As his free throw clanked off the rim and the final buzzer confirmed Northwestern’s 86-82 loss to Ohio State in its Big Ten home opener Saturday, senior forward Nick Martinelli placed his jersey over his face and bowed his head in despair.
It was a scene reminiscent of last season’s conclusion, when Martinelli let his emotions show after NU’s defeat to Wisconsin at the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis. On that occasion, Martinelli grappled with the realization that his season was over after a campaign riddled with adversity, and the knowledge that several of his long-tenured teammates had played their last games in purple.
This time, it only took two conference games for Martinelli to reach a similarly agonized state.
“I’m sick of losing,” Martinelli said postgame. “Coming off last year, we had an excuse, we were always looking at Brooks (Barnhizer) and Jalen (Leach). We don’t have anything to say for ourselves this year.”
What followed was a display of profound reflection, the likes of which we have rarely seen from Martinelli throughout his four years in Evanston. Sitting alongside sophomore guard Angelo Ciaravino at a press conference in which he was only asked three questions, NU’s star man spoke at length and offered an impassioned plea to his teammates to adopt a winning mentality.
It continued with an extended metaphor about mud, ended with a line about his “jolly” time setting screens as a freshman, and by the time Martinelli walked out of the media room, you couldn’t help but empathize with him.
“It’s just tragic, the amount of talent that we have,” Martinelli said. “It hurts, man.”
This was supposed to be Martinelli’s year.
After finishing last season as the Big Ten’s leading scorer with 20.5 points per game and setting NU’s single-season scoring record, he came into this campaign as the team’s bona fide leader. Yet, nine games into the season, the Wildcats (5-4, 0-2 Big Ten) have already reached desperate hours.
Over their last six contests, they have allowed an average of 82.7 points per game, giving up at least 83 in each of their four losses over that span.
“Tragic” is right.
For a Collins team that, for the past several years, has prided itself on its ability to hold teams in the 60s or even 50s, the seemingly endless stream of defensive breakdowns is unrecognizable.
After graduating three seasoned defensive linchpins in Brooks Barnhizer, Ty Berry and Matthew Nicholson in the spring, this year’s crop of eight new players has failed to match the defensive resolve of their predecessors.
“If you look at what our defense was at the start of last year, and the end of last year, it’s completely different,” Martinelli said. “We were guarding our butts off at the end of last year — it was partially urgency, and it was partially just us starting to understand what our defensive tendencies are and helping each other out.”
In Saturday’s defeat, Martinelli did all he could on the offensive end to go blow-for-blow with the Buckeyes (7-1, 1-0 Big Ten). The Glenview native tied his career-high scoring mark with 32 points on 10-for-16 shooting, adding eight rebounds.
Coming into the season, Collins said he hoped to reduce Martinelli’s minutes to the low-30s after running him into the ground in the latter portion of his junior year. But, with the captain shouldering the heavy burden of keeping the ’Cats afloat Saturday, that plan went out the window, and he stayed on the court for 39 minutes.
Even on a career night, it wasn’t a perfect showing from Martinelli. He can take a fair share of the blame for a disastrous display of interior defense that allowed Ohio State to score 62 points in the paint. He also missed the front end of a one-and-one when NU trailed by three with 19 seconds remaining, effectively killing its comeback dreams.
Characteristically, Martinelli did not shy away from self-criticism.
“Coach came in here and took accountability for the defense — it’s the players, it’s not Coach,” Martinelli said. “I’ve been on teams that played unbelievable defense, it’s not Coach at all. It’s me, Gelo and the rest of the guys in white.”
So, where to go from here? For Martinelli, it starts with getting in the mud.
When asked about leadership lessons he took from some of his former teammates, Martinelli got philosophical, emphasizing that he is just as grateful for moments of adversity as he is for triumphant ones.
“You don’t get any glory from just constantly winning in life, whatever it is, you get glory from getting your face shoved in the mud, and you getting up and pushing,” Martinelli said. “That’s the message I need these guys to understand. We have to come together and get out of the mud together.”
As inspirational as those words are, Martinelli can’t be the only one ready to get muddy. He can’t be the only one who feels these losses as viscerally as he does. He can’t be the only one playing each game as if it’s his last, just as he did when Barnhizer, Berry and Nicholson were in his position.
No. 2 only gets one senior season. To make it a special one, his teammates will need to start buying into his mud-ridden mentality.
“It’s super hard when you have that much talent, when you have guys that want to prove themselves,” Martinelli said. “The message for those guys is just to come into the game and affect winning. When I was a freshman, I was so jolly to even be out there and do anything, set a screen. That’s just the mentality you have to have.”
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