Postgame Notes

• Nebraska extends its home win streak to 15 games following tonight’s win over FDU.
• Juwan Gary recorded season highs in points (19), assists (five), blocked shots (two), free throws made (seven) and attempted (eight). Gary’s assists and free throws were both career highs.
• Nebraska finished with a season-high 20 assists and a season-low eight turnovers. Its 20 assists marked NU’s highest assist total since the 2024 Big Ten Tournament against Indiana.
• Nebraska went on a 10-0 run in the first half, its second double-digit run of the season.  (11:49-8:53) 
• Berke Büyüktuncel finished with a season-high 12 points and matched career bests in both rebounds (seven) and assists (three). It is the third straight game he has grabbed at least six rebounds.
• Brice Williams finished with 10 points and has now been in double figures in seven straight games, which matches the longest stint of his career. 
• Cale Jacobsen saw his first action of the season and set career bests in rebounds (four) and assists (assists) in a stint of 5:04 in the first half. Jacobsen finished with a +12 in 6:44 of game time.
• Nebraska’s bench outscored FDU 29-5 and had half of NU’s 20 assists.
• Nebraska converted 17 FDU turnovers into 28 points.
• Nebraska went 23-of-28 from the foul line and has gotten to the foul line at least 25 times in all three contests. 
• Nebraska held FDU to 60 points, well under its 84.7 ppg average in its first three games. 
• Sam Hoiberg led NU with three steals, the second straight game with three steals. 
• Nebraska has now won 24 straight games when holding an opponent under 70 points, including 30-2 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 Head Coach Fred Hoiberg

On figuring it out offensively
“Just our overall energy, our swagger, was much better. We had a really nice confidence stretch there, and I just thought our togetherness was really good. I thought we were all out there on the same page, and you could see it with guys locked in, and forcing turnovers, and getting to the free throw line. That was a big part of it. I’m promising you guys at some point, we’re going to take the lid off that basket. And when we do, it’s going to be fun. But right now, to win a game like that, where the ball wasn’t going in, especially from the perimeter, we missed a couple layups, and to find a way to pull away again and to win by 26, that’s why I think we’re going to be a very good team when it's all said and done. I give our bench a lot of credit tonight. I thought Ahron Ulis was absolutely phenomenal, getting downhill, making the right play, getting into the paint, playing under control, off two feet, and knocking down his shots. I thought Sam (Hoiberg) was all over the place, I think he led us in plus-minus, he was plus-22, and just stuffed the stat sheets with a little bit of everything. I thought Gavin (Griffiths) gave us a great lift there, hitting shots in the second half. Cale Jacobsen, I thought, was terrific. I thought he gave us a really good boost there to finish off that first half and to push that lead up to 20. Didn’t love the start of the second, giving them six quick points with the three and the three-point-play. But we found a way to stay poised, and ran a good inbounds play to get Brice (Williams) an and-one, and then they took off from there, after they cut it to about eight or nine. So good overall performance, it’s certainly our best of the year.”

On cutting down turnovers
“Just playing under control, that was a big emphasis on going into this one. In the film session we watched all of them, we watched all of the turnovers, we watched all of the out of control plays. This is what it needs to look like – 20 assists on 28 field goals, eight turnovers, we need to get that thing up to two and half to one (assist-to-turnover ratio) if we want to have any chance of success this year. We can't go out there and turn it over twice as many times as we dish it out, so it was good to see our guys out there playing under control. That was a big part of this, and they pressured and get out there and deny and I thought we handled it well for the most part.” 

Junior guard Sam Hoiberg

On having depth on bench
“I think we’re all really confident players, and we know that if we get hot, one of us can be the leading scorer. I haven’t got it going at all this year, but I'm trying to find other guys that are going to have it going. Gavin (Griffiths) can get on hot streaks like no one I’ve ever seen before, Connor (Essegian) same thing. Literally anyone on this team can score for us. Cale (Jacobsen) was, what, our 11th guy right now? But really, our six through eleven are all interchangeable. So you can see how many guys want to go out there and help win, and can actually go do that.”

On the priority of physicality in rebounding
“Looking back at those first two games, we didn’t win the rebound battle by that much. I don’t even know if we won it against Bethune-Cookman. We worked on it all week. We did pad drill where we’re trying to be super physical, going and hitting them and going to the glass. So, physicality is a really important thing for this team especially if you put out lineups where our tallest guy is Cale (Jacobsen) or Gavin (Griffiths), you’ve got to be physical to get boards. It’s really important for us.” 

On mindset going into neutral site game
“It gets real now. We’ve got to get over this one quickly. I think we got a little bit of swagger back. We’re feeling a lot better after today’s game. But, we’ve got to really lock in for these next couple games. They’re going to be tough but we’re going to bring the same energy that we had today and hopefully keep this energy going.” 

Senior guard Ahron Ulis

On pushing the pace
“I feel like that's important and I feel like that's a big part of my game. Just me coming out there with energy, bringing that spark to the team, going out there doing what we need to be doing, just getting some energy going.” 

On returning to the court
“It’s great. Ever since last year, my teammates have been uplifting me. It’s just been great to be a part of the program, and I’m just really looking forward to this year. I’m just really happy to be out there playing with my teammates.” 

On priority of getting downhill into the paint
“That was our main priority of just getting downhill, making sure we’re coming in with that energy and continuing to get downhill, find open guys and just continue to go.” 

Sophomore guard Cale Jacobsen

On nerves getting into the game
“It was definitely a little exciting. But, once the action gets rolling it’s just basketball at the end of the day. Finding ways to make an impact, whatever that may look like – that was my goal.” 

On transition offense
“We talked all week about transition, we’ve got to capitalize. When he (Hoiberg) makes a heck of a play, it’s nice to reward him, obviously he dove into the stands and got a layup. That’s pretty impressive by Sam (Hoiberg). We’ve to finish when we get two on one, three on two. You’ve got an advantage, you gotta keep it and score.”

FDU Head Coach Jack Castleberry

On Terrence Brown’s performance
“He really stepped it up in the second half. He’s a kid that we rely on to be a dynamic player and to get downhill. One of the things we were focusing on coming into the game was going off two feet in the paint, and not getting sped up. And unfortunately, I think, in the first half, he and a variety of our guys got sped up. But in the second half, they showed what they’re capable of, and really performed at a much higher rate.”

On takeaways moving forward
“I think mainly, we have to stop turning the ball over. I think our defense didn’t do a great job of sticking in gaps, helping our on-ball defenders. They did a good job of running some stuff that put us in difficult situations. I think when we watch the film, the defensive side of the ball is going to stand out more than we want it to, in a negative way.”

On positive takeaways
“I think the 18 minutes in the second half were really good. I think a lot of times in a basketball game you have to handle adversity and can you turn things around quickly is the question, not the next day you say ‘oh we should have done this’. I thought our team at halftime came out and turned around pretty quickly and punched back. Half of basketball is just handling adversity and trying to be able to stick together when it's tough and then make a few shots. I was really proud of the effort in the second half. I wish we finished a little stronger, but all and all we got a little better.”