There were no shortage of questions surrounding Northwestern Men’s Basketball entering the 2026-27 season. Even more arose after two concerning exhibition losses to Illinois State and No. 18 Iowa State.
Now, some of these questions have been answered, and we have a solid blueprint of what head coach Chris Collins’ squad will look like on the floor this year. In a game in which it never trailed, Northwestern defeated the Binghamton Bearcats 86-60 on Monday. Sophomore Jake West, one of only three returners
to Evanston this year, stepped into his new leadership role nicely, scoring a career-high 20 points and dishing out 12 assists in 31 minutes of floor time. Graduate transfer Jack Karasinki added 24 points of his own, including a career-best seven triples. The ‘Cats were far from perfect, however, and may have been exposed against a higher caliber opponent.
Here are three takeaways from the season opener:
Jake West is ready
Scoring 20 on 6-of-9 from the field, West took advantage of any open looks that he got. He aggressively took on the Bearcats’ more experienced guards in Jeremiah Quigley and Evan Ashe. He added a team-high 12 assists, becoming the first Wildcat since current assistant coach Bryant McIntosh to tally at least 20 points and 10 assists in a game.
West really burst on to the scene in the latter half of his freshman campaign, starting the final 17 games of the season. This year, he has been expected to take on an even bigger role as a scorer and facilitator, as well as the general of this team. He did just that against Binghamton.
West routinely put the ball in the right guys’ hands for scores and relayed in plays from Collins, showing his leadership abilities.
“Jake is pretty quiet by nature,” Collins said in his postgame press conference. “I really challenged him over the summer, especially with all these new players, to really step up in leadership. From day one, he’s been the vocal leader.”
If the Wildcats have any success against tougher opponents, West needs to continue balancing his scoring and distributing abilities in his newfound role.
This team needs to stick to its identity
This team can shoot. The Wildcats shot 55.8% from the floor, nearly a 10 percentage point increase from last season. They also shot 40% from beyond the arc on the night, making 72% of their 3-point attempts in the first half. Karasinki, who was not much of a shooter last year at Bellarmine, put up 11 3-point attempts, in large part due to Collins’ scheme providing him open space. LA Pratt’s pace allowed him several good looks and three treys of his own.
“I thought we got a good shot every time, and when you get a good shot and you have good shooters and you get in rhythm, sometimes you’re going to have halves where you shoot the ball like that,” Collins said.
Shortly before the game, projected starting center Luke McEldon was announced to be taking a leave of absence from the team. He is currently one of, if not the, best shooter at Northwestern, but the ‘Cats were still able to outshoot Binghamton by 15 percentage points. When matching up against more athletic and sizable defenders, look for Northwestern to rely on its shot-making abilities to keep games tight.
A large part of this team’s reputation in recent years has been taking care of the ball. It had the second fewest turnovers in the country last season. After double-digit turnovers in both exhibition losses, the ‘Cats returned to who they are on Monday, only turning the ball over eight times. Against a Binghamton team that could not capitalize from the field, this is what allowed Northwestern to maintain a substantial lead for the entire game.
Moreover, Northwestern forced 12 turnovers, in large part by intercepting Bearcat passes, leading to fast break opportunities. This also gave Angelo Ciaravino the ball in space with open lanes, which is where he shines. The Wildcats scored 18 points off turnovers to the Bearcats’ four.
“That’s Northwestern basketball,” Collins said. “We got to continue with that ball security.”
Hello, bench? Where are you???
Northwestern struggled to get any production from its depth. Despite logging 54 combined minutes, the bench only added six points, all of which came from Phoenix Gill. Having more fouls (eight) than points from your bench is never a good sign.
Okku Federiko, who would have been on the bench if it weren’t for McEldon’s absence, did step into the five spot smoothly after not playing there at all in practice or exhibition. He rolled out multiple times to find himself open for easy points in the paint. The true centers, however, first-year Symon Ghai and Columbia transfer Ryan Soulis, didn’t provide any reasons to slot them into the starting five in coming matchups.
Collins expressed that he is not worried about his bench. As players get their feet underneath them in the young season, Collins said he will find ways to get players including Soulis, Aleksej Kostić and Colin Smith the ball.
“We’re such a work in progress,” Collins said. “I think [in] these first parts of the season, there’s a feeling out process for how we can really become the final team that we need to be.”
The Wildcats will try to continue finding themselves when they host Stony Brook on Friday at 7 p.m. CT with streaming on Big Ten Plus.
