Northwestern coach rips team’s hotel stay: ‘The rooms were a thousand degrees’

Northwestern opened the first round of the Big Ten Tournament with a 72-64 win over Minnesota in Indianapolis on Wednesday. Following the win, Northwestern head coach Chris Collins said that “there’s been a lot of stuff happening to this team on and off the floor,” which apparently included an issue in the team’s hotel.

“We’re used to being treated like that by this league,” Collins said via The Athletic. “The rooms were a thousand degrees. There was no A/C in the hotel, and our guys’ rooms were 85 degrees — and that’s where the league [Big Ten] puts you. Every way they turn, they’re trying to get us. … You just hate it for the guys. 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.”

The lack of air conditioning in the hotel had reportedly been an issue for “the past 10 days.”

In what was a tightly contested affair, Nick Martinelli had a game-high 28 points and seven rebounds for the Wildcats, while Ty Berry tallied 14 points, seven rebounds and three assists and Matthew Nicholson recorded three blocks.

Northwestern, the No. 13 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, is 17-15 overall and 7-13 in Big Ten play this season. It now faces No. 5-seed Wisconsin on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET. Of the 12 remaining teams, Northwestern has the 10th-best odds to win the Big Ten Tournament (+20000).

The Wildcats aren’t projected to make the NCAA Tournament, according to FOX Sports bracket forecaster Mike DeCourcy. They’ve made each of the past two tournaments and three tournaments total under Collins (2016-17 being the other season), who’s in his 12th season as Northwestern’s head coach. The program is a combined 194-189 under Collins since the 2014-15 college basketball season.

“They’ll put us in one that’s hotter if we leave it up to the league,” Collins said of the Big Ten.

Tell us how you really feel, coach.

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