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Northwestern Basketball: Wildcats secure Jared Jones and Robbie Beran for 2019 class

By Daniel Benjamin

SALT LAKE CITY, UT - MARCH 18: The Northwestern Wildcats mascot performs against the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the second round of the 2017 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Vivint Smart Home Arena on March 18, 2017 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, UT - MARCH 18: The Northwestern Wildcats mascot performs against the Gonzaga Bulldogs during the second round of the 2017 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Vivint Smart Home Arena on March 18, 2017 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 01: Bryant McIntosh #30 of the Northwestern Wildcats shakes head coach Chris Collins of the Northwestern Wildcats’ hand while exiting the court after his final college game during the second round of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 1, 2018 in New York City (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 01: Bryant McIntosh #30 of the Northwestern Wildcats shakes head coach Chris Collins of the Northwestern Wildcats’ hand while exiting the court after his final college game during the second round of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 1, 2018 in New York City (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /

Wildcats 2019 recruiting class to this point

Beran and Jones are good gets for Collins. As he needed to replenish his frontcourt depth.

Northwestern will lose senior center Derek Pardon to graduation after this season. Pardon has developed nicely during his time with the ‘Cats, earning All-Big Ten Conference honorable mention last season. Key reserves 6-foot-10 Barret Benson and 6-foot-8 Aaron Falzon will be seniors next season.

Collins did bring in two frontcourt players this past recruiting class in 6-foot-10 Ryan Young in addition to Nance.

With the commitments from the two bigs and two-star point guard Daniel Buie, Collins’ 2019 class is starting to take shape. Buie committed to the Cats on Sept. 14.

Northwestern has two scholarships remaining for the 2019 season and six open scholarship offers. 6-foot-7 Yavuz Gultekin (Bel Air Md.) and 6-foot-4 Maceo Austin (Hermitage, Pa.) appear to be the Wildcats’ top targets. Austin made an official visit to the Evansville campus on Sept. 21 while Gultekin is slated to visit on Oct. 12.

Austin, a three-star shooting guard, is considering three schools in addition to Northwestern –including  Penn State, VCU and Duquesne. Gultekin, a two-star combo forward, has 13 scholarship offers with Northwestern, Minnesota, Nebraska, TCU and Georgetown appearing to have a slight edge over the other schools.

It is possible that Collins saves one of the scholarships to use on a transfer student.

Collins has done a very good job in recruiting recently. The 44-year-old’s newest class is ranked 18th in the country by 247Sports. His 2018 class was ranked in the top-35 in the country by both 247Sports and ESPN.

Next. Top 10 Big Ten recruits for 2018-19. dark

Collins and the Wildcats are coming off their worst season (15-17 overall, 6-12 Big Ten) since his first two seasons at the helm of the program. Collins, who was an assistant at Duke prior to taking over the program, is 86-77 in five years at Northwestern. He led the ‘Cats to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history in 2017.

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