Northwestern basketball will have just three, count ’em three, returnees this upcoming season. That triad consists of Phoenix Gill, Angelo Ciaravio and Jake West. That means the roster has been filled out with lots of new players, 11 to be exact.
The 2026-27 Northwestern basketball team will be a bit like the 2024-25 Illini, who had 10 newcomers.
That team also brought about the beginning of the Balkan Illini era, and you see how that worked out for them.
Elsewhere in the conference, Washington brought in a German import, Hannes Steinbach, and developed him to a point where he became a NBA Draft lottery pick.
“It’s such a global game,” Northwestern basketball coach Chris Collins said on a media Zoom call a couple days ago.
“And now you’re seeing with the landscape of college basketball, with these guys’ ability to make the money they can make at the college level, a lot of these international guys that would just stay home, internationally, until it was time to be in the pros have flipped that script.
“And now they’re they’re coming to the States, because there’s marketing potential, there’s an ability to play high college basketball, make a lot of money, and then prepare themselves to hopefully, eventually, get to the NBA.”
The Wildcats are doing exactly that, as they brought in six players from overseas, five from Europe.
2026-27 Northwestern Wildcats International Players
Guard- Aleksej Kostic, Pfaffstätten, Austria
Forward- Okku Federiko, Helsinki, Finland
Forward- Ryan Soulis, Athens, Grrece
Center- Symon Ghai, Tiam, South Sudan
Forward- Luke McEldon, London,UK
Guard- Jayden Hodge, Limberg, Belgium
Collins continued:
“So you have to broaden your scope. I’ve always felt as as we got established, this could be a place that would appeal itself to international players.
“First and foremost, the academic component. The academics is something that speaks for itself globally. You hear Northwestern in any country; we have a very much international brand, which resonates.
“And secondly, being near Chicago, we we have people from all over the world in our city, which I think makes it comfortable and easy for guys from different countries.
“We have a player from London, we have a player from Austria, we have a player from Belgium, a player from Finland, a player from South Sudan, player from Greece.
“It’s wild. A lot of them have spent time in the United States, so its been kind of fun to get to know more about them.”
Collins went on to say how this global flair is a newer development for this program.
“We really haven’t had a huge international flavor,” he continued.
“We’ve had a few guys along the way, but its kind of been fun as we’ve gotten to know each other. We’re doing a lot of stuff to get to know each other, figure each other out, trying to become a team, trying to build that bond.
So, its been really fun to kind of dive into different cultures and guys’ backgrounds, but you have to have a broader scope.
“Your recruiting landscape.
“There’s tons of international competitions that our staff now is attending and making sure that we’re staying up and evaluating not just American players, but players from all over the world.
“Because that’s not only what we’re doing, but everybody’s diving into that now, and I think its made the college game even better.”
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, Ratings and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.