INDIANAPOLIS — Northwestern men’s basketball coach Chris Collins called out the Big Ten for placing his program in an Indianapolis hotel without air conditioning and forcing his players to sleep in room temperatures soaring past 85 degrees at their team hotel.
“We’re used to being treated like that by this league,” Collins said after the Wildcats beat Minnesota 72-64 in a Big Ten tournament first-round game on Wednesday. “The rooms were a thousand degrees. There was no AC in the hotel, and our guys’ rooms were 85 degrees, and that’s where the league puts you. Every way they turn, they’re trying to get us.”
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The Big Ten, through spokesman Scott Markley, declined to comment.
Collins said what frustrated him the most was, “They said they’ve had this issue for the past 10 days at that hotel.” Collins and Northwestern’s staff reported the lack of air conditioning on arrival on Tuesday. As of Wednesday evening, the players and staff will remain in the same hotel.
“You just hate it for the guys,” Collins said. “I have seniors, and they’re playing for their lives, and they come down and said, ‘Coach, I have to have an ice bucket next to my bed. It’s steaming hot.’ Even this morning after we did our walk-through, our guys had to sit in the lobby or sit in our team room. They couldn’t even go to their rooms.”
A Gritty Northwestern Win. pic.twitter.com/IIXgQ6OyUh
— Northwestern Basketball (@NUMensBball) March 12, 2025
Northwestern guard Ty Berry said he slept on top of his covers while tossing and turning all night. Northwestern forward Nick Martinelli, the Big Ten’s leading scorer, kept a bucket of ice by his bed all night.
“When it was happening, we were kind of just like joking around, ‘Oh, this is gritty,’” said Martinelli, who led all scorers with 28 points. “We were just grabbing the ice and rubbing it on ourselves all night to try to stay cool. Honestly, I’m not going to say I’m happy it happened, but we came out here, and we showed them.”
In general, Collins was hot and bothered with the Big Ten for multiple reasons, but the steamy hotel situation kept his rhetoric boiling throughout his postgame news conference.
“They’ll put us in one that’s hotter if we leave it up to the league,” Collins said.
Collins was agitated that Martinelli was a second-team All-Big Ten selection in part because the coaches’ choices were required before the final games were played this past weekend. Martinelli scored 28 points against Maryland on Saturday to capture the league’s scoring title. Collins added in an 18-team league, selecting five players for the first team is “very difficult” for anyone.
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But Collins alluded to officiating as another touchpoint.
“You guys watch the games,” Collins said. “You guys are the ones tweeting out how we’re being officiated and how we’re being treated. I don’t have to say anything. You guys watch the same games I do, so I’m not going to get into any of that stuff.
“There’s been a lot of stuff happening to this team on and off the floor. They just keep showing up and fighting. If they’ve got to sleep in 85-degree weather and that’s what the league wants us to do, we’ll figure it out.”
Northwestern (17-15), the No. 13 seed, faces fifth-seeded Wisconsin (23-8) around 3:30 p.m. ET on Thursday in the second round.
(Photo: Robert Goddin / Imagn Images)
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