Northwestern Basketball Officially Schedules Visit With Four-Star Recruit

The 'Cats are aiming high in the 2026 recruiting cycle.

Jayden Hodge leans back to shoot past Rutgers Prep’s Myles Parker. St. Rose Boys Basketball vs Rutgers Prep in NJSIAA South Non-Public Final in Jackson, NJ on March 10, 2025. | Peter Ackerman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

At the end of April, 2026 four-star guard Jayden Hodge received an offer from Chris Collins and Northwestern. Now, the Wildcats have officially scheduled a visit date with the 6-foot-6 New Jersey native from June 25-27. On3's Joe Tipton reported the news on X this morning.

4⭐️ Jayden Hodge has scheduled official visits to Georgetown and Northwestern.

The 6-foot-6 wing is a top-50 recruit in the 2026 class.

Dates for each trip (On3+): https://t.co/VUwTnyq3XY pic.twitter.com/PoZ78OfqLM

— Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) June 4, 2025

According to On3's Industry Ranking, Hodge is the No. 43 recruit in the 2026 class. After an impressive junior season, he recently announced that he'll be transferring to Montverde Academy for his senior year. The school has been a pipeline for NBA talent, with recent alumni like Ben Simmons, RJ Barrett and Jalen Duren.

After securing the program's best class in history last year, Collins is clearly shooting for the stars in the 2026 cycle. Before this recent surge of success, convincing a top-50 player to come to Northwestern was almost impossible. Now, it's a worthwhile investment of time and resources.

Hodge is unlikey to run the point in college, instead projecting as a bigger shooting guard. It's always necessary to have size at any given position in the Big Ten, and that's something Hodge would immediately provide.

It won't be easy to win the recruiting battle, though. Hodge also has offers from Michigan State, Maryland and Villanova, according to 247Sports. Those are big programs with deeper basketball traditions than Northwestern, so it will be up to Collins to sell Hodge on an up-and-coming team.

The incoming class of freshmen is a fantastic sign for the longevity of Northwestern Basketball, but it will take more than one good class to establish itself as a program that isn't going away. Reeling in Hodge would be an impressive start to this next class.