Northwestern won the first game of the Big Ten tournament on Wednesday night, but that didn't mean the Wildcats coach had no grip in the league.
In fact, Chris Collins seemed to think the Big Ten had something to do with his school.
After Northwestern beat Minnesota 74-62 in the first round of the conference tournament, Collins launched a press conference saying his team had to overcome a lot of adversity.
“Our guys are just a tough group. They were thrown a lot at them. Even last night, they let us in the hotel, the room was 1,000 degrees,” Collins said. “The hotel had no AC, our room was 85 degrees. And that's where the league puts you. Every way they turn, they're trying to get us. And our peers are a resilient bunch.”
Ty Berry, who scored 14 points with seven rebounds and three assists, said he was sleeping comfortably on the bed cover.
“It was hot all night so I was throwing and turning, but at the end of the day you just have to play things,” Berry said.
Nick Martinelli, a member of the second-team all-big ten, said he had a bucket of ice grabbed to rub his face the night leading up to the game.
Whether it worked to keep him warm or not, he scored a team-high 28 points.
“I'm not going to say it's happy when it happened, but we came out here and showed them,” Martinelli said.
“We're used to being treated that way by this league,” Collins tipped after Martinelli answered.
The press conference trio showed they were planning to return to the same hotel again.
But what Collins added was that after criticising officials after a non-call with Martinelli in the match against UCLA on March 3, he was unhappy with the way the referees hosted his team's game.
“You guys are watching the game,” Collins added Wednesday. “You guys are the ones who tweet how we are being hosted and how we are treated. There's no need to say anything. You guys are watching the same game as me, so I'm not going to go into something like that.”
Northwestern will play Wisconsin next on Thursday.
