Nick Martinelli is trying to live in the moment in the last weeks of his Northwestern career.
Senior night against Purdue on Wednesday at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Regular-season finale Saturday at Minnesota. Big Ten Tournament next week at the United Center.
And then? Well, the 6-foot-7 forward admits that question does come with “a little bit of angst.”
For four years, Martinelli has called Northwestern home, rising from a freshman reserve on the first of back-to-back NCAA Tournament teams in 2023 to become one of the best scorers in program history. It’s a career arc that is becoming rarer in the transfer-portal era but one Martinelli, a Glenview native, said he didn’t often question.
“I kind of always have known that I was going to be back here the last four years, so it’s definitely a surreal feeling,” Martinelli said of closing out his NU career. “I’m just trying to enjoy it as much as I can, take each day and just living with as much gratitude as possible.”
Martinelli used the word “grateful” several times when describing his Northwestern experience — even when talking about this season, as the Wildcats have had their ups and downs with a young, transfer-heavy team.
The Wildcats (13-16, 5-13 Big Ten) have won three straight games, including upsetting Indiana on the road last week and beating Oregon on Martinelli’s lefty hook shot with 1.8 seconds to play Saturday. They’re trying to finish the season with renewed energy after losing five straight games twice this season, most recently during a rugged stretch that included three games against teams ranked in the top 10 at the time: Illinois, Michigan and Nebraska.
Martinelli, who developed on two of the best teams in NU history as a freshman and sophomore, said it has been “super difficult” navigating the trials while being one of the nation’s top scorers.
He leads the Big Ten for the second straight season with 22.5 points per game — ranked sixth in Division I — to go with 6.3 rebounds per game. He went through a shooting slump in early February during the Wildcats’ second five-game losing streak that included four straight games of shooting 33% or worse from the field. But he broke out of it in the last three wins, scoring 29 points against Maryland, 28 against Indiana — an NCAA Tournament bubble team — and 22 against Oregon.
As he approaches his last stretch of games — and his uncertain future — he hopes that he and his teammates can continue their groove for a few more wins.
“The thing that hurts the most (about the earlier stretches) is we have such a good camaraderie here, and I’ve been a part of winning and I know how fun that is,” Martinelli told the Tribune in an interview early last week. “And not allowing my teammates to experience that — because we’ve (gone) through so many struggles, so many losses — that obviously hurts.”
‘A great college scorer’
Northwestern coach Chris Collins, center, and his team celebrate after being announced as a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament during a Selection Sunday watch party at Welsh-Ryan Arena on March 12, 2023, in Evanston. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
When Martinelli thinks back over the many practices, games and laughs in his career, he zeroes in on one favorite: when the Wildcats went to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in his freshman season. It was “a dream,” he said.
“I was trying to slap myself in the face, like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to wake up,’” Martinelli said.
Martinelli averaged 2.6 points over 20 games that season but said he was “probably a cocky little freshman who believed he could take over the world one day.”
“I definitely would be proud of where I’ve come,” he said before the Indiana game, then added: “But I’d ask myself why I can’t get a dang win.”
Excelling with a unique midrange game, Martinelli emerged as a junior last season to set the NU single-season scoring record with 676 points on 251 made field goals, averaging a Big Ten-best 20.5 points for an injury-plagued team that finished 17-16, 7-13.
He has 631 points this season, joining John Shurna as the only Wildcats to top 600 points in two seasons.
Even with his early February struggles, which coach Chris Collins thought were due to getting worn down during a tough stretch against the Big Ten’s best teams, Martinelli has raised his field-goal percentage this season to 50.2% and has a career-high 38 3-pointers on 42.2% shooting.
He’s doing it while defenses are keyed in on stopping him. Only two other Northwestern players — Arrinten Page and Jayden Reid — are averaging more than eight points.
Northwestern forward Nick Martinelli rises for a shot over Oregon guard Drew Carter on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston. (Josh Boland/Chicago Tribune)
“I wouldn’t say it’s the easiest thing in the world, but it’s definitely all attributed to my coaches and my teammates,” Martinelli said. “As much as I score the ball, I shoot the ball a ton. … We run a lot of plays for me to get me open, to get me away from the help defense, to give me shots.
“And that’s what we need to do to win. I understand that. I have to score in order for us to win in most cases. So I’m just doing my job as well as I could do it.”
Martinelli had 21 points in the second half of the 72-68 win over Indiana last Tuesday, adjusting his game to pull up over the Hoosiers guards when they switched onto him rather than trying to attack them on the dribble.
Collins called him “just a great college scorer” after the game, which gave the Wildcats their first back-to-back wins in the Big Ten this season.
“Last year he didn’t shoot the 3 as well,” Collins said at his postgame news conference. “Now his ability to make 3s really puts teams in a little bit of a bind about what do you want to do with him. Do you want to put a bigger guy on him and try to match him with physicality? Or do you want to put smaller guys on him and try to send help and double teams?
“He’s one of the best players in the league. Every coach will tell you that. He’s one of the hardest guys to match up with. He’s playing with a bunch of young guys, so many new guys that haven’t even played at this level. And the way he carried our team tonight was pretty admirable.”
Martinelli followed up that performance with the winning shot on a day Northwestern gave out his own bobblehead.
With the Wildcats trailing Oregon by one with 8.6 seconds to play, he took an inbounds pass on the left side of the lane, drove to his right, then spun through two Oregon defenders to get off what Collins called “his patented flipper, flipperdoodle — whatever, everybody kind of has a name for it.”
The ball hung on the back of the rim for what Collins said felt like three seconds before falling in. Oregon missed a last-second attempt, and NU won 63-62.
Northwestern guard Jake West, forward Tyler Kropp and forward Nick Martinelli celebrate with Willie the Wildcat after defeating Oregon on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston. (Josh Boland/Chicago Tribune)
“He’s got an incredible will to win, to succeed,” Collins said at his news conference. “Special guy, man. He’s one of these guys, he’s not going to be denied. He works so hard. Never coached a player who works any harder than he does and puts any more into being a good player than he does. You love to see that rewarded.
“For him, this has been a tough go. It’s his senior year. He so desperately wanted to lead our team back to the NCAA Tournament and have a great season. We had our struggles, and for him to hang in there and not just play out the string but continue to compete and fight and be a great big brother to some of these young kids, what an amazing thing.”
Martinelli lamented that he didn’t do more earlier in the season to lift the Wildcats, who have three transfers and two freshmen among their top seven scorers. Northwestern lost its most influential leaders from last season to graduation, and it has been on Martinelli to lead.
“There’s things that I obviously didn’t do to the best of my ability to help lead this team,” he said. “I’ll definitely learn from it. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be able to learn from it. There’s so much love in that building. My teammates are just amazing. And, yeah, I should have been able to lead that team a lot better than what I have done.”
But, he noted, there’s still a little time left to do it.
What’s to come
Northwestern forward Nick Martinelli makes a move against Oregon guard Drew Carter on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston. (Josh Boland/Chicago Tribune)
Martinelli declared for the NBA draft last spring while maintaining his college eligibility and eventually returned to Northwestern. In the fall, he called his draft exploration “humbling” and “motivating,” saying he didn’t feel like teams took him seriously.
His return to Evanston put him in rare company in the Big Ten.
Of the top 12 conference scorers through Sunday, only four had played at one school their entire careers: Martinelli, Ohio State senior Bruce Thornton, Wisconsin junior John Blackwell and Illinois freshman Keaton Wagler.
Martinelli, whose only high-major offer out of Glenbrook South was Northwestern, said he never envisioned his college experience at multiple places.
“When I committed to a school, I committed there for four years, not for one year,” he said. “I never really thought much into doing anything else. The coaches always have my back.
“Obviously we know the landscape now, but truly, it had been such a blessing from day one. I struggled a ton my first couple of years here, but they continue to push me and have my back. And now, just being in the position I am today, it’s just grateful.”
Martinelli called himself “skinny and frail” when he got to Northwestern and said his body and strength are among his biggest improvements. He also worked hard in the offseason to improve his shooting and has been more efficient this season.
Whether he gains traction as an NBA prospect, given his unorthodox game, remains to be seen. Martinelli ranked No. 86 on ESPN’s top 100 draft prospects in mid-February.
“Obviously I don’t know what’s to come,” he said. “I could just be a 9-to-5er next year. You never know what’s going to happen. I’m going to work my butt off and whatever happens, whatever opportunities showcase themselves for me, that’s between me and God. And whatever happens, I’m just grateful for it.
“But hopefully I did enough. That’s obviously my dream to play in the NBA, but if not, I’m just going with the punches.”
As for his last run with Northwestern, Martinelli expects senior night against Purdue to be emotional as he celebrates with family members who have been nearby for his entire career.
“I’m looking forward to it, but at the same time, we’ve got to focus on the games we have in front of us,” he said. “And hopefully we could be playing for something at that point, whether it be the NIT, the (College Basketball) Crown, March Madness, whatever it be. I’m going to play it just like every other game, as hard as I possibly can, as well as I possibly can.”
Collins pointed to that mindset when asked after the Oregon game about Martinelli’s legacy. He said Martinelli will be considered one of the all-time Northwestern greats just by virtue of his scoring ability — he’s eighth in career points (1,659) and needs 31 to move into sixth. But there’s more to it than that.
“The legacy he’s leaving is who he is,” Collins said. “How he carries himself, how hard he works, his approach to the game, his will to win, the kind of teammate he is.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/03/nick-martinelli-northwestern-basketball/
