It might sound cliché to say K.J. Windham found a “good fit” with the Northwestern basketball program. But the more the Ben Davis senior guard talked to Chris Collins, the more he realized he fit the style of recruit the Northwestern coach and his staff were seeking.

Windham, a 6-3 left-handed shooting guard, announced his commitment Thursday following an official visit to the Big Ten school earlier in the week.

“(They are) definitely my kind of people,” said Windham, who averaged 8.4 points per game and shot 35% from the 3-point line last year on Ben Davis’ undefeated Class 4A state championship team. “How coach Collins recruits, he goes after the people who can play basketball at a high level but are also overlooked a little bit. I feel like I was overlooked high-major wise, but it doesn’t do anything but make you more hungry. I think that will continue when I’m around other people like that and see how they put in the work at a high level.”

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Windham had a strong spring and summer with his high school team and playing with Meanstreets on the Nike EYBL circuit. Northwestern had been recruiting him since the summer before his junior year, but officially made an offer three weeks ago. The Wildcats were the only high-major program to offer, though Windham had offers from more than a dozen other schools. He took an official visit to Miami of Ohio in June and was strongly considering other offers from Akron, Florida Gulf Coast, Kent State, Murray State and Rice. Saint Louis, Southern Illinois, Richmond and Tulsa were his most-recent offers.

Though Northwestern was his only high-major offer, there might have been more coming for Windham.

“I don’t know about offering, but they were starting to get in touch,” he said. “But Northwestern had been recruiting me since the end of my sophomore year and stayed in touch. Once they extended the offer and I was able to talk to (assistant coach Chris) Lowery and coach Collins and see where I could fit in and do my homework on the school, I knew it wouldn’t take long for me to commit.”

Windham, the youngest of four siblings, comes from a basketball family. His older sister, Jazmine, played on Ben Davis’ state championship teams in 2009 and ’10 and went on to a four-year career at Western Michigan. His older brother Jalen was an Indiana All-Star at Ben Davis in 2019, helping the Giants to the 4A state finals. He played at Creighton, two years at Ball State and is now at Morehead State with two more seasons of eligibility.

“They were on the visit (to Northwestern) with me,” Windham said. “They have been through (the recruiting process) and been recruited by a lot of people so they know when someone is being genuine or not. My whole family was like, ‘This is the one,’ after the visit so that really helped me make my decision, too.”

Windham, who was named one of six core Junior All-Stars after last season, said playing in the Big Ten was not necessarily a goal, but said he “always wants to play at the highest level.”

“I’ve been doing it my whole life,” he said. “If the opportunity is given to me, I want to take it. I had one Big Ten offer, but I think I’m going to be up for the challenge. It’s going to be my motivation my senior season to get ready for it.”

Windham said he was planning to visit Rice and potentially other schools. His official visit to Northwestern was moved up from September to August, however, and he “didn’t feel a need to waste any more time.”

Collins is going into his 11^th season at Northwestern. Since leading the program to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 2016-17, Collins’ teams had five consecutive losing seasons before bouncing back with a 22-12 season and NCAA tourney appearance in 2022-23. Northwestern has another Indiana native on the roster in former Lafayette Jeff star Brooks Barnhizer, who averaged 7.6 points and 4.9 rebounds as a key reserve last season.

“Northwestern plays a lot like we do at Ben Davis and like I did for Meanstreets,” Windham said. “They allow guards to make decisions and they are really good at recruiting players who don’t do things out of character. They are really efficient.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Northwestern basketball recruiting: 2024 guard K.J. Windham commits