An openly sobbing Chris Collins just announced that star guard Brooks Barnhizer has played his last game for Northwestern.Here's my story on Mr. Double-Double, one of the best all-around players to ever wear purple.
BREAKING: Barnhizer's Northwestern career is over
- Thread starter lou v
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I feel so bad for him, and this team. It’s like we just couldn’t catch a break this season, between injuries, some close games and questionable officiating. He has had a great career here, but it ended too soon. I know all wildcat fans are very grateful to Brooks for his contributions to the program And the school.
One of the best players in this program, ever, in multiple ways. Gutted for him. Grateful to him. Proud to have rooted for him these years.
So gutted for him. A total warrior who played his *** off every game. Helped us in a major way to get us to 2 NCAAT, 2 NCAAT wins, a 2nd and 4th place B1G finish… hoping we can somehow get another season of eligibility for him but it doesn’t sound like it, unfortunately.
Just a cursed season. The early injury recoveries holding us back, the close losses in different forms and now this. Such a fine line we tread as a program at Northwestern. It beats the hell out of the old days, but it is still tough.
Feel bad for Brooks and his teammates, but they'll be ok in the long run. Seem like high quality human beings who have the whole world in front of them.
Feel bad for Brooks and his teammates, but they'll be ok in the long run. Seem like high quality human beings who have the whole world in front of them.
What’s worse than a gut punch in sports? A kick in the teeth? A headshot?
What an underserved finish to the career of this battling warrior of a player. As somebody with no personal relationship with anybody in the basketball program whatsoever, I feel robbed of the opportunity to enjoy watching Brooks exemplify Northwestern basketball and celebrate the last six weeks of his NU career. Just sorrowful news.
What an underserved finish to the career of this battling warrior of a player. As somebody with no personal relationship with anybody in the basketball program whatsoever, I feel robbed of the opportunity to enjoy watching Brooks exemplify Northwestern basketball and celebrate the last six weeks of his NU career. Just sorrowful news.
Any chance for a waiver???? Guessing no but NCAA is on its heels these days, so worth a shot?
He got his draft report from the NBA last offseason and came back to improve on it. The guy is itching to go pro and who can blame him. The only way I can see him even considering suing for eligibility is if NBA teams tell him his injury is holding him back. Given how CCC talked about his NU career being over, this does not appear to be a possibility.
He also used the word “unfair” numerous times, perhaps strategically to suggest that they are working on getting Barnzo an extra year?
Feel horrible for BB. He started his career at NU injured and will finish it that way. But in between no one played harder. A real hard- nosed blue collar nitty gritty ball player. He was a major part of NU basketball history back to back NCAA tournament appearances.
Will miss him and wish him nothing but the best and will follow his career where ever it leads him.
Last year Big Matt and Ty, this year Brooks. Man it has been a real tough 12 months or so on the injury front. No one ever said it would be easy being a Wildcat fan and unfortunately we are reminded of it all too often, but I will never stop rooting for our guys and gals.
It has been a pleasure watching you play the past few years Brooks good luck as you continue your basketball career.
Will miss him and wish him nothing but the best and will follow his career where ever it leads him.
Last year Big Matt and Ty, this year Brooks. Man it has been a real tough 12 months or so on the injury front. No one ever said it would be easy being a Wildcat fan and unfortunately we are reminded of it all too often, but I will never stop rooting for our guys and gals.
It has been a pleasure watching you play the past few years Brooks good luck as you continue your basketball career.
Man what a gut punch I had a busy last couple of weeks so haven't been able to follow the team as closely as I'd like. You can't replace guys like BB just a solid kid on an off the court hopefully he can heal up and pursue the pro game if that's what he wants to do.
As much as anything else it shows our lack of depth. We get some solid players but there is little margin of error and we only go about 7 deep so a single injury can torpedo a season. Ty has had lingering issues with the injury this year and Nicholson has taken a while just to get back where he was as well. But BB was the heart and soul of the team so losing him feels like a lot more than just losing a player.
Not sure there is a whole lot of leeway for them to give him an extra year for this year. I mean he has played in more than half the games this year. Now if they could give him an extra for the 21/22 season where he only got in 11 games (7.5 mpg) coupled with injuries ending this season, maybe but still probably a long shot. Where is the extra COVID year when you need it?
Reality is that as good a college player as he has been not sure how well his game translates to the NBA, He is very versatile, consistent and strong but hard to say he shoots well enough, especially from three and especially after this year. Strong D might get him on the floor but questionable O might make it hard for him to stay there
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He is done at NU. IMO, if Pat Spencer can play in the NBA, Barney can too. Spencer is not Curry from the outside.
Pat Spencer is an ELITE athlete. Love Barney but he is not. I think that’s a big difference. With that being said, I don’t think he’s coming back.
He’s definitely not coming back. I will dispute that Spencer is an elite athlete when it comes to measurables against NBA athletes. He is an Elite LaCrosse player. He is an elite athlete next to you and me. He is not some guy beating guys off the dribble in the NBA. He is not overpowering NBA players. He can’t shoot like many guards in the NBA. What he is ultra smart with a big Basketball IQ that out works other players. Sounds like another Soon to be former NU player.
I think Spencer's NBA career may end with this year. His FG% is 38.8% and 3PT is 16.7%. Expect they'll have a look at someone else in that role next year. For Brooks, he needs to get fully healthy. I think his obstacles are that in the NBA he won't be an inside player and while a very good defender, not sure he is a defensive stopper in the NBA and not a distance shooter right now. Europe and see how it goes? Here's hoping.
Was looking at the accolades for cooper Flagg, he had 21 pts, 8 reb, 7 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks. So basically he went for the “barnhizer”
Maybe not but he plays a true PG and I gotta guess he hits a lot better than Barney has this year. Even at his peak he was maybe 33% for shorter NCAA range. His game is inside out and as tough as he is he would be only going up the cream of the crop rather than the second and 3rd tier he gets to face in college. Love him a a college player and would love to be wrong but just hard to see a role in today's NBA
I'm sad and not surprised at this news. I don't know what's going on behind the scenes or what the actual medical prognosis is, but I would have expected them to sit Brooks for the rest of the month and see what our record is before declaring his entire year over.
Unless the injury is worse than indicated.
I'm gonna seriously miss watching Brooks play and I'm sad this is the end of his college career. Whether he gets into the NBA or not, this seems like just the kind of thing to drive him to work ever harder on the weak points of his game, because he's going to have a professional career somewhere.
Unless the injury is worse than indicated.
I'm gonna seriously miss watching Brooks play and I'm sad this is the end of his college career. Whether he gets into the NBA or not, this seems like just the kind of thing to drive him to work ever harder on the weak points of his game, because he's going to have a professional career somewhere.
Collins said in the presser that Brooks is out for four months or so, but it’s not a career-ending injury. He hurt his foot in the MSU game and tried to play through the injury but finally decided to shut it down.
CC should have really looked to add another portal piece this past offseason. We’ve got a few too many guys on the bench who are little more than roster filler.
The only way this would happen is if the NCAA allowed 5 year eligibility and did it before next year starts so that seniors this year can come back. My understanding is that while it is expected to pass that it will not impact the current seniors.
He played most of the season, a waiver is never in the cards for a season like this
I can confess that I saw Mullins +/- numbers early on and thought he had made strides forward.
But then the evidence started to swing the wrong way when Barnhizer returned and we played more athletic teams - and his advantage was largely eliminated.
To me the difference was that with Martinelli and Barnhizer eating so many minutes, Mullins was relegated to being a perimeter player - a guard, so to speak - he'd be paired with either Leach or Berry - and he just didn't do much in that role.
Now, with Barnhizer out, he will get to play "small forward" and there's a chance he improves in that role.
One can hope.
It is very difficult to play Mullins when a team can leave him open from 15 ft or more, literally wide open, and they want him to shoot the ball. He needs to develop at least a very short jumper. His offense is limited to layups only right now. The few threes that he makes are bad percentage shots.
Teams were already making it hard for Martinelli to score now with Barney gone it's going to be even more difficult. Martinelli's field goal percentage over the last 3 or 4 games is probably 30% or less