Nebraska Postgame Notes

  • Nebraska improved to 64-7 all-time in exhibition games, including 33 of 35 games dating back to 2001.
  • Nebraska forced 19 turnovers and turned them into 21 points
  • Berke Büyüktuncel led Nebraska with a game-high 12 rebounds. His season high at UCLA last season was five.
  • Gavin Griffiths led NU with 14 points off the bench, including four 3-pointers. His 2023-24 season best was four 3-pointers against Wisconsin.
  • Nebraska finished with a 42-12 advantage in points in the paint.

Nebraska Head Coach Fred Hoiberg

On Gavin Griffiths’ and Connor Essegian’s performances
“I’m really happy with Gavin, and Connor had some really good looks. He’s been shooting the ball obviously very well with our scrimmage and what he did in Utah. We’ve got two very good threats out on the perimeter with Connor and Gavin. I look at Connor’s box score, even though he didn’t have a day where he made a lot of shots, he led us with plus 27 in the plus column. I thought Berke (Buyuktuncel) really battled and rebounded the ball well. Because of Andrew Morgan’s concussion, we had to play a little more five today. A lot of guys got opportunities. It was good to see Cale (Jacobsen) out there. Cale gave us good minutes. Braden Frager and Nick Janowski were solid out there for us. That’s what it’s all about this time of year, is giving guys opportunities. They deserve it for how hard they’ve worked and how well they’ve played. It’s about figuring out the rotation heading into next week.” 

On takeaways from today
“It was a good test for us. I thought the guys hung in there when they were making some tough shots and in the second half when we pulled away. I really liked our defensive intensity and energy. I didn’t love our offense. It was like when my twins used to play soccer in the second grade and everybody ran to the ball. I thought we had some of that today as opposed to staying in the spread, staying in the space, drawing the defense and making the right plays. But for our guys’ defense, it’s the first time they’ve seen this type of pressure and next time we face it, we will handle it better. That’s the way it works. We tried to simulate it this week in practice, but you can’t fully do that until you get out there. Again, this is a great game. Whatever happened today, whatever the outcome is going to be is very beneficial for us and we are going to learn from it.”

Sophomore guard Gavin Griffiths

On the difference between first and second half
“We went to the locker room and we had some good film. The coaches gave us a good game plan for us to go out and they told us to execute. I think we executed well in the second half and we came out aggressive.” 

On intersquad competition and how it helps him as a player
“We have a really big team so everyday in practice, it’s really physical. I’m guarding players like Juwan (Gary) and Berke (Buyuktuncel), and also guys like Brice (Williams). I switch to quicker guys like Ahron (Ulis) and Rollie (Worster). The diversity of our team with really fast guys and strong guys, it helps me a lot to go against them in practice.”

On his three-point confidence
“It definitely helps me when one goes down. These guys are always looking to find me in practice and all the scrimmages. That gives me a lot of confidence when someone has a decent shot, but they swing it to me for a wide open shot.”

Senior guard Rollie Worster

On his sequence and the mental part of the game
“It was my first game in a while since being hurt last year. I think I came out a little timid and didn’t push the pace as much as I wanted to – on both ends, to get us going, trying to create some havoc. I think I got a steal, and I credit our scout in positioning with Coach Nate (Loenser) and the rest of our coaches. I think that it’s little things like that, squeezing the ball, making simple plays is what will get our team going to be really good.” 

On defensive adjustments after halftime
“The big thing was getting back in transition. We pride ourselves on our transition defense and crashing the boards, we obviously didn’t do either in the first half. I think that was a big emphasis going into halftime, getting the guys that need to get back, back and the guys that crash turn their heads around and match up. It really comes down to communication which is something we’ve been working on and need to continue getting better at.”