The times are really changing in the world of college basketball in a number of ways in recent years. We’re mostly talking about conference realignment, tournament expansion, and NIL maneuvers, but Northwestern is another prime example of this. Chris Collins continues on as head coach and is responsible for every trip to the NCAA Tournament in program history though the last few seasons have been a bit weaker for the Wildcats.
The big headliner of the offseason is top scorer Nick Martinelli heading off to the NBA after his brilliant work with the Wildcats. Northwestern may have been 15th in the Big Ten last year but he was part of two trips to the Big Dance and will be sorely missed. Beyond that there are many departures, especially through the transfer portal, but rising sophomore Jake West is a key returning piece at guard alongside Angelo Ciaravino.
Nabbing 4-star shooting guard Jayden Hodge was a big win for Collins and his staff, though his availability at the beginning of the season is in question. A typically homegrown Northwestern roster will be filled with transfer additions instead. Great scoring comes in the form of Northeastern’s LA Pratt and Bellarmine’s Jack Karasinski, while Luke McEldon adds potential in the frontcourt. Other notable additions include Aleksej Kostic from BYU and Okku Federiko, a solid defender from Drake.
We’re looking closely today at Colin Smith, a major frontcourt addition in Evanston. He’s a 6-8 forward from Dallas who began his collegiate career at Vanderbilt, starting a handful of games before transferring in 2024. Smith grew into a major role over at UC Santa Barbara and is fresh off a season where he averaged 11.9 points and 4.2 rebounds for the best numbers of his career.
You could easily shine this focus on a number of Northwestern’s transfer additions but we’re looking at Smith for a number of reasons. He’s got power conference experience, even if it came during a rough stretch with the Commodores, and he’s stepped up his game in a major way in recent years. He’s not just a sizeable presence; he’s made nearly 40% of his 3-pointers in his career and adds an important shooting touch for this team.
With Martinelli gone and many other changes, Northwestern brought in a ton of pieces that can score and hopefully put the Wildcats in a solid position. However, we’re not used to seeing this level of turnover for this program and it’ll be interesting to see how Collins and crew put this rotation together. It’s clear that the scoring has to come from somewhere and Smith is a great candidate to step into a major role at the 4.
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