Nebraska Postgame Notes

  • Nebraska’s 87 points is its highest total in a season opener since scoring 102 on McNeese State in 2020-21. 
  • Nebraska has won 13 straight games at home dating back to last season. 
  • Senior guard Brice Williams finished with 27 points, his highest total as a Husker. His previous high was 25 vs. Oregon State last year. 
  • Williams now has four straight 20-point efforts dating back to last season’s Big Ten Tournament. It marked the 18th 20-point game of his career.
  • Rollie Worster nearly finished with a double-double with 18 points – one off his career high – and nine rebounds. Worster also had four of NU’s nine steals on the night. 
  • Nebraska forced 20 turnovers, its highest total since getting 21 turnovers against Kennesaw State on Dec. 22, 2021. 
  • Nebraska’s 35 free throws were its highest total since going to the line 36 times against Florida A&M last season. 
  • Nebraska got 27 points from its bench, including double-figure efforts from Connor Essegian (13) and Andrew Morgan (10). Essegian had 10 of his 13 points in the second half, including seven straight points in Nebraska’s 12-0 run.
  • Nebraska outscored UTRGV, 40-18, in the paint in the win.

Nebraska Head Coach Fred Hoiberg

On the difference in the second half
“The difference in the second half, I thought, was the second chance points. They had 15 at halftime, they got six offensive rebounds and they all pretty much led to threes. That was the challenge at halftime was to go out and shut that off. If we did have the chance to pull away to get that thing up to 15. Credit to them for cutting it to four. Connor (Essegian) got hot at the right time and Rollie (Worster) did a really nice job finding him. I think he had seven straight in that run to get it back to double digits. Rollie had complete control of the game. Brice (Williams) got us off to a really nice start with putting the ball in the basket, getting to the free throw line. We knew they were going to be physical and get out and deny, and hold, and grab. I think we did a good job taking advantage of that. Getting to the free throw with 35 points, it would’ve been nice to knock a few more of them down. You have to manufacture points and slow the game down. I thought our close-outs were just a step slow in that first half and second half, (Cliff) Davis got it going a little bit. I thought we were better, I thought the rebounding was the difference. I thought that was the difference that allowed us to get out and transition. They crash five, they do a really nice job at that. I think you guys see why I had some anxiety with this game. They’re a really good team, well coached. They shoot a lot of threes and they put five threats out there, generally, at all times.” 

On Andrew Morgan
“We knew he was going to be good to go this morning. Yesterday was his last step in the concussion protocol. He had no symptoms this morning which allowed him to be cleared to play.  I do think he got us off to a nice start in the first half. Him and Brice had it going, gave us some toughness in the paint, we were able to throw him the ball and I think you can see what he can do on the block. That’s his strength. We were also able to run a few little isos for him, at the nail and at the elbow. Berke (Buyuktuncel) did some nice things out there as well. He played a really solid, overall game. We need to do a better job at finding him when he has a mismatch on the block. In transition, I thought Gavin (Griffiths) had a nice game. He had some really good looks that are normally going to go down. It’s a team win, I think that everyone who stepped on the floor made an impact for us. Sam (Hoiberg) is working his way back into rhythm. He’s only had two days of practice. Obviously, he’s going to be a big part of this thing for us. Ahron (Ulis) is another guy that will get it going for us. Braxton (Meah) I thought got us off to a good start, he just missed some of his free throws out there. He’s a forest for us and like I told the team, it’s not going to be the same guy every night. We’re going to have to be ready to step up. Might be somebody different, and if it is, that’s ok. You’re going to have to accept it. It’s a long ride. Step one, ended up taking care of business. It’s a really good team and now it’s getting back to work on Wednesday.” 

On Connor Essegian’s debut
“Having that seven point spurt was huge. He hit one against their zone in the first half and those two in a short stretch and he had a really nice take. We ran three or four really nice plays for him in a row to try to get him off. In transition, Rollie (Worster) really talked a lot to our guards about hunting our shooters, trying to find them, and get them open looks and shots in transition. I thought they did that tonight.”

On Brice Williams leadership role
“It’s going to be a big part of Brice’s role this year with Keisei (Tominaga) gone, with Rienk (Mast) out of the lineup, with Josiah (Allick) out. Those guys were great leaders for us, not only what they did on the court, but they were vocal, they set the tone everyday in practice. We’re reliant on those older guys, Brice, Juwan (Gary), Rollie, Sam, Rienk can still lead even though he’s not on the court for us this year. Ahron is in his fifth year of college. We have a lot of guys that have some age and they’re going to have to lead by committee. Brice, 100%, his role is going to be to put the ball in the basket. Once again, it was great to see him get to the free throw line for us. I think he got us 11 free throws. It was overall a good game for Brice.”

Senior guard Brice Williams

On his performance offensively
“Everything was kind of natural, just play good offense and not really forcing anything. That’s how I’m successful. Anybody can play offense as long as you let it work for you.” 

On rotation of players  
“We have a lot of new guys, and we are still learning everyday. If I’m being honest with some players, that’s okay right now, because we are all learning everyday. It’s easy to go on too much. As the season goes on, we are going to continue to learn and approach every practice the right way, every game the right way. Focus on details and keep getting better.”

On working through flaws
“That’s the bright side. No one wants to go back to the drawing board and think ‘oh, we could’ve done this to get a win.’ It’s good to have a lot of mistakes and then still get a win because it’s a positive. We are good right now but we are not good enough yet. We are going to have to see. A lot of teams in the country right now aren’t their best. If you are, that's scary because you have no game better to do. Everyone is going to know what you’re going to do. I feel like we are going to keep taking steps, keep laying bricks and then it’s going to be our final product in March and in April.”  

Senior guard Rollie Worster

On Connor Essegian scoring seven straight and offensive performance
“I think part of being a point guard is to find the on hand and get our shooters going and our scores. I think Brice (Williams) got one early on zone, and then we ran some steps to try and get him the ball. I think Connor got two with one in a push and transition flew back. He hit, got him going prior to them, they did a good job running him off the line and made a good play to run. I think just for him playing together and practicing just being able to cut the floor and find him, he’s got a quick trigger and help to get him more looks throughout the year.” 

On having Andrew Morgan on the team
“I think he did a great job staying patient down low. Obviously, we could have found him a little more, but I think he had heavy support there. He scored really well. He’s great down low. I think Braxton (Meah) too. I think he had a little foul trouble for those two. It’s definitely nice when he just helps me. People hit them and play through them. I think both of them will be great.”

Junior guard Connor Essegian

On the mood the huddle after being up 15 points
“Obviously when we got up 15 points, and they kind of came back, Coach (Fred Hoiberg) talked about that in the locker room. We need to get that mentality in the right direction and finish that. At the same time, they came back but then we battled and pulled away. So it was good to see we had that resiliency developed tonight.” 

On adjustments to their defense
“They did a really good job just wedging through. They did a lot of top blocking. So I couldn’t just come up off the screens to the top of the key. It just happened naturally to kind of play free. I was able to get some stops on defense. It helped having a point guard to lead the way, lead the pack and kind of get the pace going. Once we got the pace going, It was a lot easier.” 

Texas-Rio Grande Valley Head Coach Kahil Fennell

On positives and negatives from today
“Obviously, there’s a lot of improvement to be made. We need to take care of the basketball. We turned it over way too many times. Their size, their length, Coach (Fred) Hoiberg’s system is really hard for some teams to deal with. We got inside and made some bad decisions. We have to do a better job of protecting the basketball and obviously, defending without fouling. We had 16 fouls in the first half. Did a better job in the second, we had nine fouls, but defending without fouling and being more intelligent is going to be super important for us moving forward.”

On the game plan against the Huskers
“Obviously the game plan didn’t work great, but when you look at Nebraska, full credit to them, they’re a really good team. They’re big. At every size and all positions, they can shoot the basketball. When guys like Rollie Worster are making shots the way they did tonight, it’s really difficult to defend. They’ve got a lot of guys who can hurt you and Coach (Fred) Hoiberg does a tremendous job of bringing people around and shifting the defense, manipulating tags and things like that, it makes it really hard. They’re a really difficult team to guard and obviously their size and defense causes problems as well.”

On having a balanced offense
“I think that has to be part of who we are offensively, moving forward. We have to lean on the collective, and in the future, I think we have a lot of guys who can make shots. I think we have a lot of guys that can make plays. We have to continue to rely on each other to make aggressive plays for our team. We’ll see some good offensive games, but all of that is negated if we can’t take care of the basketball. That’s going to be a huge part of our process moving forward.”

On his message to the team ahead of playing Creighton on Wednesday
“We have to use this as a learning experience. I know this is our first game of the season, but this is a big-time environment for us to step into. The fans are terrific, the team is great. Our ability to learn from this and protect the basketball better moving forward, continue to make aggressive plays for our teammates and run really, really sound offense – those are just some of the core tenets of who we are. If we can lean into those staples of our identity, I think we’ll be really well-served moving forward. We have to gear up for a really important opponent on Wednesday. Obviously, Creighton at Creighton is as demanding of an environment as you’ll find in college basketball. We have no choice but to learn from this and get better.”