There’s been a common trend this season for Northwestern men’s basketball: its struggle with close out games against top teams. Saturday’s 68-49 loss in Lincoln served as the latest example. But for most of this season, one thing had remained constant: Nick Martinelli’s ability to power the Wildcat offense.
In 14 of his 25 games played this season, Martinelli has scored 20+ with relative ease while averaging 22.1 points per game — up 1.6 points from his conference‑leading mark last season — on 50%
from the floor and 43% from deep.
Over the last two weeks, however, his reliable scoring has started to crack.
Martinelli finished with just 11 points in the Wildcats’ latest game in Lincoln, his third lowest scoring output of what has otherwise been a fantastic season for the senior. Nebraska’s tenacious defense stopped the conference’s leading scorer from ever finding an offensive rhythm.
But this wasn’t a one-off performance. In his last four games — against Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Nebraska — Martinelli has averaged just 13.5 points on 27% shooting from the floor, including going 5-for-22 against Michigan and 4-for-12 against the Huskers.
After the game, Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said that slowing down Martinelli was an emphasis on defense, requiring the team to give him constant attention without losing discipline.
“He’s a load with being able to score it all over the court,” Hoiberg said. “The biggest thing we wanted to do is just try to make it difficult for him… and not get deflated over those when they go in.”
A key point for Hoiberg was keeping Martinelli off the line, where he’s gotten career-highs in both free throw attempts per game (6.8) and percentage (80.5%).
“We didn’t put him on the line a lot, which was a big emphasis going into this game,” Hoiberg added.
And that effort showed. Martinelli was only able to get to the line just twice, making 3-of-4. Both of these instances were in the second half.
Without Martinelli at his usual level, Northwestern’s offense has suffered. In this four-game stretch, the Wildcats have failed to crack 50 points twice, finishing with just 44 and 49 against Illinois and Nebraska, respectively.
After the game in Lincoln, coach Chris Collins pointed out the physicality and activity the Huskers showed them, leading to the Wildcat’s stacking up mistakes.
“They have active hands… they’re aggressive… they feast on your mistakes,” Collins said.
Northwestern also committed 16 turnovers — a season-high for a team that has been one of the country’s best in terms of ball security, ranking fourth in the country in turnover percentage at 12.9%, according to KenPom. Three of the giveaways against Nebraska came off the hands of Martinelli, further limiting his ability to control the offense.
“For us to have 16 turnovers… that’s going to be a recipe for a loss,” Collins said.
As the Wildcats continue to look for answers amid their five-game skid, Martinelli’s slump has only emphasized how dependent the Wildcats are on his offensive success— and Saturday was another glaring reminder of just how true that sentiment is.
