According to high school rankings, Northwestern basketball’s recruiting class of 2016 is Chris Collins’ best yet. For about a year, Wildcat fans have been salivating over the prospect of seeing the triumvirate of Seattle basketball’s all-time leading scorer (guard Isiah Brown), a physically dominant local product brimming with potential (center Barrett Benson) and the class’s most highly-touted recruit (forward Rapolas Ivanauskas) donning purple and white jerseys on the floor of Welsh-Ryan Arena. And of course, they hope that this group will ignite that final push to get the program over the hump and into a new era.
Unfortunately, a season-ending shoulder injury suffered by Ivanauskas means fans will only get the privilege of seeing two-thirds of that trio in action in the 2016-17.