Nick Martinelli's Northwestern Legacy Cemented With Another Meant-to-Be Heroic Moment

When Oregon topped Northwestern by one point after Wei Lin's corner three-pointer, the Wildcats had 50 seconds to change the game. Nick Martinelli drove downhill and pulled up for a contested midrange jumper. The ball bounced off the rim, but Tre Singleton's offensive rebound prolonged Northwestern's life with eight seconds remaining.

And Martinelli stepped up again.

After receiving Jayden Reid's inbound pass, Martinelli took another drive into the paint against Kwame Evans Jr., carving out a narrow sliver of space with a left-handed spin move before releasing a floater on the left post. The ball bounced around the rim once, twice...six times — then dropped through the net.

Inside a packed Welsh-Ryan Arena erupting with cheers, Martinelli salvaged his first missed shot with second-chance heroics, soaking in ovations from teammates and the crowd in the stands after Northwestern won over Oregon 63-62.

"It felt great. I'm still processing," Martinelli said of the moment he knocked down a game-winner — the same thing he did last year against Maryland.

The heroics seemed built on trust, with the late-game plot written specifically for Martinelli. Whenever the Wildcats need a final punch in crunch time, the ball always finds their most reliable player. That floater, sitting on the rim for three bounces, testified to the Big Ten's leading scorer's stardom.

"We're very particular about the plays that we run, and a lot of times the ball just ends up in my hands," Martinelli said. "The guys do such a great job spacing, making sure I get the ball in a good spot. And thankfully, the last two games, I've been able to put the ball in the basket."

Similar to the Indiana game, Northwestern trailed by seven points before halftime. After Chris Collins expressed dissatisfaction with Martinelli, who scored just seven first-half points against the Hoosiers, during that game's intermission, Martinelli poured in 21 second-half points to fuel the comeback win. This time against Oregon, after Collins delivered what he called a "gut check" message at halftime, the senior captain again shouldered the responsibility, replicating that performance with another elevated second-half showing — 14 points that made the comeback possible.

"The word that came to my mind was will," Collins said in the postgame. "He's got an incredible will to win. He's not going to be denied. He works so hard. I've never coached a player who works any harder than he does and puts any more into being a good player than he does."

With only one home game remaining, this could be the last heroic moment for the beloved Martinelli at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Beyond his 41st 20-plus scoring game, tying former Northwestern legend Boo Buie (2019-2024), along with other extraordinary records and reminiscent moments like Saturday afternoon, the Glenview, Ill. native, who just lived seven miles from the Wildcats' home territory, has cemented his legacy.

"It means everything," Collins said. "The legacy he's leaving is who he is and how he carries himself, how hard he works, his approach to the game, his will to win, the kind of teammate he is. He's put himself in the upper echelon of guys who have played in this program. And he's someone that's going to be remembered forever."

Before wrapping up the postgame conference, Collins joked about Martinelli's high school, Glenbrook South, where Collins "hated" playing against as a rival from Glenbrook North from 1988 to 1992. Collins later became Illinois' Mr. Basketball before committing to Duke. At the end of the day, he views the rival school's product as a Wildcat immortal.

"He's put himself in the upper echelon of guys who have played in this program, and he's someone that's going to be remembered forever," Collins said. "And I hate to say that because he went to Glenbrook South, but I love Nick."