Last night, Northwestern Men's Basketball wrapped up its Big Ten regular season schedule with yet another brutal, late-game loss at Minnesota.
Up one with under 30 seconds to play, captain Nick Martinelli stepped to the free throw line and missed the front end of a one-and-one. Then, the Gophers quickly scored, and the 'Cats called timeout to draw up a play.
Somehow, that play was a Martinelli three with a defender in his vicinity. He missed, and Northwestern fell to 5-15 in conference heading into the Big Ten Tournament next week.
As I'm sure Chris Collins and his entire team would tell you -- there's still more basketball to be played. But with the regular season officially over, I wanted to reflect on a second straight uber frustrating year in Evanston.
People forget, but last season was rough as well. The 'Cats missed the tournament, and they had to deal with a heart-breaking Brooks Barnhizer injury, countless tight losses and objectively poor officiating along the way. It was a true shock to the system after the Buie-era.
This year, hopes probably weren't as high, but the goal was certainly more lofty than 5-15. Instead, Northwestern's transfer additions -- C Arrinten Page and PG Jayden Reid -- took a while to gel with the team. Its young freshman class needed time to develop. And Martinelli leading the conference in scoring just wasn't enough.
Even still, the Wildcats played hard every game. They took much more talented teams like Purdue down to the wire, as they always seem to do under Chris Collins. The culture isn't gone -- the winning has just evaporated.
Ultimately, I think there's a few key reasons why this year's team wasn't able to find consistent success.
The first is that its transfer class let it down. I don't want to come down too hard on Page and Reid, and maybe expectations were just too high, but they were not good enough.
Page is as gifted as they come in the post with the ball in his hands. He has a seemingly endless bag of post moves, a pretty soft shot and the ability to hit it from distance. Offensively, it's easy to see why Collins was interested in bringing him in.
The issues came on the defensive end of the floor. In the past, Northwestern has had Matt Nicholson patrolling the post, and he was phenomenal at it. This year, it was immediately evident that Page needed more development.
Early in the season especially, he looked so lost on the defensive side that it was difficult not to question his effort level. Personally, I was unsure about his fit in a program that historically thrives by outworking the competition.
Then, as the season went along, it started to become apparent to me that I had made a bit of a snap judgement. I do think Page cares about winning, and I think he wants to be a high-effort player. I just think he wasn't ready to run Collins' defensive system, and he needed time to figure out how to do it.
He's still far from perfect, but Page has made some strides. He might be more fit to play the four spot next year, but that's a conversation for another day. For now, the reality is that he simply wasn't good enough early on to help this team get wins it needed.
Then, there's Reid. The point guard is very undersized, and that was a concern from the beginning. At times, he was able to overcome that disadvantage and really shine for the 'Cats. In other games, he was ineffective offensively, wild in transition and too small to cover elite guards in the Big Ten.
Bottom line, Northwestern needed its transfers to be really good this season to help Martinelli compete with a young supporting cast. That didn't happen, and it sunk the ship.
There's blame to go around, though. Collins only adding one big-man to the roster is a difficult decision to swallow looking back. Cade Bennerman wasn't ready to play, and Tyler Kropp was forced to play out of position all season, spelling Page. It was a bad strategy in a league with dominant big-man play. I think Collins has to wear that one.
Bur rather than continuing to point fingers, I think it's important that we zoom out a bit. Yes, this season wasn't acceptable. Nobody associated with the program would tell you it was. There's a genuine commitment at this school to building on the basketball culture that was established just a few short years ago.
There were also plenty of positives this season. Jake West emerged as someone to look forward to next season. Tre Singleton, while he struggled with foul troubles, showed promise. Even Kropp, I thought, did as best he could in a bad situation for a freshman.
There's a lot to like about the future, and there's no reason not to trust Collins to both retain and add talent. The culture is the calling card of his program, and it tends to keep players in purple.
If you're just sad for Martinelli, then I get that. Watching him this season has been very sad. Listening to him talk about this team's struggles and how much it impacts him is crushing.
But just remember -- Martinelli loves Northwestern. I guarantee you he hopes that he was the sacrificial lamb in this story, and that NU's young core learns from this season and comes back better for it.
After a season like this one, that's really all one can hope for.