Ceiling, floor and target for Northwestern men’s basketball in 2026-27

After a turbulent start to the offseason, caused by nine former Wildcats entering the transfer portal, Northwestern’s 2026-27 roster is finally complete, composed of three returners, eight incoming transfers, two incoming freshmen and a walk-on.

With this revamped roster, summer workouts will soon be underway in Evanston. Coach Chris Collins and his staff will be in the lab, working to mold these new pieces into a functioning Big Ten basketball team before the season tips off in early November.

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But what are realistic expectations for this new Northwestern roster?

With 11 new faces on the roster for this coming season, it’s fair to say that Northwestern has a lot of moving pieces. Considering this, the ‘Cats have the potential for both a decently high ceiling, but also a very low floor.

Here are the ceiling, floor and target for Northwestern men’s basketball in 2026-27:

Ceiling: Middle of the Big Ten, NCAA Tournament First Round

Taking a glass half-full perspective, Northwestern’s new players offer a lot of upside.

Players like Jack Karasinki (Bellarmine), Okku Federiko (Drake), Luke McEldon (Mount St. Mary’s) and Colin Smith (UCSB) were successful at the mid-major level, starting in almost every game they played in last season at their respective programs.

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Karasinski was the Atlantic Sun Conference’s scoring champion, averaging 21.7 points per game on 56.1% shooting from the field. Federiko was one of the Missouri Valley Conference’s top rim protectors, averaging 1.0 blocks per game (8th in MVC). McEldon averaged 6.2 rebounds per game, finishing top 10 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Smith had the third best three-point shooting percentage (40.5) of players in the Big West Conference that averaged over three attempts per game from distance.

Then there’s LA Pratt and incoming freshman Jaylen Hodge, two players that will be returning from significant lower body injuries — a broken foot and torn ACL, respectively — when they see their first…

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Publish date : 2026-06-07 18:32:00

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