MILWAUKEE-Brooks Barnhizer’s eyes got wide after the game when told he missed his first eight shots from the floor in Northwestern’s 71-60 win over Georgia Tech at the Milwaukee Tip-Off at FiServ Forum.
He smiled sheepishly.
“I didn’t know it was my first eight,” he said with a chuckle.
That’s the mark of a scorer. The senior knew he missed several shots from the floor to start the game, but he had no idea how many. He just stayed aggressive and kept firing.
Barnhizer didn’t see a shot go down until just 4:08 remained in the first half. But the law of averages eventually took over and he wound up hitting six of his final 10 shots in the game.
His final stat line was a sterling 20 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocks. He led all players in points and rebounds.
And he did it all while wearing a dental bridge to replace his two front teeth that were knocked out in practice this week. He was cleared to return to play the day before the game. Talk about tough.
Barnhizer said that, even while he was slumping on the offensive end, he tried to do other things to contribute.
“I let up a couple rotations on defense, and coach said, like, ‘We need you to be the defensive player of the year caliber player on this end, and then the other end will take care of itself.’
“I feel like I just did that, and then the shots went in. It's just how the game goes. If you play the game the right way, and you think of it the right way, then good things will happen.”
In the second half, it was a completely different Barnhizer.
Georgia Tech went on a 7-0 run to cut a 17-point lead down to 10 under the 11-minute mark. The pockets of Yellow Jacket fans started to make a little noise.
That’s when Barnhizer took over. He hit a twisting, windmill of a layup in the lane. He drew a foul and hit one of two free throws. Then he made a mid-range jumper from the paint.
Nick Martinelli scored on a driving layup, Ty Berry hit a 3 and, just like that, at the 7:38 mark, the lead was 20 and the game was over. Drive home safely.
Barnhizer was far from the only player who got off to a rough start in this game between teams that had been idle for more than a week – and looked like it. Both teams shot 32% in the first half and struggled offensively for long stretches. At one point, the two teams combined to make just two of 17 shots.
Head coach Chris Collins said that the NBA 3-point line on the floor – which was marked in white, alongside the college line that was painted light blue – throws off a lot of players, leading to longer 3-point attempts. It also alters spacing. A Georgia Tech player inadvertently stepped out of bounds four different times in the first half alone.
This Milwaukee Tip-Off is an unusual event, played in an unusual arena, after an unusually long layoff, involving unusual teams. (The other matchups were Akron vs. UW-Milwaukee and San Francisco vs. Loyola-Chicago.) So it figures that Northwestern’s mid-afternoon matchup with Georgia Tech would make for an unusual game.
But make no mistake: Collins wanted to win this one. He felt like his team needed a Power Five tuneup after finals week to get back on track. The Wildcats had lost on the road at Dayton and Iowa, and went 1-1 at a multi-team event at a neutral site, dropping a nail-biter to Butler.
So it was time to win one of these away from Welsh-Ryan Arena.
“[This] was a big game here today,” said Collins. “So really proud of my guys the way we prepared for this game. You know, I thought it might have been one of our best defensive games.”
Barnhizer agreed. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how badly you shoot if the other team is shooting worse.
“You know, at the end of the day, if they can't score, they can't win,” he said.
