INDIANAPOLIS — Northwestern’s coaches and players met before the Big Ten Tournament and came to a decision.
Unless the Wildcats could make a run in Indianapolis and secure a berth in the NCAA Tournament, they would not accept any other bids to postseason tournaments.
The players were beat up. The season had been emotionally draining, with the injury losses of veteran leaders Brooks Barnhizer and Jalen Leach. They wanted to give everything they had one more time in the conference tournament and let the results stand.
That meant that as the 13th-seeded Wildcats left the floor after a 70-63, second-round loss to No. 5 seed Wisconsin on Thursday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, players such as starting center Matthew Nicholson and guard Ty Berry were doing so for the final time.
“We just felt as a team we left it on the floor,” coach Chris Collins said. “We’ve been through a lot. It’s been a really emotional year on a lot of fronts, on and off the floor going through things. It’s just time to put a bow on this year. We all got together and kind of made that decision as a group with the players, and we wanted to come here and put our best foot forward and compete and see if we could find a way.”
For the second time this season, Wisconsin was too much for Northwestern. John Tonje and Nolan Winter scored 18 points each to lead the Badgers to Friday’s quarterfinal meeting against No. 4 seed UCLA.
Northwestern kept it close for much of the first half and trailed by as many as 18 in the second half before scrapping to the seven-point loss.
The Badgers scored 17 second-chance points and 17 points off turnovers.
The Wildcats were emotional after the game as they contemplated the legacy of a senior group that helped lead the team to three straight winning seasons — including a 17-16 finish this year — and back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances the previous two seasons.
“I think this year has been a symbol for what we’ve been at Northwestern,” Nicholson said. “We started out not that great of a team, losing, and then we kind of fought back and just never stopped fighting. That’s kind of what we did this year all year long.
“I’m really glad that we’re leaving like that. I hope that Nick can keep it going.”
Sitting at the postgame news conference, Nicholson turned to junior forward Nick Martinelli, who responded, “I got you, bro.”
Martinelli will return next season after leading the Big Ten in scoring with 20.2 points per game. He also made Northwestern history Thursday afternoon.
With a basket inside with 3 minutes, 31 seconds to play in the first half, Martinelli became Northwestern’s single-season scoring leader. He entered the game needing eight points to break the record held by John Shurna, who scored 661 points in the 2011-12 season. Martinelli had nine points in the first half.
Martinelli, who had a jersey malfunction early and wore No. 66 rather than No. 2 for much of the game, finished Thursday with 22 points on 7-for-14 shooting. That brought him to 676 points for the season.
When asked about the record, Martinelli said that it was a nice stat but also noted he would have preferred more wins in a difficult season. But he also acknowledged the growth he made this season as a player and a person as he rose from averaging 8.8 points last season.
“These past couple years have changed my life, and it’s not necessarily involving basketball, but my faith, my relationship with Jesus Christ, has powered me through these times,” Martinelli said. “I don’t have to be anxious any more when I’m out there. I always had issues wondering what other people had to think about me, and kind of getting to let that go, I got to grow as a person obviously, but as a player. That stress, not having to worry about all these people watching me or what they think, that’s definitely been a huge part of my development.
“As soon as I got here my life changed, and not because of the media or people knowing my name, but because of these guys, being around these guys every day.”
Collins was fired up after Northwestern’s first-round win against Minnesota on Wednesday, calling out the Big Ten for putting the Wildcats at a team hotel that had broken air conditioning. He told a Big Ten official after his news conference the issue was corrected.
But on Thursday, he was more reflective of a season he said made him proud despite the team being on track to miss the NCAA Tournament. He pointed to his players’ “heartfelt” and ”genuine” postgame comments as an example of why, even if he admitted he was exhausted.
“It made it easy to coach those guys,” Collins said. “But it was tough. It was a tough year. I felt like we had to reinvent ourselves about four different times. You know what, that’s life. No one cares. We never made excuses. We just tried to figure out, ‘OK, how can we be successful with what we’ve got?’ I thought we did that. I thought we got the most out of this group, and I’m proud of it.”
Oregon 72, Indiana 59
Jackson Shelstad had 18 points and TJ Bamba scored 17 to help No. 23 Oregon pull away late for a 72-59 victory over Indiana.
The Ducks (24-8) head into Friday’s quarterfinal round against No. 7 Michigan State, the Big Ten regular-season champs, riding an eight-game winning streak. The Spartans won the regular-season matchup 86-74 on Feb. 8 in East Lansing, Mich.
Indiana (19-13) lost to Oregon for the second time in nine days and now must wait until Sunday to see if it makes the 68-team NCAA Tournament field.
Malik Reneau scored 19 points to lead the Hoosiers, while Trey Galloway added 15 points and nine assists.
Oregon took control by scoring the final 10 points of the first half, giving it a 37-29 lead, and sealed the victory with a late 9-0 run for a 65-56 advantage. Indiana couldn’t recover from either spurt.
After the Hoosiers cut the deficit to 56-54 with 7:32 to play, Indiana was held scoreless for the next 5:28.
Associated Press contributed.
