Nebraska Head Coach Hoiberg 

On Josiah Allick and Rienk Mast’s debut
“Yeah, I love the mentality from both those guys and it’s not just what you saw tonight. Those guys set the tone every day in practice. Josiah and Rienk come in and if anybody is lagging behind or slacking off, they hear about it from both those guys. They have great leadership skills and obviously they give us a level of physicality that we have not had with the four and five spots. I thought they did a great job early establishing the paint, playing some high-low when the ball hit the paint. We got great looks, I thought we rushed a couple other than that, but it starts with those two guys. You know even the first couple possessions, Jo going over the ball, getting offensive rebounds, kicking them out. I thought we did a really good job of making simple plays in the first half and I think we had 13 assists on 17 baskets. Again, when the ball got onto the paint, we had some really good things happen. We were very efficient with our offense.” 

On the ball movement in the first half and the missed assists
“We missed a couple easy ones as well. You know Jamarques (Lawrence) had two layups right at the basket, those are going to go in and I think we missed 10 free throws as well. As far as offensive efficiency, I thought we were pretty darn good and I think we probably missed five or six there at the end in a row. The ref says they do a lot of the time, swallow the whistle at the end of the game, which is fine. I thought overall the ball movement, the simple plays, the unselfishness is exactly what this group can do. When they are bought into it, then we’re a pretty tough team to stop.” 

On Sam Hoiberg’s performance tonight and his passing game
“He had a couple of really good ones. I thought Sam was terrific. When he got in there, I thought he did a great job getting a couple of loose balls. When he started playing last year, when he got into the rotation, just his ability to get loose balls, to get on the floor and make the right play. He knows exactly what we want on the offensive end. I thought he had some good finishes and it was good to see him knock down a couple three’s tonight.” 

On Cale Jacobsen and Matar Diop’s performance tonight
“I thought Cale was really good and he went out there and made some really nice plays. He’s got some great instincts defensively. Another guy that gets a lot of loose balls Matar (Diop) being his first action. It was too bad he was sick in the exhibition, to see him get his first action, to get a lop dunk. I did not like the three, but he stepped out and shot. He had a block right at the rim there. I think he showed some things that he’s going to be capable of doing. He’s got a really, really bright future and it was good to get him an opportunity to get his first minutes out there.”

 

Lindenwood Coach Kyle Gerdeman

On trying to slow Nebraska down in the second half
“Yeah, behind the arc obviously it was important because they shot great in the first half. Not that we didn’t think they could, but to make nine in the first half was a big deal. I don’t think we did anything from an adjustment standpoint. I think that we just tried to regroup our defense, and make sure that we were playing our base defense, we were playing out principles, we were having great closeouts, and that we were having good communication. I think for the second half we did that, a lot better than the first half clearly.”

On what was impressive about Keenon Cole tonight
“I think he was steady with where he kind of fell off last year for us. He really developed last year and went on to be a really good scorer, and I thought tonight I thought they did a good job of making some of his tough shots. They kept some bodies on him, and I thought he missed some easy ones that he usually makes, but he’s just got to be there for us every night. I was just glad that he kept competing and kept attacking.”

On playing in a power five environment
“I’d say it was a tale of two halves. I felt really bad in the first 20 minutes, I thought it really got the best of us from them making shots to going on runs to us missing some shots to the crowd getting into it. I thought it really all played a factor for us, and that first 20 minutes it really snowballed on us, but I thought they handled themselves well in the second half against a really good team. I think Coach Hoiberg does a great job, I’ve always kind of admired his offensive ability to just have a really good offense and you can tell that he’s really grown the program and they’ve got guys that really fit their style of play. So to come in and compete against them and give them a little bit of effort for 20 minutes for us in the second half, I thought was pretty good.”

On Lindenwood’s expectations for the rest of the season
“I think it’s still a lot of unknown for us. What we really concentrate a lot on is how we develop, day by day, this week to next week, game to game which sounds like typical coach speak, but it’s true for us. I think that we have the ability to be a really good team at the end of the year. I don’t think we’re close to where we need to be right now, which a lot of teams probably aren’t, but I think our biggest goal is can we continue to improve and play our best basketball at the end of the season.”

Nebraska Player Quotes

Junior Rienk Mast

On playing in a mask
“That was the first time and I gotta say I'll be very happy when I'm out of it. It was not very comfortable to play in that. I just got to deal with that for a couple games and then overall, I'm feeling fine. I’m feeling very good. Very happy to be out there. The mask, I'll deal with it. It's going to be uncomfortable. I know that, so I have to accept that and just keep playing hard.”

On establishing physicality
“That was a big one that me and Jo (Josiah Allick) talked about because we’re the two biggest guys so we kind of set the standard and the tone for the game. So that's what we talked about going into the game, like, let's get off to a hard start and let’s play physical and show the other team, hey, we're here to compete and be physical. This isn't going to be an easy night and I think we did a good job. I think we still have a lot to get better at on the glass. They got way too many offensive rebounds but I think we've established some physicality but we still got a lot to work on.”

Senior Josiah Allick

On playing in his first game with Nebraska
“It felt great to get my feet wet finally. I'm not going to lie, I was a bit nervous, you know, playing back home, having my family there and kind of getting it finally started but then, once I hit that first three, all that kind of washed away and I was just playing basketball again. But yeah, it was great. The atmosphere is great, the student section showed up tonight. And it was a great game to get the season started.”

On the balanced offense
“I don’t have a stat sheet, but one of the biggest things for me was just how balanced the scoring was. I don't know how many people we had in double figures, but – so we had five in double figures. I think we had at least 10 people with significant minutes. And luckily we were able to kind of build that lead to be able to kind of work with lineups even if they weren't great and just kind of get guys experience. This team, they really packed the paint and it sucks. It was kind of hard to find dunks tonight, but obviously the flip side of that is everybody kind of gets open threes one way or another. It was exciting to see that everybody kind of got a turn to make a play, make a three, kind of get themselves going.”

On Sam Hoiberg
“I mean, he's obviously a very capable scorer. It kind of works in his favor, that a lot of people underestimate him just because he isn't very big. He's a hell of a competitor. We kind of have our own little personal feud on effort plays and who's a harder worker. I didn't see him dive on the floor for a steal today. He's obviously a really hard worker. He's a really reliable player is basically how I would put it. You know he's going to do his job defensively. He's going to make the shots he needs to make. He's gonna make plays, break plays off. We didn't have anything going and he just ripped his man to the lane with his left hand and just got a quick layup. And I know he's gonna be beating himself up, but usually he's quite consistent at the free throw line. So those two misses he ended on are probably going to eat at him tonight.”