Northwestern target Saddiq Bey talks top six, Chris Collins and recruiting timeline

Saddiq Bey doesn't like to draw attention to himself, but his play on the court is doing just that. The 6-foot-7 DC-area wing exploded onto the scene during his junior season at the Sidwell Friends School — yes, the same school that the Obama daughters went (and in Sasha's case, goes) to — and the offers began to pour in.

Unlike many of the top prospects his age, Bey elected not to tweet out his offers. That made Saturday night — when Bey tweeted out his final six schools — out of character.

“[My coach] kind of gave me the idea of posting [my top 6], Bey told InsideNU. "I don’t usually post my offers or anything like that because I’m not traditionally that big of a social media guy. I kind of just like to stick to myself."

"I did it around this time so I can set up my officials in September."

Per NCAA rules, prospects are only allowed to take five official visits, so Bey won't be able to take officials to all of his final six — Miami (FL.), Pitt, NC State, Xavier, Princeton and Northwestern. Bey chose the aforementioned six over Florida, Georgetown and Notre Dame, among others.

According to 247Sports, Bey has already taken unofficial visits to NC State, Xavier and Pitt this summer, though he says he hasn't confirmed the dates for any official visits yet. He says he'll confirm where and when he'll take those visits in the coming days, but he has an idea of where he wants to use those officials. Bey plans to commit in October.

With respect to Northwestern's pursuit of Bey, Chris Collins's staff was in on him relatively early; of the final six schools, only Miami offered the Washington, DC native before Northwestern. Assistant coach Armon Gates originally recruited Bey, but it has mostly been Collins leading the efforts lately, Bey told InsideNU.

Bey has taken note of Northwestern's recent success, and cited Collins's pedigree as a former player as an attractive quality.

"He knows how everything goes," Bey said of Collins. "He can relate to a lot of things, we have great conversations. He instills a lot of confidence in everyone, and he’s doing something special with that program, kind of moving in the right direction...He’s one of the best of the best.”

Rated as the 83rd-best player in the country by 247 and the 102nd-best by Rivals, Bey is versatile perimeter player who competes on both ends of the floor and shoots the ball well. He's a similar type of player to Houston-area wing Miller Kopp, another Northwestern target who put the Wildcats in his top six recently. It would not surprise if one of their decisions will impact the other's and Collins would probably be happy to land either one of them.

A commitment from either Bey or Kopp would also represent Collins making recruiting inroads in a new geographic region. Entering his fifth year in Evanston, Collins hasn't gotten a commit from the Mid-Atlantic or the Southwest during his tenure at Northwestern.

The competition is stiff for both wings, though, as it is for Chicago-area target Talen Horton-Tucker, so the next month or so will be an interesting one for a Northwestern staff that wants to build on an already exciting 2018 class. With Bey’s decision forthcoming in October, the next building block for Collins could be just a couple of months away.