The kids are here, and they’re not going anywhere.
Chris Collins started three true freshmen in Northwestern’s matchups against USC and UCLA for the first time this season, giving the nod to Tyler Kropp, Jake West and Tre Singleton alongside senior Nick Martinelli and sophomore Max Green. Green, who transferred in this offseason after earning Patriot League freshman of the year honors at Holy Cross, also made his first career start as a Wildcat in Los Angeles.
The LA-five was Northwestern’s ninth distinct
starting lineup through 20 games. They were also the first to win a matchup against a Big Ten opponent, taking down USC 74-68 behind 22 points from Martinelli – and 11 points apiece from Kropp and West.
“I mean, what were we, 0-7 [in conference play] going out there?” said Northwestern head coach Chris Collins during Wednesday’s media availability. “So you’re searching for different things. You want to give guys opportunities.”
Though he would never say it directly, it’s clear that Collins has shifted his focus from the present to the future with Northwestern’s tournament hopes as good as gone. And that look forward has been notably light on transfers Jayden Reid and Arrinten Page.
Reid and Page, who transferred in from USF and Cincinnati respectively this spring, have both fallen out of the Wildcat starting lineup. Each played under 20 minutes in Northwestern’s win over USC and under 15 minutes in the loss to UCLA, with Reid playing a season-low six minutes against the Bruins.
On Wednesday, Collins made sure to note that Page played double-digit minutes in each matchup in Los Angeles despite coming off the bench, but his minutes drop-off is hard to ignore. The transfer from Cincinnati is averaging 18.7 minutes per game in January – and 12.0 in his last three – after averaging 27.9 in November and December.
Green, Reid and Page make up the highest rated transfer class in Northwestern history, and surely the highest paid. Each has seen their minute totals dip into single digits at times through 20 games. As Collins’ true-freshmen muscle two of his three high-profile transfers further down the Wildcat rotation, a big question looms for Northwestern.
What if they leave?
Collins has time and time again made it clear that he views the transfer portal as an auxiliary tool in roster construction, preferring to build the core of his program from the high school recruiting trail. He said as much again on Wednesday.
Yet this year’s roster marks Northwestern’s first true foray into modern college basketball. For a basketball program that has traditionally shied away from throwing big money at players in the portal, the question of player retention will define the 2025-26 season more than any individual result.
Northwestern five true first-years, who make up the highest rated recruiting class in Northwestern history, were no doubt expensive in their own right. Tre Singleton, the only consensus four-star of the group, chose Northwestern out of a loaded offer list that included Purdue, Louisville, Clemson and Notre Dame. The youngsters , which includes current high school senior Jayden Hodge, the highest-rated recruit in Northwestern history, are the future of the program.
Player retention is also not a new problem for Northwestern. Since 2020 the ‘Cats have lost three former four-star recruits to the transfer portal in Pete Nance (North Carolina), Miller Kopp (Indiana) and Robbie Beran (Virginia Tech).
While Page, Reid and Green are all great talents, the question of their retention is not existential. That doesn’t mean it’s not important.
Transfer retention is new territory for the ‘Cats. Until this year, Collins has brought in just two transfers who would qualify as ‘high-profile’ Jalen Leach from Fairfield and Ryan Langborg from Princeton. Both were graduate students with a single year of eligibility remaining.
You can make the argument that Green, Reid and Page are all higher profile additions, with each having at least two years of eligibility when they arrived in Evanston, on top of their starling resumes.
Pittsburgh, Arizona State, Cal, Cincinnati and Rick Pitino-led St. John’s were all reportedly involved in the Jayden Reid sweepstakes. Green was connected to St. John’s as well, in addition to Florida, Florida State and Illinois. Page was a four-star recruit out of high school and a McDonald’s All-American.
These commitments came with competitive revenue share and NIL packages, on top of a belief in the Northwestern vision.
Green and Reid (and Page, to a lesser extent) were so highly sought after in part because they each had multiple years of eligibility remaining. The ‘Cats no doubt paid premium prices to land them with the expectation that they would not be one-year rentals.
“With the way the rules are, you have to be very active with the transfer portal, internationally, pro players now coming back to play in college,” said Collins on Wednesday. “I would like to consider that our program can still kind of do things by keeping kids within, developing from within, and then adding around that core going forward. That’s always been a really great model.”
Retaining Reid, Page and Green would be a major testament to the ability of Collins’ strong retention record to translate to the Wild West of modern college basketball.
The looming offseason will be a test of the strength of the Northwestern model in the cauldron of revenue share and the transfer portal – and of Northwestern’s ability to stomach the basketball and financial implications of a failure in its first big swing.
