EVANSTON-Northwestern mounted an early upset bid over No. 17 Wisconsin, but couldn't hold on to a 9-point, second-half lead in a 75-69 loss on Saturday at Welsh-Ryan Arena.
The Wildcats, who were playing without star guard Brooks Barnhizer, were led by Jalen Leach with 23 points, Nick Martinelli with 15 and Ty Berry with 14, but the trio ran out of gas as the Badgers posted a 50-point second half to come storming back for their third win in a row over Northwestern.
Wisconsin sixth-year guard John Tonje was the game's high scorer with 27 points, and once he got some help from Carter Gilmore and Max Klesmit, who combined to score all 26 of their points in the second half, the Badgers walked through the Wildcats.
Here are our takeaways from Northwestern's third loss in a row that dropped their record to 3-8 in Big Ten play and all but shut the door on any NCAA hopes that they might have had.
Barnhizer has played his last game as a Wildcat: The results of the game were quickly overshadowed in the postgame press conference by an emotional Chris Collins, who announced that Barnhizer's injury would be season- and career-ending.
"He reinjured that same foot against Michigan State, though it was a different injury from the summer and it was basically an injury that would cost him the rest of the season," Collins said. "He begged me to play in that Maryland game [on Dec. 16], said he had to put the jersey on one more time. We talked to the doctors and they said he wasn't at risk for further damage."
Barnhizer was exceptional against the Terrapins, with 20 points and 10 rebounds, prompting a renewed evaluation with Collins.
"That game went great and we met after the game," Collins said. "We talked and said, Hey, I don't want any regrets. When the time is right, I want you to know you left everything out there.' So we devised a plan to take it game-by-game. He couldn't practice at all. He wasn't doing anything in between games."
Barnhizer soldiered on and the Wildcats split their next two games, taking Michigan to overtime and beating Indiana at home. Barnhizer scored 20 in each, but the grind of a Big Ten season was starting to wear his workhorse mentality and extraordinary pain tolerance down.
He scored just three points in a loss to Illinois and then alarm bells rang out in earnest after a 10-point, 9-rebound game at home vs. Rutgers.
"Not only was he not moving well, I could see it was mentally killing him because he couldn't do the things he wanted to do," Collins said. "He couldn't be that warrior, be that player he wanted to be."
Then came the last in the long line of heart-to-heart conversations between veteran coach and star player this season. They both agreed that they could push this no further and this was the end of the line.
"He and I got together over the last couple days," Collins said. "The decision was made the shut him down, so he's not going to play with us the rest of the year. It's the right decision, but he left it all out there."
Barnhizer's senior season will end after just 17 games. He averaged 17.1 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game. He set what is believed to be a school record wtih seven straight double-doubles this season.
Collins reflected on Barnhizer's contributions, on and off the court: Maybe the most striking of Collins' memories was the story from Barnhizer's visit. The Lafayette (Ind.) Jefferson forward came to Evanston on Jan. 26 to see Northwestern play Ohio State.
Tragically, earlier that day, Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash. Collins knew Bryant and said he was deeply shaken.
"I was really struggling because I had known Kobe really well from my USA Basketball experience," he said. "Our dads were teammates on the '70s Sixers. It hit me hard and I was still trying to do a recruiting visit... Brooks was there and that's how our relationship started.
"I remember when he went home -- I still have this in my office -- when he went home, he drew this picture of Kobe's Laker uniform and he framed it and sent it to me. He said when he saw [my] passion, [he said] 'That's when I knew I wanted to play for you.''"
Northwestern was Barnhizer's only Big Ten offer out of high school, but he would go on to serve as a key foil to other Big Ten powers. He beat his hometown team, Purdue, twice at Welsh-Ryan Arena; beat the other state school, Indiana, five straight times; and beat Illinois three times, a key component of the Wildcats reentering the rivalry.
Collins remembered several key moments of his star's career.
"The layup against Florida Atlantic [in March Madness] to send it to overtime, Illinois at home this year and last year, the Purdue wins... He was right in the middle of all of it," Collins said.
Barnhizer had just eclipsed 1,000 career points but Collins won't think back on the accolades first when he remembers this career. Their partnership, is emblematic of an older age, maybe a truer age, of the sport. The player growing from reserve to role player to starter to star, all under the tutelage of a veteran coach. He played all four years at one school, too, something that is becoming rarer in today's transfer-happy game.
"One of the reasons I love being in college basketball is the relationship piece," Collins said. "You watch these guys grow up and try to be a mentor so they can go on and be great husbands and dads and set up for life."
It's a bitter pill to swallow to see Barnhizer's Northwestern career so short, but it was special to see the overwhelming emotion from Collins and the connections that are still forged at a program like Northwestern.
Wildcats didn't have enough firepower: Turning back to the game, Northwestern was simply outgunned without Barnhizer, particularly in the second half.
The starting five huddled with their injured captain pregame and talked about playing fast and free. For the opening frame, they did. They leapt out to an 8-0 lead from the jump and led 31-25 at the break.
But the roster was already stretched thin for scoring, and it would have been a Herculean task to complete the upset without their star. Leach continued his stellar stretch these past five games with a second straight 23-point game
Martinelli, however, was swarmed by the Wisconsin defense. His 15 points came on 6-for-18 shooting and 1-for-5 from beyond the arc. Berry picked up some of the scoring slack with a solid performance, 14 points on 4-for-8 shooting from 3, but the rest of the roster just couldn't step up on short notice.
Freshman Angelo Ciaravino has shown flashes but had one of his rockier games, going 0-for-6 from the floor against the Badgers. Fellow freshman KJ Windham was also scoreless. After the top trio, plus center Matt Nicholson, the other five Wildcats that saw the court shot 3-for-12.
Collins has favored long minutes and short rotations all season, and this team was already lacking depth to start the season. Take out Barnhizer, the consummate workhorse, and the cupboard is even more bare.
Like so many games this season, the Wildcats left it all on the court but couldn't find the fuel in the game's final stretch.
Northwestern hasn't thrown in the towel: After the news of Barnhizer's season-ending injury, no one would have blamed the Wildcats for coming out shell-shocked.
"It was a really emotional day yesterday and I was anxious to see how we'd respond," Collins said. "The best thing we can do to honor Brooks is to play as hard as he does. I thought we did that today."
Northwestern got two key performances from Berry and Nicholson, who have struggled to string together consistent success in their fifth seasons. With their contributions and Leach's closing stretch, the Wildcats nearly hung on for an upset win.
The team's NCAA Tournament aspirations are almost assuredly over. At 3-8 in conference play, the Wildcats would effectively need to win out.
But Collins made it clear there will not be a pity party of any kind. The focus now turns to how the Wildcats can field a competitive team over the final nine games. This means valuable reps for Martinelli as the team's leader, preparing him for 2025-26, when it will be his team as this year was Brooks'.
"I think [Brooks] can be really helpful for Nick. Nick is the guy now," Collins said. "They're best friends, they live together... They're wackos and kindred spirits. I really talked to him about helping all the players, but really being there for Nick."
Ciaravino and Windham struggled against Wisconsin, but they will also get key reps in the final stretch, even if the team fails to make the postseason.
"There's going to be no quit in this team," Collins said. "We have got to keep helping some of the younger guys now that they're thrust into more minutes and bigger opportunity. But you also saw the veteran guys at the top four on the stat sheet...
"It's a tough loss and a tough couple days for us but we're a resilient bunch. We're going to be ready to go on Tuesday night."
