Hours before Northwestern took the floor at Welsh-Ryan Arena for its Monday night season opener against Lehigh, junior forward Nick Martinelli and senior guard Brooks Barnhizer held court in one final preseason discussion.

Barnhizer was ruled out ahead of the contest due to a lower-body injury he sustained in the offseason, but the 2023-24 Third Team All-Big Ten selection told Martinelli not to let the team’s standard drop in his stead.

“He told me, ‘I want you to play with full confidence — I’m not out there, (and) this is your opportunity to show people who you are,’” Martinelli said. “If somebody that’s that good of a player says that, you’re gonna have so much more confidence. I’m just grateful for him.”

With Barnhizer’s absence, Martinelli commanded center stage in the Wildcats’ (1-0, 0-0 Big Ten) 90-46 victory over the Mountain Hawks (0-1, 0-0 Patriot League). The junior poured in 26 points on a 9-of-12 shooting clip and grabbed 10 rebounds in a show-stopping display.

The performance marked Martinelli’s first double-double since Feb. 18 against Indiana. Martinelli said his offseason preparation paved the way for his instant impact.

“Obviously, we had a lot of guys come in — a couple of transfers and some young guys,” Martinelli said. “They needed someone to look up to when (graduate student guard) Ty (Berry), Brooks and (graduate student center) Matt (Nicholson) were out. So it just gave me a huge opportunity to grow in that position as a leader.”

For coach Chris Collins, Martinelli appears primed to emulate a comparable third-year jump to Barnhizer. 

Martinell said comparisons to his elder counterpart serve as a “huge compliment.”

“Brooks and (I) are super close, and we just talk about ball all the time,” Martinelli said. “When I came in, I saw how hard Brooks worked and what it took to get on the floor, and then consistently over time, he grew into that role he had last year. I got to see that, and he talked me through a lot of it.”

Just two games into the 2023-24 season, Barnhizer said he expected Martinelli to take a second-year leap comparable to Barnhizer’s during the first of an eventual back-to-back March Madness trips.

Barnhizer’s prophetic words soon came to fruition.

Both players stepped into “sixth-starter” roles during their respective sophomore campaigns, with Barnhizer elevating his play to All-Defensive Team recognition and the No. 2 scoring option alongside Boo Buie last season. 

After Berry tore his meniscus in February, Martinelli stepped into the starting five for NU’s postseason push. He started the ’Cats’ final 11 games, unleashing his signature left-handed floater at will in Big Ten play.

“It’s the natural kind of progression of what you’ve seen in our program,” Collins said. “With our player development and the way he works — and his confidence — he was poised to come in and really up it to another level to be an all-league type guy.”

Martinelli wasted little time imposing his will on the mid-major competition Monday, scoring 17 first-half points. The Glenview, Illinois, native outscored the entire Lehigh squad during the opening frame.

Collins said his high-octane scorer poses a matchup nightmare with his physical presence and deep back of tricks.

“He’s strong, he can score in the post (and) he knows how to get his shot off,” Collins said. “He’s worked so hard to be able to make those open shots that it really makes it hard. How do you guard him without double-teaming him? And when you double-team him, we have pretty good shooting (around him).”

As Barnhizer ramps up his practice participation and nears his season debut, Collins said he’s ecstatic to see his senior captain and Martinelli take the floor together for the first time this season.

He added that he sees shades of the Martinelli-Barnhizer duo with freshman guard K.J. Windham and freshman forward Angelo Ciaravino.

“You feel really good if you (have) two competitive guys anchoring your team as vets,” Collins said. “That’s what we see with KJ and Angelo. You see young Nick Martinellis, young Brooks Barnhizers. That’s who we are. We bring guys in. We develop. They learn how it works, and as they get older, they step into more prominent roles.”

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