Jonah McClure/The Daily Northwestern
Graduate student guard Ty Berry gives coach Chris Collins a hug as he and graduate student center Matthew Nicholson check out for the final time. Berry scored nine points as Northwestern fell 70-63 to No. 13 Wisconsin Thursday.
Northwestern’s season came to a close with a 70-63 defeat to No. 18 Wisconsin in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament Thursday.
With the Wildcats (17-16, 7-13 Big Ten) suffering thirteen regular season conference losses and boasting a lackluster non-conference resume, a tournament title was their only hope of receiving a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
After the loss, coach Chris Collins said his team would decline any invitations to lower-level postseason tournaments such as the NIT or the nascent College Basketball Crown.
“We’re a beat up group,” Collins said. “I don’t have enough bodies to practice for 20 more days before a game.”
On Thursday, the ’Cats got off to a hot start, jumping out to an 8-3 lead via a corner three by junior guard Justin Mullins and five points from sophomore guard Jordan Clayton.
Clayton — who had originally intended to redshirt the season and retain a year of eligibility — said spending the first 23 games of the season on the bench helped him to become more vocal and recognize better shot selections.
The 6-foot-2 guard saw his first in-game action during NU’s Feb. 8 game at Washington, entering the rotation after senior guard Brooks Barnhizer and graduate student guard Jalen Leach were ruled out with season-ending injuries sustained in previous contests.
“As soon as (Leach) went down, I kind of knew I was gonna have to step up for my team,” Clayton said. “I love these guys. And to me, it wasn’t really a hard decision at all.”
As the contest wore on, a combination of NU’s early foul trouble compounded by its cold shooting allowed the Badgers (24-8, 13-7 Big Ten) to build up a seven-point halftime lead that they never surrendered. When Wisconsin knocked down four triples in three and a half minutes near the second half’s midpoint, it dealt a hammer blow to NU’s chances.
Junior forward Nick Martinelli led all scorers with 22 points and broke the NU single-season scoring record with a signature left-handed flipper late in the first half.
“He’s just a baller,” Collins said of Martinelli. “He wants to get in the gym, he wants to hoop and he wants to compete. I love that because in my younger days, that’s who I was.”
With 20 seconds remaining, Collins called timeout and allowed graduate student guard Ty Berry and graduate student center Matthew Nicholson to check out for the final time after five years with the program.
The graduating class — which also includes Barnhizer and two graduate transfers, Leach and center Keenan Fitzmorris — has been among the most successful in NU history, with the team achieving two consecutive March Madness appearances and three consecutive winning seasons.
“Me and Matt can honestly say that we left this place better than we got it,” Berry said. “That was ultimately the main goal in choosing Northwestern.”
Collins and his players repeatedly stressed that the team left everything on the floor in a season full of extraordinary challenges — most notably, Barnhizer’s injury.
Barnhizer sustained an injury over the summer that caused him to miss the first four games of the season. Over the 16 games he competed in during the regular season, he averaged a career-high 17.1 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.
“You know, you’re playing really well and it’s everything you dreamed of. And then, one day, it’s just gone,” Barnhizer said.
Before going down, Martinelli and Barnhizer had formed one of the most dangerous tandems in the country. Martinelli said his roommate and close friend’s exit from competition was devastating.
“I feel so f—ing bad for him, because he worked so hard. I promise you, he worked harder than anyone else in the country to get back to playing,” Martinelli said.
“We love each other so much,” he later added. “There’s no Nick Martinelli without Brooks Barnhizer.”
While Barnhizer, Berry and Nicholson have been staples of NU basketball throughout the past four years, Leach and Fitzmorris also each played crucial roles this season as additions from the transfer portal.
Fitzmorris said that if he had to point to one reason why he chose to spend his final year of eligibility at NU, it was simply “good people.”
“I’m in my seventh year, so I’ve been around the block,” Fitzmorris said, adding that he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play with Berry, as both played within the same AAU organization growing up.
In his lone year in purple and white, Fitzmorris said that one of his favorite things about the team was that there weren’t any cliques, which allowed for great team chemistry.
Thursday marked the end of the road for a cohort of players who have elevated the ’Cats to new heights.
“I think that’s (what) I’ll probably miss the most: Just sitting in the dorms, talking about how much we’re growing and trying to change the program,” Barnhizer said.
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