On dud of a Big Ten Tournament opening night, at least Northwestern won a game

If you weren’t at the United Center on Tuesday for the opening evening of the Big Ten men’s basketball tournament, you have no idea what you missed.

Then again, you probably weren’t aware you were missing anything at all. Judging by the size of the crowd — I’ve seen more people in a podiatrist’s waiting room — Chicago clearly had a pair of games featuring the worst four teams in an 18-team conference on the pay-no-mind list, which is probably where they belonged.

First, No. 16 seed Oregon and No. 17 seed Maryland went at it, and what could scream ‘‘Big Ten country’’ more than that? The Ducks were out of this game early, having traveled thousands of miles to find a total of three made baskets in the first half, all of them by the same player, Nate Bittle. It had to be the least productive trip since Hans Blix went looking for WMDs in the Middle East 20-plus years ago, back when the Big Ten was still an 11-team league, a number that almost made sense.

Next, Northwestern — ‘‘Chicago’s Big Ten team,’’ it still bills itself, despite any and all evidence to the contrary — tangled with Penn State in a No. 15 vs. No. 18 matchup won by the Wildcats 76-66. The bad news was that one of these teams had to lose. The worse news was that some of us would have to watch the winner play again Wednesday.

‘‘This was a really good team win,’’ Wildcats coach Chris Collins said. ‘‘We knew we were going to have a battle tonight. Excited about the opportunity to continue to play.’’

All four schools sent their bands, which was better than sending blundering basketball teams without musical accompaniment.

I’m being too negative, aren’t I? Look, I tried to get into the action, it’s just that I gave up trying after roughly five minutes. Some things aren’t possible.

It has been that kind of a season for the Wildcats, though. They came in with records of 13-18 overall and 5-15 in the Big Ten, the third-worst regular season, by winning percentages, under 13th-year coach Collins. They have one of the Big Ten’s best bucket-getters, Glenview lefty Nick Martinelli — the leading scorer in the conference at 22.7 points a game — but they still have gone in the wrong direction, finding themselves so far out of NCAA Tournament consideration, barring a miracle this week, that it’s almost hard to believe Collins took the program to back-to-back Big Dances in 2023 and 2024.

Martinelli hit Penn State (12-20) with his usual assortment of clever scoring moves and finished with 24 points. He got to 20 on a putback with 14 minutes left, picked up an errant pass at midcourt for a two-handed dunk that made it 68-55 with 3:48 to go and got to sit down and throw a towel around his neck with a half-minute still on the clock. A dash of extra rest couldn’t hurt the senior heading into a 5:30 p.m. game Wednesday against No. 10 seed Indiana.

‘‘I was super-nervous before this game, knowing that it could be the last time,’’ Martinelli said. ‘‘Yeah, the senior urgency really hit different today.’’

Martinelli’s Northwestern single-season scoring record is at 706 points and still rising. It wasn’t Boo Buie’s, John Shurna’s or Billy McKinney’s record he broke but rather his own, which he set a season ago. Some player, this guy is. Somehow, Collins is going to have move into the future without him.

Will first-year players Tre Singleton, Jake West and Tyler Kropp stick around Evanston and try to grow something? Will veterans Arrinten Page and Jayden Reid, who transferred in last offseason, want to run it back? Will Collins land new players who can help the Wildcats become at least competent from the three-point line? This team has made so few threes that it hasn’t much resembled modern basketball.

It was only four years ago that Collins was bringing a fifth consecutive losing season to a close. The Wildcats went a combined 30 games under .500 — with a 26-71 record in the Big Ten — during that stretch. Collins’ job was on the line, and he responded with teams that went dancing twice in a row for the first time ever at Northwestern. He deserved the contract extension that could keep him in Evanston through 2030. He certainly deserves a chance to turn this latest losing around. But there’s no reason any Purple lovers should be taking for granted he’ll be able to pull it off.

Athletic director Mark Jackson, still less than two years on the job, passed on a request to speak about the basketball program and where it’s headed — or isn’t. He had a game to watch, after all, and a season that’s still going.

‘‘I hope you can see by watching our play that we’re here and we want to compete,’’ Collins said. ‘‘We want to keep playing.’’