Hello, and welcome to The Center Hub! My name is Steven Bagell and I am Director of Brand and Operations. Welcome to our 82 in 72, where we rank the top 82 teams in college basketball counting down to opening day of college basketball season. To complete this exercise, we had four of our most knowledgeable college hoops minds collaborate to rank their top 75 or top 100 teams in the country. Myself, Maxwell Giger, and Cody Ramsey ranked our top 100 teams, while Kam Hickey ranked his team 75 teams. Collectively, for this exercise we averaged out each rank to create our top 82 teams in college basketball this season. Alas, here is #81, the Northwestern Wildcats. 

While only two of us had Northwestern ranked, myself and Cody were high enough on them to get them at #81. For the first time in school history, Northwestern is coming off back to back seasons making the NCAA tournament. Additionally, the Wildcats won a game in each of the last two tournaments. Both of these runs were anchored by the best player in Northwestern history, Boo Buie. Not only is Buie Northwestern’s all-time leading scorer, but he also (controversially) won the Lefty Driesell Defensive Player of the Year award, an award that goes to the top defender in college basketball. How does one replace the best player in program history? Collectively.

The biggest issue for Northwestern sans-Buie is finding an identity. In 2023, Northwestern ranked 22nd in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency. However, last year, the offensive side was their calling card, as Northwestern was 35th in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency metric. However, the one thing Coach Collins can hang his hat on is his team taking care of the ball. A lot of it had to do with Buie, but Northwestern has been elite at taking care of the basketball the past three seasons and avoiding turnovers. Additionally, the Wildcats raised their 3 point percentage from 32% in 2023 to a whopping 39% in 2024, which was 7th in the nation. Both Buie and Ryan Langborg, who each shot over 43% from 3 on over 170 attempts, are gone. Again, Coach Chris Collins will need to have a collective effort to replace that level of production. 

This upcoming season, Northwestern has a ton of experience on their roster. They have four players who are playing their fifth, or even sixth season of college basketball. This team will go as far as Ty Berry and Brooks Barnhizer will take them. The Wildcats went 16-7 last season in games Berry played and 6-5 in games he didn’t play. Without Berry, Northwestern lost their first game in the Big Ten tournament, won in an overtime matchup in the round of 64 against Florida Atlantic, and then fell to the eventual national champions in UConn in the round of 32. Additionally, Barnhizer, who was vaulted into a starting role last season, nearly doubled his points production from a season earlier. He also provides shooting, as he shot 42% from three during conference play. Barnhizer was the ironman of last year’s Northwestern team, as he played over 38 minutes a game a whopping fifteen times last season! When ranking this Northwestern team 62nd in the nation, Barnhizer was a big reason why for me. 

In total, Northwestern is bringing back 62% of their minutes from last season, and five of their top seven in minutes and points scored from last season. Junior Nick Martinelli averaged 8.8 points last season, but in the nine conference games that Berry was out for, he averaged 12.7 points per game. It should be anticipated that he’s another guy who will fill the scoring void left by Buie and Langborg. Meanwhile, big man Matthew Nicholson needs to avoid foul trouble. He had at least four fouls in ten of the 29 games that he played last season. In games where Nicholson played at least 24 minutes, the Wildcats went 9-3. Additionally, Fairfield transfer Jalen Leach joins the fray after averaging 16 points per game last season. 

Overall, the numbers indicate that Northwestern will once again be an offensive-minded team similar to last year. Provided that Berry is healthy, Nicholson avoids foul trouble, and Barnhizer takes another step into stardom, Chris Collins’ squad should be right in the thick of it in the Big Ten once again this season.