Northwestern Adds Eight Transfers After Offseason Rebuild
Northwestern entered the offseason in rebuilding mode, returning just three players from its 2025-26 season and adding eight incoming transfers under head coach Chris Collins. The Wildcats face the Big Ten with a roster featuring little prior film together, shifting away from isolation-heavy ball toward a balanced unit following the departure of 6-foot-7 forward Nick Martinelli to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Replacing the Big Ten’s Leading Scorer
Martinelli’s exit leaves a massive production gap after he led the Big Ten in scoring during the 2025-26 campaign. Collins identified former Bellarmine forward Ryan Karasinski as the primary answer to that departure. Ranked as the No. 23 small forward in the transfer portal by On3, Karasinski arrives in Evanston as a graduate transfer after setting Bellarmine’s single-season scoring record with 650 points last year.
During the 2025-26 season, Karasinski averaged 21.7 points per game while shooting 56.1% from the field and 41.5% from beyond the arc. He led the Atlantic Sun Conference in scoring and produced against major competition, scoring upwards of 20 points against Georgia and Kentucky. In Northwestern’s exhibition game against Illinois State, Karasinski contributed 13 points and three rebounds while shooting 5-for-6 from the floor.
Karasinski will operate as a late-clock shot creator while providing floor spacing to open driving lanes for sophomore guard Jake West.
Experienced Division I Transfers Bolster Wildcats Roster
The Wildcats restocked their backcourt and front line with a wave of experienced Division I transfers. Graduate transfer guard Jalen Pratt joins the program after averaging 11.2 points per game for Northeastern in 2024-25 before a foot injury cut his season short. Pratt recorded 42 steals during that campaign and brings defensive intensity and tempo-pushing ability to Evanston.
Pratt will face his former team on Nov. 27 when Northeastern visits Evanston. Joining him in the backcourt rotation is guard Kellen Kostic, a 6-foot-4 Austrian transfer who averaged 4.4 points per game last season at BYU behind a roster featuring AJ Dybantsa. Kostic previously played professionally for the Arkadia Traiskirchen Lions and represented Austria at the 2023 FIBA U18 EuroBasket Division B tournament.
Collins also revamped the frontcourt by adding 6-foot-10 forward Bryce McEldon from Mount St. Mary’s. McEldon started 29 games last season, averaging 11.7 points and 6.2 rebounds per contest while leading the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference with a 64.5% field goal percentage. Junior forward Federiko Federiko arrives from Drake, where he averaged 8.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1 block per game, tying for the 11th most blocks in Drake history with 35. Federiko also represented Finland at the 2023 FIBA U20 European Championship and qualified for the 2027 IBA World Cup.
Rounding out the front line, Vanderbilt and UCSB transfer Jason Smith brings four-star high school pedigree and a season averaging 11.9 points and 4.2 rebounds per game for UCSB. Former Columbia forward Lazaros Soulis adds international experience from Greece, while Penn transfer guard Nick Williams provides backcourt depth following a season-ending injury that cut short his 2024-25 campaign with the Quakers.