Ten years from now, some student journalist is going to embark on the difficult task of ranking the best players in Northwestern men's basketball history.

They'll likely start with Boo Buie, the program's all-time leading scorer, who led the Wildcats to back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths. Billy McKinney's success on the court and the mic transcended several eras of Northwestern basketball. John Shurna was an electric offensive engine, while Evan Eschmeyer was a consensus Second-Team All-American. And who could forget about Bryant McIntosh and Vic Law, who authored the 'Cats' fairy tale run to March Madness for the first time?

There's a name that will be difficult for that student to rank on the list of all-time greats. Where do you place Nick Martinelli?

His place in the record books is already stamped, with likely four or five games remaining in his Wildcat career. Martinelli has scored a stellar 1,637 points, good for eighth all-time at Northwestern, and he's on pace to climb as high as No. 6. He's also on the way to finishing sixth in made field goals, eighth in shot attempts and seventh in made free throws.

After largely coming off the bench as a freshman and sophomore, Martinelli's past two seasons rival the best statistical campaigns ever achieved in purple and white. He broke Shurna's single-season records for points and shots made last year, and he has since followed it up with an even better senior season. Martinelli is on track to lead the Big Ten in scoring for the second consecutive season and is all but guaranteed to earn another spot on an All-Conference team.

But there's a complicated aspect of Martinelli's legacy — one that is largely out of his control. One of the greatest scorers in the history of Northwestern basketball got stuck in between two separate eras.

The Wildcats made the NCAA Tournament twice during Martinelli's time in Evanston, but his role was minuscule on both teams. No. 2 was a rotation player until a wave of injuries forced him into the starting lineup down the stretch of his sophomore season. Martinelli performed admirably in those final 11 games, but he was essentially the glue guy on Boo Buie's team, and it's easy to see how he won't get the same level of credit as players like Buie, Brooks Barnhizer and Ryan Langborg in retrospect.

When the time finally came for Martinelli to have his moment in the spotlight in 2024-25, disaster struck. Barnhizer and point guard Jalen Leach both went down with injuries, leaving Martinelli to lift the bulk of the load for Northwestern. By purely Herculean will, the junior was able to carry his team to a winning 17-16 record, though the 'Cats missed the NCAA Tournament in an unfortunate season.

And by all accounts, Martinelli has been even better as a senior in 2025-26. The seventh-highest scorer in the nation is averaging 22.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game on 50.5% shooting and a whopping 42.3% from three. Considering that roughly 60% of his attempts come at the rim or from contested paint shots, Martinelli's scoring dominance is even more impressive.

However, that dominance hasn't translated to team success this year. We can sit here now and say Northwestern's poor record is because of the transfers' inconsistent play or the freshmen's lack of experience, but in 10-to-20 years, will the average Wildcat fan remember that? Or will Martinelli's legacy be overshadowed by the fact that NU was a sub-.500 team while he led it?

I say this not to disparage the legacy of someone who has left his blood, sweat and tears on the Welsh-Ryan Arena court, but to defend it.

Martinelli is emblematic of Northwestern basketball. The local Glenview product was originally committed to Elon University, then flipped to the Wildcats when his future head coach suddenly resigned. He worked his way up from a little-known mid-major recruit to one of the best players in the nation, with his leadership flourishing in the process.

It's easy to say that somebody "cares" about their team and their program — they probably wouldn't be playing college basketball at the highest level otherwise. But with Martinelli, it's clear that he lives and breathes Northwestern basketball. Every win is a product of No. 2 putting the team on his back, while every loss hits the captain incredibly hard on a personal level.

Above all else, Martinelli comes through when the game is on the line, time and time again. In December of 2023, Martinelli scored 16 points in the second half and seven points in overtime to upset No. 19 Illinois. He drilled a buzzer-beating jumper to take down Maryland a month later, then hit a floater with 2.4 seconds remaining to do the same against USC.

His senior year has featured just as many late-game heroics. Martinelli knocked down winning free throws vs. DePaul, made several key baskets to put away USC and scored 29 in a win over Maryland.

Tuesday's road win at Indiana was Martinelli's magnum opus. Held to just seven points on 3-of-9 shooting at the half, Chris Collins told his star in the locker room that if he showed up and the team improved its defense, Northwestern would win the game.

And as he has done throughout his entire career, Martinelli took over when it mattered. The senior scored 21 points in the second half — Indiana scored 26 as a team — to lead the Wildcats back from a nine-point deficit and shock the Hoosiers.

A side-step fadeaway. A corner three. A pull-up jumper from the mid-range. A leaning floater. It didn't matter what Indiana threw at Martinelli; the 'Cats' senior managed to dice up the Hoosiers' defense in every possible way en route to the stunning victory.

It's moments like those that I hope are not lost in the retrospective view of an otherwise nightmarish season. Previous Northwestern teams were memorable because they made history with a program that many deemed an afterthought in the Big Ten. The next era of Northwestern basketball projects to be bright as well, with Jake West and Tre Singleton already looking like they're on the path to stardom.

But Martinelli cannot be forgotten in history. That student journalist in 10 years will likely look through record books, having been too young to seriously remember what watching the 2024-25 and 2025-26 teams was like, and determine that Martinelli was a great scorer whose empty stats didn't contribute to wins.

The point of this column is not to refute a bad-faith argument a decade in advance, but to remind Northwestern fans to appreciate what they're watching. This season has been disappointing for the Wildcats; there's no doubt about that. NU should probably have pulled off more wins this year than it has. All of these are true, and none of that should take away from the historic scoring dominance that Martinelli has shown on the court this season.

This is a one-of-a-kind player. Regardless of the number of wins and losses he compiled as the leader of his team, Martinelli's legacy at Northwestern should reflect the dedication he showed and the impact he left on the program during his four years in Evanston.