Flippers, floaters and threes: It’s time to talk about Nick Martinelli

Just wait for Brooks to get back.

Up by just four, with 80 seconds to go against UIC, Northwestern called on its budding star for a big bucket.

Nick Martinelli jabbed at his defender, blew into the paint and floated up a miraculous and-one flipper. At least, that’s what Chris Collins called it.

“Nick brought us home with the little flipper he hits in the lane,” Collins said postgame. “He’s so immersed in the game. He doesn’t know about stats or points; he just tries to win.”

After opening the season with a 26-point, 10-rebound double-double against Lehigh, Martinelli dropped a career-high 32 points alongside 14 rebounds against Dayton en route to Big Ten Player of the Week honors. He just followed up that strong start with a 27-point effort on 10-of-14 shooting against UIC.

This isn’t a fluke. This is Nick Martinelli.

He hesitates, spins and slinks past defenders, winding his way to the cup where his touch continues to impress. He’s shooting 75% from the field. He hangs and hits in traffic, takes the ball up and nails step back threes.

He’s truly a position-less, one-of-one player.

For Martinelli, his ability to score in the paint is his bread and butter. But he’s expanding his offensive diet out behind the three-point arc. Nailing both of his three point attempts against the Flames, Northwestern’s hometown hero has made all seven of his three point attempts this season. He shot 27.1% from deep last season.

Collins mentioned at Big Ten Media Days before the season that Martinelli had made strides shooting the three, but this is a whole different level.

“If you go under those screens or you play off him, he’s shooting the ball with a lot of confidence from three,” Collins said after the game. “The ability to shoot the three is making him a really effective scorer at this level.”

UIC’s coach Rob Ehsan said postgame he was aware that Martinelli was 5-for-5 from deep going into the game. He also said he expected, like everyone else — even if it was Steph Curry, for him to eventually miss.

“I think the thing that did it in for us was the threes,” Ehsan said. “He just doesn’t miss easy shots.”

Martinelli’s ability to connect from deep is key for Northwestern’s offense, especially when it gets Brooks Barnhizer, who’s been questionable in each of Northwestern’s last two games, back from injury.

That ability to knock down shots helps spread the floor, while giving Martinelli the space to operate his crafty ways at getting to the hoop. It also gives extra space for Ty Berry and Jalen Leach to operate, both of whom excelled in the second half with 14 points for the Fairfield transfer and nine points and four rebounds for the fifth-year captain.

That’s exactly what happens here. Martinelli rightly gets doubled in the post and hooks a pass over to Berry who splashes a corner trey. Get used to seeing that, especially when Barnhizer enters the fray.

“[Nick’s] a hard cover,” Collins said. “Brooks [Barnhizer] is a hard cover. So for me, once we can get Brooks, once you have both of those guys out there, they’re going to make everybody else better.”

Just imagine when Barnhizer gets back to full strength. NU will have two All-Big Ten First Team caliber players with dynamic scoring threats in Leach and Berry to support them. Matthew Nicholson is still a defensive intimidator while the first-years in Angelo Ciaravino and K.J. Windham will play pivotal roles off the bench. Collins said they looked like freshmen against the Flames, and he’s right, but the sparks have certainly been there in the early going.

After Lehigh, the reaction was something along the lines of: “Alright, Nick Martinelli is going to be good this year.” After his performance against Dayton, the reaction was: “Is this in any way sustainable?”

We’re approaching “Is this Nick Martinelli’s team territory?” It’s not. But it’s also not going to be the Brooks Barnhizer show either. He’s still the emotional leader of this team. Martinelli said Barnhizer gave the Northwestern locker room a halftime speech, saying, “you have to play every game like it’s your last,” amping up Northwestern in a tight 31-29 contest.

However, what you’re about to watch is Barnhizer and Martinelli amplify everyone’s abilities. Their unique skillsets, especially Barnhizer’s defense, makes this team well-rounded and offensively deep, something the ‘Cats have lacked with Barnhizer on the sideline.

Martinelli won’t average 28.3 points per game on 73.8% shooting this season. Nor will he end up being a First Team All-American, even if he’s been a top-two player in the nation through college basketball’s first two weeks. At least I don’t think so. I’m aware this fanbase likes to be slightly delusional at times, but let’s be realistic for once.

He also doesn’t need to be any of those things. Northwestern just needs him to continue to prop up the floor of this team. In order to do that, the ‘Cats will also need him to be more efficient from the line, after going just 5-for-10 from the charity stripe against the Flames. Yes, he missed more free throws than field goals attempts.

This game was not pretty. Northwestern was up just two at halftime, and allowed 45 second half points on 48.3% shooting. The ‘Cats got outmuscled on the glass, losing the rebounding battle 36-31. After beating Yale already, UIC is going to turn a lot of heads this season. That’s a legitimate mid-major competitor. And Northwestern was on the ropes in the first half.

But like any good team, Northwestern found a way to win. It didn’t have to look far. Its 6-foot-7 unicorn was ready to answer the bell with 18 second half points.

“He’s just a matchup nightmare,” Collins said. “I’m just glad he’s on my team because he keeps getting better and better, and it’s fun to see his confidence growing.”