Two weeks ago, coach Chris Collins’ patchworked squad traveled to Minneapolis to take a stab at securing unlikely back-to-back Big Ten road wins as it approached the finish line of a season shell-shocked by injuries.
Fresh off a blowout victory at Ohio State, Northwestern carried its winning momentum to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, trouncing Minnesota 75-63 and reinvigorating what had been dwindling hopes of a postseason berth.
Now, following a win over Iowa and two losses to close out the regular season, the Wildcats (16-15, 7-13 Big Ten) will head to Indianapolis for another clash with the Golden Gophers (15-16, 7-13 Big Ten) Wednesday: their first stop in pursuit of a Big Ten Tournament title and a March Madness bid.
“It’s gonna be a tough game,” Collins said at a Tuesday morning press conference. “We’ll have another good prep day today and hopefully be ready to go tomorrow afternoon.”
Without senior guard and captain Brooks Barnhizer for half of its conference slate, and missing graduate student guard Jalen Leach for its final eight games, NU enters the postseason with similar injury-induced gaps in its rotation to last season, when then-senior guard Ty Berry and center Matthew Nicholson were ruled out during the latter part of Big Ten play.
Only this time, it likely doesn’t have an at-large NCAA Tournament bid to fall back on.
“I think everyone understands that the next time you don’t win, that’s it,” Collins said. “You got to play the game as if it could be your last.”
While a program-first conference tournament title would’ve been a welcome addition to an already unprecedentedly successful stretch for Collins’s group last year, it ultimately dropped its opening contest of the competition to Wisconsin, following a double bye.
However, the cushion of their second-straight 12-win Big Ten campaign, which included ranked wins over then-No. 1 Purdue and then-No. 10 Illinois at home, was enough solace for the ’Cats to lick their wounds as they optimistically awaited an almost-certain March Madness future at the Sunday night selection show.
Despite the higher stakes this season, Berry said he’s not phased by the pressure.
“At this point it’s either: eat or be eaten, win or go home,” Berry said. “We just gotta approach every game like it’s our last and we gotta fight with our backs against the wall.”
The Golden Gophers entered the final weekend of the regular season in nearly the same position as NU.
As one of six teams tied in the bottom portion of the conference standings, Minnesota clinched a Big Ten Tournament bid the moment the ’Cats lost their contest at No. 13 Maryland. Meanwhile, Collins’s team secured its own spot when UCLA beat USC on Saturday night.
Either team would have sealed their bid with a victory in their respective games, but instead, both squads ended their regular season with a two-game losing skid.
When NU last faced the Golden Gophers on Feb. 25, the game became a shootout between each side’s leading scorer. Martinelli rattled off 29 points — his seventh 25-plus point output of the season — while Minnesota forward Dawson Garcia amassed 26 points and nine rebounds.
Martinelli officially claimed the Big Ten scoring crown over Nebraska guard Brice Williams, who scored just seven points in the Cornhuskers’ final game against Iowa Sunday, following a 43-point performance in his previous outing.
Meanwhile, Garcia ranks fifth amongst all scorers in the conference, averaging 19.1 points per game.
Besides Martinelli and Garcia, each squad has one other active player with double-digit scoring averages, Berry for NU and senior guard Lu’Cye Patterson for Minnesota.
Reflecting on their last outing against Minnesota, Berry said that the team will look to take advantage of its open looks Wednesday as a means of alleviating some of the shooting pressure off Martinelli.
Should the ’Cats win Wednesday’s contest, they will face Wisconsin on Thursday, following the conclusion of Oregon vs. Indiana, which tips off at 11 a.m.
“Selfishly, I just want to keep playing with these guys,” Martinelli said. “I want to keep seeing Ty and Matt and Brooks’s faces every day.”
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