Center Arrinten Page to enter transfer portal
Arrinten Page‘s Northwestern career lasted just one season.
Page’s agent told DraftExpress on April 3 that the mercurial center would be heading to the transfer portal after just one year at Northwestern.
The Wildcats took a big bet on the 6-foot-11 Page, a four-star prospect out of high school who came to Northwestern after spending one season at Cincinnati and a freshman campaign at USC. Though he averaged 10.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 29 games, with 16 starts, for Northwestern, Page leaves a mixed bag of results that makes it difficult to say that Northwestern’s move paid off.
Those numbers are a big jump from Page’s previous stints, where he averaged around three points per game. He also had outstanding performances early in the season for the Wildcats, like 22 points in a two-point win over DePaul, and 20 points in a five-point loss to an elite Virginia team.
But his performances plummeted once the Wildcats hit Big Ten play and it became clear why he didn’t catch on at his earlier stops.
Page was benched completely for the Howard game in late December for a violation of team standards. The Wildcats got their first Big Ten win over USC in part from the pop of moving Page to the bench for true freshman Tyler Kropp.
Page produced a couple resurgent performances late in the season in close wins over Indiana and Oregon, but he missed the last four games of the season due to illness.
He will now head off to his fourth college program in four years.
Page is the fifth Wildcat to enter the portal, joining freshman forward Cade Bennerman, freshman forward Tre Singleton, and two guards, sophomore KJ Windham and senior Blake Smith.
With Nick Martinelli also graduating, the Wildcats have a lot of work to do in the paint. They have the 6-foot-9 Kropp coming back and 7-foot-2, four-star center Symon Ghai coming in with the Class of 2026. But Page’s departure confirmed that rebuilding the front court out of the portal should be Northwestern’s top priority.
Head coach Chris Collins was wary last season about a team that had eight newcomers, more than half the team. He is lined up to be in an almost identical situation this offseason, with at least seven new players on next year’s team (Ghai and wing Jayden Hodge will be two of those seven as incoming freshmen).
