Positional disparity in recruiting a result of opportunity, not strategy: Northwestern's Class of 2023 was two guards and a small forward, and its Class of 2024 stands at two guards.
In that same span, they brought in center Tydus Verhoeven as a grad transfer last year to work in with Matt Nicholson, and now they've signed grad transfer big man Preston from Liberty to play the same role this season.
It may seem like the Wildcats are focused on developing their guards from the ground up, and plugging-and-playing transfer bigs around them. But Collins said that the positional disparity was more opportunistic than purposeful.
"I think it's just the way it's shaken out," he said. "We felt from a post perspective, we still have very high hopes for Luke Hunger, he's going to be a redshirt freshman this year. We felt we have a young big and then Matt [Nicholson] going into his fourth year.
"But we saw the value of what happened last year with Tydus [Verhoeven]. He became a big piece of what we were doing, and we felt we wanted to get another, older frontline guy."
Collins expounded on Northwestern's recruiting philosophy regarding positional needs and the portal.
"We don't really go into every year, I don't think you can now with the portal, saying 'These are going to be our needs.' I don't think from year to year you're going to know as much. I think what we try to find now is what are the fits for us, whether it's guard, whether it's forward, or whether it's big."
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This portion is amazing and something I've stated multiple times. NU recruiting is more opportunistic than strategic. It's not about "Collins has gone after this or that player". It is about going after the best available that fits.
northwestern.rivals.com
