NU Continues Preseason Slate at Home against No. 18 Iowa State
EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern men’s basketball plays inside Welsh-Arena for the first time in the 2026-27 men’s basketball season when it welcomes No. 18 Iowa State for an exhibition matchup on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 12:30 p.m. CT. The game will air on B1G+ with Adam Beck, (play-by-play), Sammy Krimstein (analyst) and Anna Watson (sideline) on the call, and it can be listened to on WGN Radio 720 with Dave Eanet (play-by-play) and Billy McKinney (analyst) calling the action.
LAST TIME OUT
The Wildcats fell to Illinois State, 74-60, in a road exhibition to open the preseason on Sunday, Oct. 18. Sophomore guard Jake West registered a team-high 14 points and a game-high seven assists in 28 minutes. Fellow returners in junior guard Angelo Ciaravino and sophomore guard Phoenix Gill starred as well, with Ciaravino posting 12 points, five rebounds and three assists, while Gill added 10 points, three rebounds and three assists. Making his Northwestern debut, graduate student guard Jack Karasinski logged 13 points, shooting 5-of-6 from the floor and 2-of-3 from beyond the arc, three rebounds and two steals.
From long range, @JackKarasinski 🏹 https://t.co/YsZb9fmevT
— Northwestern Basketball (@NUMensBball) October 18, 2026
’CATS IN EXHIBITIONS
Northwestern has won 15 of its last 17 exhibition games dating back to the 2009-10 season. In addition, the program is 15-0 in home exhibitions since 2009. Sullivan-Ubben Head Men’s Basketball Coach Chris Collins is 11-2 in exhibitions.
Last season, the Wildcats split their exhibition results, falling to No. 16 Iowa State, 80-72, on the road before defeating Illinois State, 100-65, inside Welsh-Ryan Arena.
NUMBERS TO KNOW
Northwestern has made the NCAA Tournament two times in the past four seasons, coming in the 2023 and 2024 seasons. The Wildcats are one of 10 Big Ten teams to make March Madness twice since the 2023 season.
Northwestern has three returners to its 2026-27 roster: second-year guard Jake West, third-year guard Angelo Ciaravino and second-year guard Phoenix Gill.
The Wildcats averaged 8.5 turnovers per game last season, ranking second nationally. That figure is the lowest mark in program history. Northwestern’s 2.02 assist/turnover ratio tied for the third-highest by any Division I team since 1993.
The Wildcats’ 2026-27 roster features 11 newcomers, including a pair of overseas first-years and eight transfers from other Division I programs. Northwestern’s eight transfers are the second-most in the Big Ten, and its 11 newcomers are its most in a single season in program history.
Collins is entering season 14 as the Wildcats’ head coach and is the third-longest tenured coach in the Big Ten. He ranks second in program history with 209 wins, trailing only Naismith Hall of Famer Dutch Lonborg's (1927-50) 234 victories, and is the only coach to ever lead Northwestern to the NCAA Tournament, which he has done three times (2017, 2023, 2024).
PLAYERS TO WATCH
- Jake West: In the last 10 games of last season, West averaged 9.6 points and 3.6 assists per game while playing 33.1 minutes per game. Over the full season, the second-year guard averaged 2.8 assists per game, ranking fourth among Big Ten first-years and the most by a Wildcat first-year since Bryant McIntosh averaged 4.7 in the 2014-15 season.
- Jack Karasinski: A transfer from Bellarmine, Karasinski joins the Wildcats after a First-Team All-ASUN season in which he averaged 21.7 points and 4.7 rebounds per game while shooting 56.1% from the floor and 41.5% from beyond the arc. The fifth-year forward had a 69.3 true-shooting percentage last season, making him the most efficient 20+ point per game scorer in the nation.
- Angelo Ciaravino: Northwestern’s returning leading scorer, Ciaravino doubled his scoring production as a sophomore last season, averaging 6.3 points per game while shooting 51.2% from the floor. Against Penn State last season, Ciaravino scored 20 points on 75% shooting from the floor (9-of-12), becoming the first Wildcat underclassman to score 20+ points on at least 75% shooting in a conference game since Dererk Pardon in 2015.
WHAT COLLINS IS SAYING
On building the roster through the portal…
- “There were three things as we built our roster. I woke up one morning, and I had three players on the roster. I said, ‘Alright, we get a chance to kind of rebuild this thing.’ What are some of the qualities? Obviously, character, hard work, and competitiveness- all those things. I think one of the three main things that we were really looking for is that we wanted to get older. We were really young last year, so our experience is something we really targeted with a lot of these incoming transfers. Secondly, positional size — basketball is so cyclical now, and I think you saw in the league last year everyone’s gone back to big, big guys, big wings, big guards. I thought we were a little undersized looking back on last year’s team. [I] was trying to get more positional size. Third, our shooting — that was another area I thought we could really address. I thought, for the most part, we were able to attack those three things. Looking forward to seeing what this group can do.”
On how to replace the scoring void left by Nick Martinelli…
- “It’s going to be more by committee. We’ve had some high-scoring guys the last few years, and we’ve played through them. I think you’ll see a little bit different style. Nick, as good as a player he was, he was very unique. To play to his skill set, he played in a lot of isolation, and you had to give him space to do what he does. I think you’ll see more free-flowing movement, more extra passes, more shot disparity amongst the whole group. I think you could see a different leading scorer on a given night. We tried to bring in some guys that can really help with that. Our two returning guys are guys I think could potentially be double-digit scorers — Jake West, Angelo Ciaravino. LA Pratt [and] Jack Karasinski are two guys that have come from schools where they’ve [averaged] over 20 a game. When you have that kind of mentality to score the ball, we’re going to need some of that. Obviously, they’re leveling up in coming to the Big Ten, but they’ll be two, off the top of my head, that we’re really going to look to to give us some scoring.”
On Jake West’s growth over the offseason…
- “Jake, I’m so proud of him. He came in last year, kind of was feeling his way. I think everybody saw the second half of the season, he really came on. You saw his confidence grow. The gauntlet he went through last year — think of the point guards in the league last year. Not only the talent, but they were all juniors and seniors, NBA players, great, great college players. For him to learn by going through that gauntlet and now have an offseason to get a little stronger, learn in leadership to be a little more demonstrative and outward with his guys. I think he’s really poised to be one of those guys that make a big jump, and we’re going to need it for us to be successful.”
SCOUTING IOWA STATE
Last season, the Cyclones went 29-8 and reached the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen. Under head coach T.J. Otzelberger, Iowa State has never missed the NCAA Tournament, earning a bid in each of the past five seasons. The Cyclones have been ranked in the AP Top 25 for 52 straight weeks, the fourth-longest streak in the nation.
In Iowa State’s first exhibition contest this season, it fell 83-80 against Creighton. The Cyclones have eight newcomers, with five transfers and three first-years. Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State’s highest returning scorer (13.5 points per game in 2025-26), was named to the All-Big 12 Preseason Team.
SERIES HISTORY
Northwestern has faced the Cyclones in the regular season just twice in program history, falling in 1949 before a 2009 win (67-65).
Iowa State hosted the Wildcats for an exhibition in Ames last season, in which Northwestern narrowly suffered an 80-72 defeat to the No. 16-ranked Cyclones. Sunday’s contest will be the second leg of the home-and-home exhibition series.
UP NEXT
The Wildcats open the regular season inside Welsh-Ryan Arena on Monday, Nov. 2, when they host Binghamton. The game will tip at 7 p.m. CT on B1G+ and WGN Radio 720.