The Wildcats desperately need their graduate leaders to show up to reach their ceiling.
For the most part, modern ships are pretty safe and sound. Similar to airplanes, navigational technology has advanced to the point where those in charge of the vessel need only make sure it stays on course and does what it’s supposed to do. That means that even if a ship’s crew is inexperienced and still learning how to work as a team, the ship will likely be fine.
But what happens when the ship runs into choppy waters? What happens when the waves start crashing against the hull, and the ship needs a manual adjustment to stay on an even keel? What happens when the crew enters uncharted territory they’ve never had to handle before?
Well, that’s when the ship’s captain (or captains) comes in. The captains are responsible for knowing everything about the ship — every nook, every cranny, every idiosyncrasy. If anything goes wrong, the captain should be there to fix it. The captains of a ship aren’t just figureheads — they’re extensions of the ship, and the ship is supposed to be an extension of them. Once the captains have enough experience, they and the ship should be moving as one.
Well, the ship that is the 2024-25 Northwestern men’s basketball team hit its first squall Friday night, and the captains didn’t even make it to the bridge. The Wildcats gagged away a 10-point second-half lead in a 71-66 loss at the hands of the Dayton Flyers, and the team’s veteran leaders couldn’t right the ship in time to avoid a turn-off course.
Obviously Brooks Barnhizer can’t shoulder any of the blame for this one. He missed this contest thanks to the summer foot injury that’s still clearly nagging him. Chris Collins said last week that his star forward had progressed to non-contact work, but basketball is very much a contact sport. The abundance of caution with Barnhizer is probably for the best — after last season’s home stretch riddled Northwestern with injuries, the coaches want to ensure everyone has a clean bill of health.
If Ty Berry does, it hasn’t crossed over to the court yet. Against Lehigh, Berry was…fine. He scored 10 points, snared a pair of steals, and even connected on two three-pointers. The home blowout certainly won’t be “The Ty Berry game”, but he provided solid contributions and played the fifth most minutes on the team. Considering it was his first live game action since February 7, there were many positives about Berry’s performance.
Unfortunately, none of that goodness made it to Dayton. Offensively, Berry had a nightmare of an evening. He took five shots and made none of them. He turned the ball over twice and did not tally an assist. None of his three shots from beyond the arc came close to connecting. He also had a plus/minus of -12, the second-lowest on the team.
The defining stretch of the game came with just over nine minutes to go, when Berry checked in for Justin Mullins. The Wildcats held a 51-45 lead at the time. Here’s what the offensive possession results were for the next three and a half minutes: turnover, blocked shot, free throws (K.J. Windham went 1-of-2), turnover, turnover, blocked shot, turnover. By the time the dust settled, the Northwestern lead had completely evaporated, and the Flyers led 54-52.
Over that same stretch, two missed shots were available for a rebound. Dayton grabbed both. An alien observer watching their first game of basketball would probably say “Wait a second. Northwestern’s got a 7-foot-tall grad student just sitting on its bench! Why don’t they just put him in and let him grab all the rebounds? Surely he’d dominate a Dayton lineup that allotted just 29 minutes to players over 6-foot-8!”
And then someone would have to explain to that extraterrestrial visitor that for some inexplicable reason, grabbing rebounds just isn’t Matt Nicholson’s thing. The big man grabbed a total of three boards throughout the game. Two came before the first media timeout. The third — Nicholson’s lone positive contribution of the second half — was followed immediately by a turnover. By the way, Lehigh allotted just 20 minutes to players over 6-foot-10. In that contest, Nicholson tallied just a single, solitary rebound.
Even with an excellent performance from junior Nick Martinelli (32 points! 12-for-16 shooting! 14 rebounds! 3-for-3 from beyond the arc!!!), the Wildcats just didn’t have enough push to get over the edge. The freshmen, K.J. Windham and Angelo Ciaravino, acquitted themselves nicely — aside from Justin Mullins, they were the only Northwestern players in the positives in plus/minus. But Windham missed three of his final four shots and Ciaravino didn’t even attempt a shot in the final 10 minutes of the game.
Given the Wildcats’ lack of a marquee non-conference game, this loss will naturally sting, but it stings even more knowing that the team had this one in their grasp. On what was basically Northwestern’s maiden voyage of the 2024-25 campaign, the team ran into some choppy waters — and just flat-out couldn’t handle it. The troika of Martinelli, Windham, and Ciaravino showed some excellent stuff, and they will assuredly be key contributors to any postseason run this team makes.
But they shouldn’t have to lead the way in that department. Barnhizer, Berry and Nicholson were named captains not only for their seniority but also because they’ve been along for the voyage of the last two March Madness runs. Those three are no strangers to choppy waters. But if they can’t figure out how to run this ship properly — and soon — the Wildcats’ ship could be heading straight for the iceberg of unfulfilled expectations.