MILWAUKEE - Northwestern didn't miss a beat in their first game back from a week's rest, defeating Georgia Tech, 71-60, in the middle game of the MKE Tip-Off.
"This was a really good win for us today," Collins said. "I talk about it all the time at a school like Northwestern, these guys are student-athletes and we're coming off finals week.
"There were exams, papers, projects, and the guys have to mix that with basketball. I'm really proud of our guys...I thought it might have been one of our best defensive games."
The Wildcats opened up with a dominant 11-0 run to start the game and led wire-to-wire with four different players scoring double digits.
Brooks Barnhizer overcame a frigid 0-for-8 start from the floor to finish with 20 points, forward Nick Martinelli and guard Jalen Leach chipped in 16 apiece, and Ty Berry rounded out the quarter with 11 points on three threes.
Here are our takeaways from Northwestern's tip-off win 11 games into the season:
Barnhizer took over the game, minus his front teeth: Barnhizer's two front teeth were knocked out at practice earlier in the week as he tried to take a charge on a driving graduate assistant.
"We were running shell, nothing too crazy, just a freak accident...," he said. "We were working on scramble drill because a lot of teams have tried to dribble drive on us. I came over to take a charge and the GA knocked my front teeth out."
Barnhizer got a bone graft on Tuesday and returned to action on Saturday, the day before the game. He said he plans to play out the season with a bridge and two false teeth, then get surgery to replace them in the offseason.
"It was good to get through this one, now I'm perfectly fine for a full week of practice," he said.
Barnhizer showed some of the rust from his days off by missing his first eight shots but quickly recovered his form en route to a monster day. He scored 20 but also stuffed the stat sheet down the line with 10 rebounds, three blocks and three steals.
Collins' grip on the reins needs to loosen: Northwestern had a series of extremely commanding leads down the stretch: 22 points with 4:37 left and 17 points with 1:49 to go are just two examples.
And yet, the rotation stayed at just seven players. The same five that started closed out the game.
It's a non-conference matchup in the middle of December with basically a week of rest before and after, but Collins still chose to go exclusively with his veterans. Berry, Martinelli and Barnhizer all played 36+ minutes in a wire-to-wire win with just four points off the bench.
Collins acknowledged his tight hand in deciding not to play Angelo Ciaravino and KJ Windham, freshmen who both contributed early in the season.
"Today was about winning the game," Collins said. "I'm super high on those two guys and we just talked about it in the locker room. This is a really important stretch for young guys once they're through [the first quarter of] school and get three or four weeks to really focus on basketball.
"We need to be in a position to increase our depth. But as a coach, it's easy to say [play more guys] when you've also been a part of a lot of games when you empty the bench and suddenly a team hits three or four 3s and now it's a game."
Collins has been a broken record on this and even eschewed his typical "good players want to play" to talk about what he owes his team.
"The more the merrier but this is a winning program," he added. "Brooks Barnhizer is a senior. Jalen Leach is a senior. This is their last go-around and I have to coach every game for these guys as if I'm a senior, too."
It's an admirable sentiment but it doesn't necessarily jibe with the reality of these closing stretches. It's not that Collins won't play walkons or his deep bench; he won't even play young players who have burned their redshirts who could use the reps.
Also, his hardened veterans did exactly what he feared the bench would do. The Wildcats' starters didn't make a field goal in the final 3:58 of the game and Georgia Tech cut the deficit in half in the final 4:36, from 22 down to the final score of 11.
There's no doubt that Northwestern's strength and conditioning staff has done an exceptional job and the Wildcats are one of the toughest teams in the country (see Barnhizer, Brooks). But Collins may be playing with fire to keep these guys on the floor forever when the game is well in hand.
Berry gave Northwestern the edge they needed: In a game that Northwestern won by 11, Berry scored 11, including his 200th career made 3-pointer. It was the first game that the Wildcats had four different players in double figures and Collins was sure to sing Berry's praises.
"An unsung hero tonight was Ty Berry," Collins said. "He played like a veteran, good player tonight. He had three steals, couple nice passes... I knew these first 10 would be rough for Ty. I broke my foot in college and it took me a whole year to feel right again," alluding to the meniscus tear that sidelined Berry for the final stretch of games and the NCAA Tournament last year.
With Berry doing his part, Collins thinks the Wildcats can break the scouting edge that teams might be starting to gain as Barnhizer, Martinelli and Leach have established themselves as the team's Big Three.
"We know when other teams look at our box score they see [them] scoring a lot of points," Collins said. "They're going to try and take those guys away...we need more than three scorers. We won't be able to win at the level we want with just Nick, Jalen and Brooks."
Leach has gotten himself up to speed in Power Five play quickly and the Wildcats are 8-0 when he scores 10+ points. Now if they can get Berry on board to spread the defense even further, they can go from a very good team to a great one.
