Nick Martinelli has one game left inside Welsh-Ryan Arena as a Northwestern Wildcat.
It might seem redundant to point this out, but right now, an apt reminder feels needed. So much of the conversation surrounding the 2025-26 Northwestern men’s basketball team has been about who would step up besides Martinelli — the ups and downs of Arrinten Page, the emergence of Jake West or whichever new player head coach Chris Collins inserted into the starting rotation. Even Inside NU is a culprit — its only
Martinelli-related headline from the season is about his early February offensive slump, a brief stretch when his regular 20-pieces couldn’t be taken for granted.
But during Northwestern’s 63-62 win over Oregon, Martinelli’s penultimate collegiate home contest, the storyline was all about No. 2.
Saturday quite literally started and ended with Martinelli. When Welsh-Ryan’s doors opened, droves of Northwestern fans lined up on the first floor to claim a little white box with a Nick Martinelli bobblehead inside. And the final basket before the buzzer sounded was, of course, a Martinelli floater that brought NU its third consecutive Big Ten win.
“When you’re confident, you want to make sure you get the ball and give him space and let him be a great player,” Collins said of Martinelli’s game-winner. “That shot was almost fitting with his bobble-head and being a senior, that not only did he make the shot, but it was his patent flipper-doodle — whatever, everybody has a name for it — that did it.”
Oregon head coach Dana Altman was more blunt about the play, describing it as “Martinelli does what he does.” He’s not wrong, as Martinelli’s “flipper-doodle” against Oregon was his third game-winner in two seasons, with his other two coming against Maryland and USC last season (in fact, Collins said that he drew up very similar game-winning plays against Oregon in 2026 and Maryland in 2025).
Martinelli said that his third game-winner felt special because it came amidst a three-game win streak, including Northwestern’s road win against Indiana on Tuesday that gave the ‘Cats “swagger.” But it was also significant because he played a game where all the stars aligned, and he got the storybook ending that this Northwestern team has so often lacked.
Like many of Northwestern’s contests, this one also could have gone the other way. The ‘Cats’ entered halftime with a 36-29 deficit, which ballooned to 43-31 with 18:05 left in the second half. Martinelli started with an abysmal 1-for-8 shooting clip, a far cry from the 22 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists he’d finish the game with. The Wildcats weren’t much better overall, shooting 9-for-30 in the opening 20 minutes.
“If you’re playing to win, you’re playing to help your team. You’re playing the right way. You show up every day, every half, every four-minute segment,” Martinelli said. “I just think the ball happens to go in, and sometimes it doesn’t. I had a long stretch [where] the ball wasn’t going in the basket. It’s basketball.”
But Northwestern turned it around in the second half, improving to a 16-for-26 20 minutes while holding Oregon to just 26 points in that same stretch. The ‘Cats smothered the Ducks defensively and in transition, scoring 20 fastbreak points compared to the away team’s two. It’s safe to say that Collins’ defensive strategy of primarily guarding the Oregon front line, which he felt was stronger than its outside shooters, paid off.
Still, the game came down to the final possession, and credit must be given where credit is due. Martinelli praised Page, who made his first start since Jan. 17, for playing critical defense with four steals and three blocks. When Northwestern had the ball after Wei Lin’s wide-open three put Oregon up 62-61 with 50 seconds remaining, Tre Singleton grabbed a rebound that kept possession with the ‘Cats after Martinelli missed a shot.
It’s hard not to look at Martinelli’s game-winner and think of where Northwestern was two months ago — when the senior buried half his face under his jersey collar after NU narrowly lost to Ohio State at home and lamented in his press conference about how badly he wanted to win. It’s not an isolated incident this season.
“Never coached a player who works any harder than he does and puts any more into being a good player than he does,” Collins said of Martinelli. “He so desperately wanted to lead our team back to the NCAA tournament and have a great season. He had his struggles, and for him to hang in there and not just play out this win, but continue to compete and fight and be a great big brother to some of these young kids, what an amazing thing.”
Northwestern’s win over Oregon is a team win, as were all of its 13 victories. But this one is also a reminder of every time Martinelli put up 20+ points and tried to will his team to victory, just for them to come up short in the clutch. Of how he’s likely going to finish his second consecutive season as the Big Ten scoring champion, as this team’s beloved leader, without even sniffing the Big Dance like he did his freshman and sophomore years.
A regular-season Oregon win doesn’t put a band-aid on Northwestern’s often nightmarish season and Martinelli’s frustrations. The chances of a miracle Big Ten Tournament run to bring the ‘Cats into March Madness are almost zero (though Collins did bring up the possibility). But in the waning stages of his college basketball career, it’s fitting that Martinelli got a winning moment that represented all he’s about.
The “clock is ticking” feeling was evident during Northwestern’s postgame presser, where Collins fielded a greater-than-usual amount of questions about Martinelli’s legacy. He praised the senior’s will and said he was in the “upper echelon of guys who have played in this program,” even in an era that produced Northwestern’s all-time leading scorer and an NBA draft pick. Singleton discussed Martinelli’s “switch” that turned on toward the end of recent games, which helps the rest of the team perform better in the clutch.
Northwestern’s season is not over, nor will the team act like it’s close to being done. After all, as Collins has mentioned on countless occasions, both winning and losing are contagious. But may the moments from Saturday afternoon — from Martinelli’s game-winner to his teammates piling their towels onto his head during his postgame interview — showcase that he’s more than just a dominant constant on a team of inconsistency this season. With just a few more games left in his college career, Northwestern’s captain deserves this moment more than anyone.
“As much as there’s outside noise and you see things, we’re with each other every single day,” Martinelli said. “And you get to the end of the season, and you start winning, and you get to see the smiles on these guys’ faces. Man, that’s a good feeling.“
