nick — he’s been in the program three years. He’s been to two tournaments out of three years and last year, who knows, if we don’t lose Brooks and Jalen…that’s a debate for another day. But he’s eager to get back. And we’re in win-now mode. But to your point, while we’re in winning-now mode, are we continuing to develop for our future? And that’s going to be a big part of what we do as well because that’s our secret sauces. We’re not going to be an eight portal guys in, eight portal guys out type of team. We’re going to be a high school recruitment team that mixes in a few portal guys. And that’s how we’re going to continue to build. That’s what we did with this teams. But we’re trying to win. Make no mistake, this isn’t a rebuild situation. We’re trying to load up to be competitive this year and put ourselves in the position to be postseason-worthy in March.”
On how the program’s success has boosted recruiting: “Well, I have to speak in generalities because the NCAA rule is that I can’t talk about them by name. But what I can say is that our success, and our players’ individual successes, has led to more excitement on the recruiting trip. I mean, Tre Singleton, I don’t know that he comes to Northwestern if he doesn’t see what Brooks and Nick have done as this hybrid forwards. There are point guards that wanted to come here because of watching Boo Buie, things of that nature. When you have really good players that do really good things, and then you win, it leads to recruits taking notice of what you’re doing. And the environments — Welsh-Ryan. These guys are coming to games now and it’s electric in Welsh-Ryan. I mean, those are all parts of our program that have elevated our recruiting. And it’s been great because that’s where we want to be, in a ballgame where we’re recruiting guys that talent-wise, belong in the Big Ten, and not just guys that we’re taking flyers on that we’re going to try to develop. So we have noticed that excitement on the trail. People are taking notice of what we’re doing. Seeing Brooks get drafted, thinking ‘Man, I can go there and be a draft pick.’ Those are things that really help your program and have really helped our recruiting.
On why Purdue can win the national championship: “Um, because they have Braden Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn, Fletcher Loyer, and one of the very best coaches in all of college basketball. So when you have great talent and great coaching, you can win it all. They’re going to be a great team. I’m glad we don’t play them until the last game of the season, so we can sit back and watch.
