Northwestern is on to the third round at the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago. Today, the 'Cats played spoiler, beating bubble-team Indiana by a score of 74-61. In all likelihood, it was the knockout blow for the Hoosiers' 2025-26 season.

Northwestern entered this game coming off a win in the first round of the Tournament on Tuesday vs. Penn State. The 'Cats will now get a rematch with Purdue tomorrow in the third round, hoping to keep their season alive even longer. But here's three takeaways from today's game before we get ahead of ourselves.

Immediately, it was obvious that this wasn't going to be just any other Jake West performance. The freshman point guard has emerged as a starting caliber player for the 'Cats over the course of this season. 

Part of the reason he's earned the trust of Chris Collins is that he's seemed to know his role. He typically doesn't do too much -- he doesn't force up bad shots or throw overly risky passes. But today West made a statement. He can be a role player, but he can be a bona fide offensive weapon, as well.

In the first half, West was slicing through defenders and getting to the rim with confidence. Tack on a couple threes, and West had already scored 14 points at halftime. For the game, West finished with 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting with four assists.

For the past few games, an Arrinten Page illness has forced the 'Cats to go with a smaller starting five at the beginning of games. Today, that five was Martinelli, Tre Singleton, West, Reid and Angelo Ciaravino.

It's a solid lineup, and Tyler Kropp brings an element of size off the bench, but it caused some issue for Northwestern on defense and the glass. 

Early in the game, the 'Cats got killed in the paint. They made an adjustment, brought in Kropp, and tried to defend more aggressively down low. Then, the Hoosiers immediately started draining threes (they had five in the first), and it felt like NU couldn't win. To make matters worse, Indiana out-rebounded the Wildcats in the first half. But Northwestern brought the margin back to 29-27 by the end of the game.

The 'Cats really turned things around on the boards and on defense in the second half. Chris Collins deserves some serious credit for his in-game coaching in this win.

The Big Ten's leading scorer started this game just a little cold. He missed a few in the lane, and he missed a three-ball. Anyone who's watched much Northwestern basketball this season wasn't worried. And they would be right.

Martinelli got hot down the stretch in the first, and then he kept that momentum rolling into the second half. By the break, he was already up to nine points on the game. By the 15-minute mark of the second half, he was already at 16.

At the end of the contest, Martinelli wound up finishing with 28 points on 10-of-18 shooting with four rebounds. The moral of the story is, always trust Nick Martinelli to get it going, even if he has a slow start. It's happened time after time this season, and he continues to prove that, in all likelihood, he's not going to be denied for a full 40 minutes.

To close things out here, Chris Collins deserves a shout out. Northwestern couldn't seem to figure things out defensively early in this game. In the second half, the 'Cats could do no wrong on that end.

Who knows what specific adjustments were made or what Collins said to his team at the break, but whatever it was, it worked very well. The Hoosiers only scored 24 points in the second half, and the 'Cats managed to out-score them 34-24 in the paint for the game. The game was trending the opposite direction in the first half.