What would Brooks Barnhizer look like running the point for NU?

Head coach Chris Collins and co. were tasked this offseason with replacing arguably the greatest player in the history of the program: point guard Boo Buie. Most thought they’d wind up bringing in a true ball-handling point man to bring the rock up the floor next year, but they went a different route.

Jalen Leach is coming to Evanston via the transfer portal after spending the last four seasons at Fairfield. He’s a guard, and he figures to get plenty of minutes for the ‘Cats next year in his fifth season of college basketball. But he hasn’t spent a ton of time manning the point in his career, and probably projects better as a two.

So, if it isn’t Leach (which it still could be), that doesn’t leave a lot of other options at the one. Ty Berry can handle the ball a little bit, but his skill-set also seems better suited for the wing. It seems potentially irresponsible to throw Berry into a position change coming off a torn meniscus and a season in which he was dynamite from beyond the arc before the injury. The smarter play for Coach Collins is to let him be the best three-and-D wing he can possibly be.

Lastly, Jordan Clayton is more of a true one, but he didn’t ever look comfortable last season. Maybe he takes a step forward and earns himself starter-level minutes, but that’s not something worth projecting at this juncture.

That leaves us with, you guessed it, Northwestern super-utility man Brooks Barnhizer. But could he really play point guard? Is that a reasonable strategy for Collins in 2024-25? Here’s a look at why it could work, as well as why NU is taking a risk not having a true point guard on the roster.

Why it could work:

It’s not as if we’ve never seen Brooks Barnhizer dribble the ball up the floor. He can do it. When he’s pressured, things can get a little hairy, but generally speaking he knows how to use his body and size advantage to lean into defenders and protect the ball. So there’s a baseline ability here that he does, in fact, possess.

Barnhizer also has experience switching positions, and it went pretty well last time. In his sophomore season, Barnhizer played more of a two-guard/three-wing, but Collins moved him to the four for his junior season. Barnhizer didn’t miss a beat, upping his scoring average from 7.6 to 14.6 and earning all-Big Ten Third Team honors.

One of the reasons the position change worked out so well is that Barnhizer didn’t let the new position drastically change his play style. Maybe he was spending a little more time in the post (a place he is very comfortable anyway), but Barnhizer still contributed on the perimeter, distributing and chucking up his share of jumpers. He maintained his slashing ability as well.

If Barnhizer were to be the point guard, the most important thing for him to understand would be to not try to be Buie. He simply does not have the handle or the body control to operate the way Buie could on dribble drives. If he tries to do too much, he’ll become a turnover machine and his confidence will quickly dissipate.

However, if Barnhizer sees his role as the captain of the offense, organizing plays, making sure the ball gets up the floor safely and distributing it to his teammates, then I think that actually plays to his strengths. Perhaps Barnhizer’s most notable intangible is his smarts on the court, something that would serve him well running an offense, so long as he keeps things simple.

Why it might not work:

Well, firstly, Barnhizer could let such a drastic switch from a wing to leader of the offense psych him out and push too hard, which, as we just analyzed, would end poorly. But it might be entirely out of his hands.

Northwestern’s press break has never been a team strength. They’ve been bailed out in recent years by ball handlers who could take it themselves most of the way and fight through double-teams. Buie and Ryan Langborg were both better ball advancers on the press last year than anyone on next year’s roster will be.

Barnhizer isn’t a complete disaster dribbling in traffic, but he’s certainly not capable of being a one-man crew. Here lies the problem: it’s unclear how much help he’s going to get. Berry and Leach are the obvious options, but neither of them touch Buie’s or Langborg’s ability either. Then, there’s players like Nick Martinelli, who I’d really prefer to not see take on a significant ball-handling role.

If things go bad early in this area, it could become an enormous, back-breaking problem later in the season if Big Ten teams diagnose that pressing is the way to go against Collins’s squad. They’ll be on the lookout for it, too. If Barnhizer is the plan at point, that’s going to raise a few eyebrows in the conference. Opposing coaches will want to know how that’s going in an effort to take advantage.

Why it might not matter:

There’s also still a chance that none of this conversation about point guard really matters at all because Collins is planning to field a more position-less team this season. With what he has to work with on the roster for this upcoming campaign, it makes a lot of sense to just let these guys go out there and be athletes.

Yes, someone has to bring the ball up the floor, but with no clear heir to Buie, why not let those with the ability to do so just split the reps? It’s a style that’s on the rise around the sport, and although it doesn’t seem like it would be particularly on-brand for Chris Collins, he has to at least be considering it as a viable play.

If they were to go this route, I’m sure Barnhizer would factor into the plans. But it would also allow him to do what he does best, be versatile and play according to his well-developed basketball instincts. It’s probably the option that frees him up the most and gives him the best chance to improve on his fantastic junior season.