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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - MARCH 11: Nick Martinelli #2 of the Northwestern Wildcats celebrates with head coach Chris Collins of the Northwestern Wildcats in the second half against the Indiana Hoosiers during the second round of the 2026 Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament at the United Center on March 11, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Northwestern has made an early run in the Big Ten Tournament behind two 20+ point performances from senior Nick Martinelli.
After opening the tournament with a Tuesday win over Penn State, Northwestern set its sights on an Indiana team hoping to lock up its resume to get into the NCAA Tournament in head coach Darian DeVries first season in Bloomington.
Instead, the Wildcats kept its dream alive of forcing its way into the tournament by running the entire B10 gambit and winning the tournament bid. Northwestern trounced IU, 74-61, with Martinelli’s inspired 28 point performance carrying the way.
Now Northwestern will have to play its third day in three games against a Purdue team that just beat Northwestern in Welsh-Ryan Arena a week ago.
#7 Purdue 23-8 (13-7) vs. #15 Northwestern 15-18 (5-15)
Purdue won the only matchup between the two schools, 70-66, but it wasn’t pretty.
Northwestern led early and led often, including by 9 point at halftime.
It was only a heroic second half by CJ Cox that kept Purdue from dropping another game in the Big Ten.
Cox had 27 points, including multiple key late game threes that kept Purdue in the game and then pushed them ahead of the Wildcats. Cox was 5 of 8 from three, and perfect from inside the arc. His two-way play has been one of the few bright spots late in the season for Purdue.
After coming into the season as the nation’s #1 team, Purdue finished the season 7th in the Big Ten despite starting the season with a program best 17-1 start to the season. At that time, Purdue was a perfect 7-0 in conference play.
Which means Purdue dropped 7 of its final 13 Big Ten games, sliding the Boilers from conference favorites to one of the most disappointing teams in the country.
Purdue’s test is defense
Purdue’s end of season has been so underwhelming, there’s probably nothing it can do during the conference tournament to redeem its regular season. This team, and these seniors, fair or unfair, will write its final legacy in the NCAA Tournament.
Anything less than an Elite Eight run, and this season will likely go down as extremely disappointing for a team that had national title aspirations through the first half of the season.
But if Purdue is going to make any run in the conference tournament or the NCAA Tournament, it will need to fix its defense and in a hurry.
That starts with limiting teams scoring from three. Purdue is now 342nd in the country in percentage of points given up behind the three-point line. Purdue’s defense isn’t just struggling to contain shooters – often that’s a symptom of a much larger problem.
While Purdue has clearly not marked shooters well on the perimeter, the real issue is Purdue cannot contain the dribble right now. Too many Purdue players are getting caught in switches, not staying in front of their man, getting through screens, or free lancing and getting caught out of position despite action happening on the other side of the court.
Northwestern was 44% from three against Purdue after being one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the conference this season. Purdue just gave up an 18 for 34 three-point shooting performance from Wisconsin in Mackey Arena, on senior night, in another disappointing loss despite Purdue scoring 93 points and 1.42 points per possession against the Badgers.
Northwestern’s Nick Martineli is concern one two and three for Purdue. He had 28 against Purdue in the first matchup.
But Purdue needs both find a way to slow down Martinelli and keep him out of the paint, while also making sure to stay more sound and find some kind of defensive scheme that its personnel can run effectively.
While fatigue might play into Northwestern, it’s also a team playing its best basketball of the season.
The winner of this game will go on to play #2 seed Nebraska on Friday night.
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