Northwestern basketball scholarship chart with Pete Nance and Jordan Lathon

After landing commitments from four-star recruits Jordan Lathon and Pete Nance over the past week, the future of Northwestern basketball is starting to become a bit clearer.

Assuming there are no transfers over the next year, the additions of Lathon and Nance give Northwestern 11 scholarship players for the 2018-19 season, meaning there are two spots left in an already incredible 2018 recruiting class.

To get a sense of what Northwestern’s roster will look like going forward, check out this scholarship chart. Players highlighted in red are seniors, blue are juniors, green are sophomores, and yellow are freshmen. Players with asterisks are playing with a younger recruiting class due to medical redshirts.

Of course, there is also still one open scholarship for the 2017-18 season, which happens when you only sign one 2017 recruit. There was some speculation that Northwestern would bring over a graduate transfer, but that never materialized.

But back to the 2018 class. Northwestern might’ve just had the best recruiting week in school history, and there is plenty of positive momentum. In a span of five days, the Wildcats landed their point guard of the future and a lanky forward with a chance to be the first early departure of the Chris Collins era. It’s a pretty good duo to sell to other 2018 recruits.

So who might be joining them?

Simeon’s Talen Horton-Tucker might be the top target right now. Lathon and Nance are already doing their best to sway THT, a dynamic small forward who visited with Lathon last week.

Horton-Tucker is only listed as a three-star by 247’s composite rankings, but his recruitment has been heating up. His physical, interior game would seem to be an excellent fit with Nance, who’s a long, skinny forward with good shooting range. The primary competition for Horton-Tucker seems to be Xavier, Purdue, and Illinois.

With Scottie Lindsey also leaving in 2018, Collins could certainly use another guard. Dwayne Cohill, a four-star combo guard and consensus top-100 player, would be a dynamic scorer to pair with Lathon in the backcourt. Northwestern will have to beat out Xavier, West Virginia, and Ohio State, among others, for the Cleveland native.

6-foot-6 wings Saddiq Bey and Miller Kopp are also serious possibilities. Bey is a small forward from D.C. and Kopp a shooting guard from Houston. If Collins wants another big, California center Riley Battin is the likely candidate.

Excluding for now the other two 2018 recruits that will fill out the class, let’s take a look at how the rotation could shake out over the next couple years. We did this nearly two months ago, but that was pre-Nance and Lathon and back when Cormac Ryan seemed like a near lock.

2017-18

PG: McIntosh/Brown

SG: Lindsey/Gaines/Ash

SF: Law/Ivanauskas

PF: Falzon/Skelly

C: Pardon/Benson

2018-19

PG: Lathon/Brown

SG: Turner/Gaines/Ash

SF: Law/Ivanauskas

PF: Falzon/Nance

C: Pardon/Benson

2019-20

PG: Lathon/Brown

SG: Turner/Gaines

SF: Falzon/Ivanauskas

PF: Nance/?

C: Benson/?

That looks pretty formidable, even before you factor in two more 2018 recruits and what should be a strong 2019 class. Northwestern basketball is trending upwards, and there’s ample reason to believe that trajectory will continue for the foreseeable future.