Northwestern’s basketball team has undergone radical changes over the last handful of days.

First, head coach Chris Collins announced on Feb. 1 that star guard Brooks Barnhizer was lost for the season after reinjuring a broken foot that has plagued him all year. Then, just two days later, starting point guard Jalen Leach went down with a torn ACL against USC and officially joined Barnhizer on the shelf on Saturday night.

Those personnel losses have put the Wildcats in scramble mode as they try to replace two of the programs top three scorers and their top two assist men on the fly. Together, Barnhizer and Leach put up a combined 31.4 points per game. Now, all that’s left from the Wildcats' once prolific top three is Nick Martinelli, who is tied with Minnesota’s Dawson Garcia as the Big Ten’s top scorer at 19.8 points per game.

Still, there have been some surprising discoveries over these last three games without Barnhizer, and then Leach that give the Wildcats some hope. We take a look at three of them.

Clayton can play: There were two surprises regarding sophomore guard Jordan Clayton, who made his first appearance of the season and got his first career start against Washington. First, that he burned his redshirt with just eight games left in the season. And second, that he proved that he was Northwestern’s best ballhandler.

We still haven’t heard the backstory about the redshirt decision, but watching Clayton play against the Huskies it quickly became apparent why head coach Chris Collins chose him over KJ Windham to run the point. He has good handles and made good decisions, finishing with five assists and no turnovers in 33 minutes. Not bad for a late-season debut.

Clayton is a limited player offensively and a shaky shooter who made just 2-of-7 shots, including 1-of-5 from beyond the arc. That 28.6% shooting mark is actually better than the 17.4% he posted in 28 games last season.

Regardless of his shooting, he’s going to be a valuable asset for a Wildcat team that desperately needs ballhandling moving forward. They need him to handle pressure, deliver the ball to Martinelli and Ty Berry where they want it and avoid turnovers. If he can do that, the coaches will be happy.

Mullins can score: Justin Mullins’ offensive performances in the last two games have been nothing short of a revelation. Languishing on the bench for most of the season and playing very few minutes – sources tell WildcatReport that he was in the coaching staff’s doghouse – Mullins has erupted for 27 points in the last two games. What’s more he’s shooting 75% from the floor during this stretch (9-for-12), including an incredible 70% (7-for-10) from beyond the arc.

That’s a small sample size, and those scalding shooting numbers will certainly cool. But Mullins was thought to be an offensive liability as a Wildcat up to this point, an athletic, defense-first player. Any points he can produce is a bonus for a Northwestern team that badly needs offense. Right now, he is the Wildcats’ No. 3 option as a “3 and D” guard, behind only Martinelli and fifth-year senior shooter Ty Berry.

Where did Mullins' offensive explosion come from? Maybe it’s increased confidence from not having to worry about getting yanked if he makes a mistake. Maybe it’s been there all along – he scored 10 points per game as a true freshman at Denver – but didn’t emerge until Barnhizer and Leach went down and he moved up the priority chart.

Really, though, it doesn’t matter. The Wildcats will take whatever he can give them.

The freshmen need work: Many people figured that KJ Windham would get the start after Leach went down with his torn ACL, but Collins didn’t trust him enough with the keys and instead pulled Clayton out of mothballs. Fellow freshman Angelo Ciaravino didn’t start against Washington in favor of the emerging Mullins. Despite Windham starting the season in place of Barnhizer, and Ciaravino starting a recent stretch instead of Berry, keeping them on the bench has looked like the right move.

Windham hasn’t scored in the last three games, going 0-for-5 from the floor, and sometimes makes poor shooting decisions. He doesn’t look like a steady enough hand to lead the offense at this point.

After showing tremendous promise in scoring 19 points at Purdue on Jan. 5, fellow freshmen Ciaravino has scored exactly 19 over the last nine games, seven of them starts. He has apparent athleticism but struggles at times defensively and has five turnovers and just two points combined on 0-for-7 shooting over the last three games.

This isn’t the end of the world for either player. Freshmen are expected to have their share of downs, and both have had a few ups this season, too. The good news is that now, with limited other options, Collins and the staff can work on developing them with steadier minutes off the bench over these last seven games to get them ready to take on larger roles next season.