When Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg sat for a pregame news conference on Jan. 15, two days before his eighth-ranked Cornhuskers would take on Northwestern, the first question lobbed in his direction was, somewhat predictably, about Wildcats’ forward Nick Martinelli.
And why wouldn’t it be? Martinelli, a senior, entered his team’s in-state battle with then-No. 13 Illinois the night prior as the leading scorer in Division I at 24.1 points per game. The Illini limited him to “a quiet 20,” as head coach Brad Underwood put it, in what finished as a 79-68 loss for Northwestern. Still, that outing marked the eighth straight 20-point game for Martinelli — a torrid stretch in which he poured in 27.9 points per game — and the 13th time he’s reached that number this season. It was easy to understand why a reporter asked Hoiberg, somewhat tongue in cheek, if Martinelli occupied lines one, two and three on the Cornhuskers’ scouting report entering the weekend.
“Martinelli is the most unique player in our league with the variety of ways he can score the ball,” Hoiberg said. “And he’s shooting a really high percentage from 3-point range right now. His isos, they just give you anxiety with all the different things that he can do. You can’t ever go in with your hands down. And if he makes contested, tough shots, then you can’t get deflated. You just have to do the best job you can.
“He’s the leading scorer in the country right now, and just what he’s done over the course of his career, you’ve got to give him a lot of credit, you’ve got to give their staff a lot of credit for developing him into the type of player that he is. He’s truly special.”
(Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images)
Praise of that caliber and depth is routinely heaped on Martinelli by seemingly every Big Ten coach Northwestern faces. He’s the unquestioned focal point for a team that only has three players averaging more than 7.4 points per game this season, and yet Martinelli still finds ways to produce on a nightly basis despite overwhelming attention from opposing defenses.
Underscoring his irreplaceable value, the only players in the country with higher PRPG! ratings than Martinelli’s mark of 6.3 — a measurement of how many points an individual contributes to his team above what a replacement-level player would produce — are Cameron Boozer from Duke (7.0) and Bruce Thornton from Ohio State (6.7), according to T-Rank.
There is, however, an unfortunate paradox shrouding Martinelli’s statistical exploits: For as well as he’s playing offensively, the Wildcats aren’t winning. Northwestern was clobbered, 77-58, by Nebraska over the weekend to suffer a fifth straight loss. The Wildcats are now just 8-10 overall and 0-7 in the Big Ten, with six defeats this season by 10 points or fewer. Barring an otherworldly turnaround, it’s unlikely Martinelli will add a third NCAA tournament appearance to his résumé after the Wildcats reached the Round of 32 in both his freshman and sophomore seasons. That dynamic, according to head coach Chris Collins, has been difficult for Martinelli to navigate.
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“Having a winning team is not about being a scoring champion and all that,” Collins said in his post-game news conference following the loss to Illinois. “He wants to win. This is a guy that — he’s never had a losing season here. And we’re one game under .500, so we have a chance to have a winning season and still do a lot of good things. I know that’s really important to him. That’s what drives him. And I’m going to be there for him to help him continue to be that leader that I know he wants to be.”
One of the reasons why Martinelli receives such widespread praise from opposing coaches is the admirable trajectory his career has taken. Four years ago, in July 2022, Martinelli enrolled at Northwestern as a zero-star recruit, with his lone additional scholarship offer from Elon. He came off the bench for most of his first two seasons under Collins before exploding into the Big Ten’s leading scorer at 20.5 points per game during the 2024-25 campaign, a year in which the Wildcats finished 7-13 in conference play. He explored the NBA Draft process last summer and ultimately decided to return to school.
“Not sure his game translates to the NBA,” one high-ranking league executive told me last week. “But he is having a great season. He has figured out a way to be successful.”
This year, Martinelli is averaging career highs in both scoring (23.7 points per game) and rebounding (6.8 per game), while also establishing new personal bests in shooting percentage (56.3%), 3-point percentage (53.3%) and free-throw percentage (78.9%). All of which comes with a supremely heavy workload for a team that is battling inconsistency from transfer portal guards Jayden Reid and Max Green. It’s left Martinelli to shoulder a set of advanced metrics that include the league’s second-highest minutes percentage, fifth-most fouls drawn per game and 13th-highest usage rate, according to KenPom.
“We’re definitely battling,” Martinelli said following the loss to Illinois. “We’re laying our hearts on the line every night but just can’t get it done. That’s what basketball is about, it’s about winning. The wins and losses are so important. You can’t keep having stretches of being in the game and then not being able to get it done. And at one point, you just have to change.
“We just can’t have those types of mental mistakes at the end of games if we want to win. I truly believe everybody wants to win. It’s obviously been a difficult stretch, but if you jump off the boat, we’re just gonna go with other guys. I’m going to stay on the boat as long as this thing goes.”
He is, most nights, the only one keeping Northwestern afloat.
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