Ninth Northwestern Men's Basketball Player Enters NCAA Transfer Portal
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Chris Collins has his work cut out for him this spring.
The longtime Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball head coach has now seen a ninth player with remaining collegiate eligibility enter the NCAA transfer portal.
Sources inform Sam Kayser of League Ready that sophomore guard Max Green is departing the club. He'll be looking for his third college club in as many seasons. The La Grange, Kentucky native kicked off his NCAA career with a Patriot League Rookie of the Year stint at Holy Cross in 2024-25.
Max Green's Underwhelming Northwestern Tenure
After averaging 14.9 points on .419/.380/.699 shooting splits, 5.6 rebounds, 3.5 dimes and 0.9 steals a night as a freshman with Holy Cross, Green saw his opportunities slashed mightily. In just 23 games mostly as a reserve for Northwestern last year, the 6-foot-6 swingman averaged a scant 4.3 points while slashing .370/.338/.600, 1.8 rebounds, one assist and 0.7 swipes in 14.7 minutes.
Green joins the previously announced eight absentee Northwestern cogs on the move this year: freshmen Tyler Kropp, Tre Singleton and Cade Bennerman, Green's fellow sophomore guard K.J. Windham, juniors Jordan Clayton, Jayden Reid, and Arrinten Page, and even soon-to-be-super-senior guard Blake Smith.
The 2025-26 Wildcats went just 15-19, a result that satisfied no one after the program had qualified for consecutive NCAA Tournaments in 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Star senior forward Nick Martinelli did enjoy a superlative scoring season, finishing with his second straight All-Big Ten honor. It remains to be seen if he can carve out a long-term pro career, although he's projected to land outside of the top 60 in the 2026 NBA Draft in the latest mock from Jeremy Woo of ESPN.
Returning Wildcat Incumbent Tally Down to Three Players
Yoni Zacks of The Daily Northwestern reports that sophomore guard Angelo Ciaravino, a Chicago native, will be back in Evanston next year. He's a 51.2 percent field goal shooter and a solid defender, so his return is exciting. Freshman guards Phoenix Gill and Jake West are the other two returning Northwestern players.
For now, the program's 2026-27 roster stands at just six players between that trio, Bellarmine transfer Jack Karasinski, incoming freshman center Symon Ghai and incoming freshman forward Jayden Hodge. Many more new faces will be on the roster within the next few weeks as transfer portal business continues.
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An Evanston native, Alex Kirschenbaum is also a proud Northwestern alum. He has written for Bleacher Nation, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Hoops Rumors, Trailers From Hell, Men's Journal, and Bulls fan sites Blog-A-Bull and Pippen Ain't Easy, among others. Alex knows Zach Collins has given the Bulls some good years, but he'll never forgive the then-Gonzaga center for that very obvious goaltend against the Wildcats during the second round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament.