Postgame Notes

• Nebraska has now won 14 straight games at home dating back to last season
• Nebraska has now won 23 straight games when holding an opponent under 70 points, including 29-2 over the last two-plus seasons. The time Nebraska lost a game when holding an opponent under 70 points was against Purdue in 2022.
• Nebraska forced 22 turnovers, the most since forcing 22 turnovers at Michigan State on Feb. 6, 2021. It ties for the second-highest number of opponent turners in Fred Hoiberg’s five-plus seasons at Nebraska.
• Nebraska has forced 20+ turnovers in both games this season
• Nebraska finished with 11 steals, including a career-high five from Juwan Gary. Gary's previous high in steals was four at Kansas State last season. NU's 11 steals were its highest total since recording 15 against Indiana on Jan. 3, 2024. Gary also led NU with 11 points
• Brice Williams finished with 10 points, snapping a streak of four straight 20-point games dating back to last season.

Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg

On offensive struggles
“We missed so many plays at the rim. I thought it affected our confidence. I thought we started pressing, we stopped trusting.  When we trust, when we make simple plays, we're a pretty effective team. It just couldn't buy one out there in the beginning, and you shoot, what, 25% I think, in the first half. I give our guys credit, not very often they shoot 25% and lead, so that defensively, they found a way to lock down and keep us in a game where the ball wasn't going to the basket. And you have to do that. You're going to have games over the course of the season that are like this, where the ball is not going you just got to find a way to stick with it and stay in it. Then we get up 16, I think, in the second half, and then again, we let them back in. We missed some easy ones. We turned it over. Missed a couple wide open threes, and to their credit, they kept playing to close the gap, but we got to find a way to string it together. And you know, defensive effort that's really good tonight, but offensively, we got to find a way to get something going.”

On defensive success
“Our activity was really good. I think we forced 22 turnovers, 15 in the first half. And just, you know, that kept us in the game. We got just a free throw line as well, which you have to do, the ball's not going in. I thought our overall activity, and then when they made the run, we just, we lost guys. We started gambling. We got on top of them, they got behind us. And that can happen, some of our older guys that happened to so, again, it's always better to learn from a win. Found a way. We had one of our hardest practices of the year on Thursday, and down on maybe it's their legs. I didn't see the same look in their eyes. We got a great group of kids. There's not one guy in there that's selfish. We don't have guys in there that have agendas. We got a great group of guys, they looked a little fatigued going into that one. I just saw it and got to bounce back. We got to get fresh. We got to recover. I just thought we needed to get tougher. And that's when we went out. Went out hard. I thought we needed to get in shape. And, you know, maybe this will benefit us in the long run. But, you know, I did think it affected us.”

Senior Forward Juwan Gary
On offensive effort
“Layups, easy ones, free, those open three pointers win games all the time. So you know, Coach Nate and all the coaches were trying to figure out a way to win the game. Defense during halftime, where we came out in the second half and did what we were supposed to do for sure. So, give credit to all the guys who contributed to the defense.” 

On finding “killer mentality”
“I think it's the new guys, for sure. It's a new team for sure. Some arestill trying to figure out their role now. But it's not gonna be a great game every game but those guys, they are always trying for sure. We’re a defensive team for sure. You have to go out there, we made a lot of mistakes on the day, if you learn from them, that’s all you can really ask for. I know having a new team takes a while connecting with mentality, it’s going to take a little while. Right now we’re still trying to figure out who can put on the court, and know that group of five can go out and get multiple stops in a game.” 

On how he is a leader
“It’s not going to be all good and all glory every game. With me being a leader, a lot of people listen to my voice. I’m not the type of guy to yell every time something’s going wrong. I know how to talk to my guys. I know the right things to say to the right guys. They’re going to receive the message of what I’m saying. I’m glad we got a W for sure, at the end of the day a W is a W.

Bethune-Cookman Head Coach Reggie Theus
On containing Nebraska from three
“Well, we did a really poor job against Texas Tech. I have 11 new players, and the guys are still really learning how to play with each other. These games are vital for us, because of those things, I thought that for us, it's really about the level of the hard play. The defensive hard play in the second half. You get 15 turnovers in the first half, three in the second half, and the rebounding margin is in the ball game. So that is what kept us in the game. Yeah, they got shots. But I thought that the second and third efforts were there, so nice, you live with it. They make the shots. But I thought that they had, I thought they didn't have a lot of wide open threes. There was a lot of hands up and hands in the lane and stuff like that, definitely.”

On halftime message to spark the offense
“Most of it was about the 15 turnovers because if we didn't have the 15 turnovers it’s a different game. When you have a younger team, I don't mean young in age. I mean young together. They have to learn to believe in themselves to trust each other. And that's really what this is all about. For me, it's building that, that culture where there's some trust there, and give them (Nebraska) a lot of credit, because I thought that they caused the turnovers by getting up on us defensively. People don't understand, basketball is a very physical game, and it is a hit first game. So I can tell them this, because I know how to get open for shots. So if you're not willing to go get contact and you're just trying to go and get open, the guy's denying you, then that's on you. So halftime was really about the 15 turnovers and about staying together.”

On his team's season outlook
“The good and the bad is that, we have 11 new guys. We have 11 new personalities and guys that come in from bigger conferences and stuff like that, sometimes they have a different agenda. It's trying to get these guys to understand there's only one agenda, and if you're not on the same agenda with our team, with what we're trying to do, I don't really care and that's the way it is. And if you saw one of the guys I was holding him for a long time, that’s how it goes. It's really about trying to build a culture of playing hard, playing together. It's hard to do because the season comes quick. You got like, 42 days. And then, of course, we went through two hurricanes. we were displaced for eight days where we ended up in Atlanta, so it's a tough scenario, but you know, if I can get the effort that we got tonight, night in and night out, we’ll win our share of basketball games.”