Josh Pickett never expected to get his first major conference offer from Northwestern during his visit over the weekend. After all, new NU assistant coach Chris Lowery had only started talking to him a few weeks ago, so he thought he was going up to Evanston for a meet-and-greet.

But Pickett, a 6-foot-5 2024 combo guard from West Aurora (Ill.), found out that the Wildcats had been scouting him for quite some time before head coach Chris Collins made the offer.

"To me it happened so quickly," said Pickett. "But NU was doing their homework on me longer than I thought."