They say good things come in threes, and that has certainly been the case for Northwestern in the transfer portal this spring.
Head coach Chris Collins' latest coup is grad transfer guard Ryan Langborg, Princeton's March Madness star and second-leading scorer last season. The 6-foot-4 guard committed to the Wildcats on Saturday and announced it on Sunday.
He has one year of eligibility remaining.
Langborg was crucial to an incredible run for the Tigers, who finished with an Ivy League regular season and tournament title, an upset of No. 2 seed Arizona, and Princeton's first Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament in more than 50 years.
The sharpshooter from La Jolla, Calif., averaged 12.1 points on 42.3/33.2/82.3 splits during the season, but he kicked it up another notch when the lights were brightest. In the NCAA Tournament, he went up to 18.7 points per game on nearly 50% shooting from the floor, scoring 22 points in a win against No. 7 seed Missouri and 26 in a loss to No. 3 Creighton.
With the addition of the graduate transfer guard, Collins has brought in a trifecta of transfers that could compete for Northwestern’s first Big Ten title since 1932-33 if stars Boo Buie and Chase Audige opt to return to Evanston instead of enter the NBA Draft. The Wildcats are coming off of a 22-12 2022-23 campaign that saw them win 12 Big Ten games for the first time in history and earn the program's second-ever NCAA Tournament invitation.
Langborg figures to provide confident ball handling and decision making in the Northwestern backcourt. But, most importantly, he brings high-volume, high-percentage three-point shooting.
Last season's 33.2 percent shooting beyond the arc might not leap off the page, but he knocked down that clip on 6.2 attempts per game. That would have led Northwestern last season. While Langborg was solid last season, history suggests he could bounce back to elite form in the purple-and-white next season. He's a career 36.5% shooter from beyond the arc and knocked down 40.5% on 5.6 attempts per game as a junior.
If he regains his outside shooting touch, he will be one of the best perimeter shooting threats that Northwestern has had in a long time, and a crucial cog to Northwestern's offense, with or without the return of their star backcourt. The Wildcats ranked just 285th in the country after hitting 32% on threes last season.
Bringing in the Princeton star is the final piece of a masterful transfer portal puzzle from Collins and his staff. They brought in grad transfer forward Blake Preston from Liberty to shore up his frontcourt after Robbie Beran entered the portal and Tydus Verhoeven ran out of eligibility.
But where Collins and Co. really made moves is in the backcourt, addressing needs in both the short- and long-term. They brought in Oak Park, Ill. native Justin Mullins, a 6-foot-6 freshman from Denver with three years of eligibility left, to replace Julian Roper II, who entered the transfer portal. Now they have gone to the opposite end of the spectrum to reel in a one-year potential star in Langborg.
Langborg wasn't a diamond in the rough, either. With his Ivy League eligibility expiring for this upcoming season, he put together an elite audition tape with back-to-back 20+ point games against two teams effectively ranked in the Top 25.
This is a huge statement from Collins that he doesn't plan to rest on his laurels from last season, or wait on Buie and Audige to decide whether to stay or go, before building and improving next year's roster. This is an aggressive and hungry program that capitalized on a historic season and secured three transfer commitments to fill immediate roster needs and set itself up for success next season.
