How about Chris Mullin then? Our Nick is not as good a shooter from distance, but has the same "old guy in a pickup game" vibe with his herky jerkiness with the ball in the paint. Similar lack of quickness/athleticism makes both less than stellar defensively. Us lucking in to Nick coming to NU -- when the coach at Elon left the school to be an assistant at Duke if I'm not mistaken -- is the stuff of Wildcat legend. As for his passing deficiencies, when you're one of the few guys on the team capable of actually scoring, it creates a major disincentive to pass the ball.
If you are Martinelli, do you stick around for next year or hit the portal?
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The only similarity I see between McHale, Mullin and Nick is they are all white.
Nick is a great college player, but McHale and Mullin are top 100 NBA of all time.
Don't forget the M
If you saw the postgame interview just now with Mart any worries about him leaving should be put to bed. He bleeds purple.
Was thinking the same thing. Pay him what he is worth (a lot), but doubt he is going anywhere. I’m appreciating him more and more as the year goes by. Seems like a really hard worker who takes ball very seriously.
My gosh, Nick cut a killer babyface promo right there. Brooks Barnhizer may be the toughest 'Cat I can recall (save Jitim Young), but no one bleeds more purple than Nick Martinelli. I love rooting for him, and I'm looking forward to Nick Martinelli Revenge Tour in 25-26.
During the game tonight, the play-by-play guy was talking about Windham and Ciaravino and how good they look and he said "Those two give Northwestern fans something to look forward to next year, right?"
And Robbie Hummel didn't respond. Didn't say a word.
I'm sure he was thinking "Yeah, but they're losing Nicholson, Berry, Leach, Fitzmorris and Barnhizer"
So Nick's Revenge Tour is going to require quite a few people to step up.
I've liked Windham and Ciaravino all year. I'm not at all worried about them.
But some of the incoming freshmen will have to be pretty good.
If we could get two major contributors out of the portal, that would be awesome, but it isn't very likely.
NU would be best served by certainly getting a couple good portal players, but it would benefit the team greatly if a certain 2-3 players use the portal to leave the team.
The portal is not going to be an easy thing for us. And I'm not even thinking NIL here. The 5th year graduate student that was abundant because of Covid is gone. So we are left with a very small pool of guys who already graduated and a more abundant amount of FR/SO. FR/SO are more likely to need time to develop.
Our transfers for the last few years
- A.J. Turner - 1 year experience coming in? Needed time to develop, never reached great heights
- Spencer - Graduate student, but zero experience, was green, very green. Was OK in a young bad team
- Audige - Pre-covid, had to sit! Came in with 1 year of experience. Turned out really well, but it needed time, significant time
- Elyjah Williams - Was experienced, was OK for the role
- Verhoeven - Was experienced, was OK for the role
- Preston - Was experienced, was OK for the role
- Langborg - Experienced, turned out great
- Mullins - 1 year experience coming in. Needed time, impact TBD
- Fitzmorris - experienced, OK for the role
- Leach - Experienced, great addition, got injured
Overall, I'd say Collins has done pretty decently in portal v2.0 (that's since 2021, as the portal opened in '18, but '21 brought immediate eligibility for one-time transfers). He's been able to get a bench big (Tydus Verhoeven, Blake Preston, Keenan Fitzmorris) or a starting-caliber guard (Ryan Langborg, Jalen Leach)
However, for '26, barring some sort of super summer improvement for Luke Hunger, or instant excellence from Cade Brennerman / Tyler Kropp (not a good bet as its just tough for frosh bigs to handle the physicality and mental grind of a 30 game season), it appears that top priority will be to to grab a "starter" level big from the portal. While getting a Danny Wolf or Vlad Goldin level transfer would be optimal, the 'Cats don't necessarily need a scoring big - perhaps there's another Matt Nicholson type out there who can anchor a defense.
Assuming its a grad transfer (would likely have the physical and game maturity needed, and should be able to pass admissions), NU has the makings of an attractive destination: top 2 conference, proven scorer in Nick Martinelli, and a coach who has built a never-say-die culture.
Perhaps 2nd priority (or 1A) is a knockdown 3pt shooter to replace Ty Berry who is at 38.1% from 3FG in B1G. KJ is 35.5% from 3FG, so its plausible that he can stay at that level or even improve a tick. Ciaravino has a nice stroke from distance, but he's at 28% from 3FG. (He did go 3/7 from deep vs. Purdue in just 20 min, so maybe there is a there there?) Either way, even getting to 32-33% for him just to be viable from distance opens up his slashing game which will only improve with him gaining strength and being able to finish. Finally, Justin Mullins is a conundrum - he's 34.5% from 3FG (10/29) but he has gone 0/3, 0/2 in games as well as 3/5 and 4/5, 3/4.
Last year the 'Cats had 3 who were very good from 3FG - Buie 48.3% (!!), Berry 46.3 (!), Langborg 43.5 (!). And all three of those dudes averaged at least 5 3FGA per game!
Holding that same metric of averaging at least 5 3FGA per game, we only had Ty Berry 38.1%, Honorable mention: Jalen Leach at 38.9%, but that was at 4.5 3FGA. I'm hopeful we can integrate more 3FG in the offense next year, if anything to create more space for Nick's herky jerky wizardry in the mid-range.
However, for '26, barring some sort of super summer improvement for Luke Hunger, or instant excellence from Cade Brennerman / Tyler Kropp (not a good bet as its just tough for frosh bigs to handle the physicality and mental grind of a 30 game season), it appears that top priority will be to to grab a "starter" level big from the portal. While getting a Danny Wolf or Vlad Goldin level transfer would be optimal, the 'Cats don't necessarily need a scoring big - perhaps there's another Matt Nicholson type out there who can anchor a defense.
Assuming its a grad transfer (would likely have the physical and game maturity needed, and should be able to pass admissions), NU has the makings of an attractive destination: top 2 conference, proven scorer in Nick Martinelli, and a coach who has built a never-say-die culture.
Perhaps 2nd priority (or 1A) is a knockdown 3pt shooter to replace Ty Berry who is at 38.1% from 3FG in B1G. KJ is 35.5% from 3FG, so its plausible that he can stay at that level or even improve a tick. Ciaravino has a nice stroke from distance, but he's at 28% from 3FG. (He did go 3/7 from deep vs. Purdue in just 20 min, so maybe there is a there there?) Either way, even getting to 32-33% for him just to be viable from distance opens up his slashing game which will only improve with him gaining strength and being able to finish. Finally, Justin Mullins is a conundrum - he's 34.5% from 3FG (10/29) but he has gone 0/3, 0/2 in games as well as 3/5 and 4/5, 3/4.
Last year the 'Cats had 3 who were very good from 3FG - Buie 48.3% (!!), Berry 46.3 (!), Langborg 43.5 (!). And all three of those dudes averaged at least 5 3FGA per game!
Holding that same metric of averaging at least 5 3FGA per game, we only had Ty Berry 38.1%, Honorable mention: Jalen Leach at 38.9%, but that was at 4.5 3FGA. I'm hopeful we can integrate more 3FG in the offense next year, if anything to create more space for Nick's herky jerky wizardry in the mid-range.
We would probably be happy with a transfer like the Penn State dude. Dutch or Swiss kid? I think we faced him against Northern Illinois last year. He's better than Verhoeven or Preston ever were. He was a SO coming to PSU. So, they are out there, just not abundant!
The portal is key if NU is going to compete next year - our class is excellent, but as we saw with Rutgers and their fantastic class this year, youngsters will take their lumps. I think we have to be prepared for NU to be predicted to get last place next year, regardless of who we bring in. I'm not saying the team will get last or even be bad, I'm just saying many will look at a very young team and what looks like one real player and write us off completely.
I think next year - regardless of wins and losses - is going to be a fun year to watch NU. Lots of new exciting and young players. Who will step up?
I think next year - regardless of wins and losses - is going to be a fun year to watch NU. Lots of new exciting and young players. Who will step up?
I think this is pretty positive. Of course, some didn’t contribute as much as we hoped, but overall nearly all of them had their moments. I would say Audige, Spencer, Leach and Langborg were better than most of us expected.
KJ, Gelo, Mullens, Mart, two bigs and a PG from the portal plus a couple of instant impact freshmen from our highly regarded incoming class…I like where we are headed.
We need to find a Jared Swopshire in the portal. I love Gelo but it feels like he needs another year as a reserve to work on his shot. If you guys remember we were right on the bubble before Jared got hurt at Iowa his one season at NU 2012-2013. I think we were 3-4 in B1G then. He could shoot the three fine, was a good rebounder and had a decent drive game.
I know you are all-in for NU, you've proven that, but you asked above why it will be difficult to get good players from the portal...
Its because the Covid year is gone - there just aren't going to be too many grad transfers out there. If they got redshirted and graduated on time then they'll have another year of eligibility. Otherwise, they'd need to graduate in 3 years. If they're smart enough to do that, then we have a great shot at them, but how many are there? And how good are they? Not many talented Ivy League guys get redshirted as freshmen, for example.
The underclassmen we can pursue are most likely freshmen and sophomores looking to step up in competition, a la Mullins. Or sitting on the bench at good basketball schools... but we don't get many/any of those. We can't go after most upperclassmen, because of admissions policy on transfers. (Unless that rule was recently changed - but I'd be surprised).
We have gotten at least one for a couple years. The guys that can make an impact come because of the opportunity they see to play and make a difference. We have gotten a BIG each year but they were not difference makers but more pieces. We had a starting Center. But going into next year we do not so a lot more likely to be able to get a first line guy. With Berry and Leach gone, good chance that they would see an opportunity there as well so getting two is not beyond the realm of possibility
I agree. The problem for us is that the likes of Langborg and Leach are very few now. Are they even 10% of the amount they were without the covid year?
Right now, unless we changed our admisssion policy, they need to have been red-shirted and graduated or graduated in 3 years.
NU’s admissions process, resources available to draw transfers, and general attractiveness/credibility as a program have evolved drastically over the timeline this describes and are continuing to do so, including major developments in the last few months and another massive development over the next 2-3 months. It’s a new world today, changed from the new world 6 months ago, and 6 months from now will be another new world
I'm curious whether NU could be doing more recruiting in Europe. Seems like many B1G teams have at least on import who is getting a decent amount of playing time.
Football just brought in multiple grad transfers. I think Collins will have plenty of options. CCC just put together arguably the best freshman class of all-time; I’m expecting that success to transfer into our portal recruiting as well. Collins has established himself as a terrific coach who has players that love to play for him. The future is bright.
Sidebar here, but I don't think Chase ever developed good offensive instincts at NU. He was an awesome defender and his athleticism enabled him to do things that pretty much any other player in recent NU history was unable to do, but he was "incomplete" as a player (and yet still a very good one in our tournament year).
Of course, my enduring memory of Chase will be those last 3:36 (IIRC) vs. Purdue where he went off like a bomb with 10 points and 2 steals to bring us the win against #1.
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