Postgame Notes/Quotes vs. UCA

Nebraska Postgame Notes
*-Huskers scored 80 or more points for the second straight game and first time since last November. It is only the second time in Tim Miles’ three seasons that Nebraska has scored 80 points in consecutive games.
*-Nebraska has now won its last 12 home games dating back to Jan. 20, 2014.
*-Nebraska held Central Arkansas to 56 points after averaging 76 points per game in the first two contests.
*-Terran Petteway finished with 23 points, his second 20-point effort of the year and 14th of his career.
*-Terran Petteway has been in double figures for 13 straight games dating back to last season
*-Shavon Shields posted his fourth career double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
*-Benny Parker’s 3-pointer in the second half was his first since Dec. 3, 2012

Nebraska Head Coach Tim Miles 
On the different lineups used tonight 
"I think that our six guys that we have are all improved. They have all gotten better. No, they are not perfect. We were not all locked in at the same time tonight and had some real bone-head plays. But we locked in and had a great second half defensively. I really feel good about those six. I think Tarin Smith can help us, but then we ended up getting really small. Moses (Abraham) has got to settle in. I gave Jake (Hammond) three or four minutes in the first half. Even though it was a three-or-four point game, I think you have to get him in situations like that. I think he deserves an opportunity to show what he can do. You don't always get a lot of minutes but you still have to put them out there. So that is what we did today. We are still tinkering after those seven in the bigs area."

On the slow starts this season

"Well it does seem like when Benny comes in things pop up in a hurry so maybe I will just sub quicker. Tonight we went with a script of plays, and I thought we were okay. We got what we wanted, but then we loose our fundamentals on the defensive side. I don't don't like slow starts, but I am not ready to change the lineup. Maybe decide schematically what we are going to do. We still need to come in and settle down defensively."

On rebounding tonight

"We are awful on the glass right now. We need to get a lot better and that is on me, I need to do a better job of live practice reps where we are engaged. I just don't think I was running that in the pre-season like I should have been. We will get a little better each night out. I thought the second half was pretty good. Rebounding is a little bit of everything, if you do not guard the ball well, you will not rebound the ball well. So it is a little bit of everything. We will have our hands full with that (at Rhode Island)."

On what grade he would give the team tonight

"I always view coaching a basketball team kind of like a NASCAR. Like the best crew and the driver know they don't have the same car every night. They have to fine tune it and they just have to get the most out of that car that day. It doesn't always run the same and they will tell you when it is running good and when it is not. I think a basketball team is like that, and like tonight I did not think we were close to where we should have been defensively and on the glass. But now in the second half, we did so we adjusted. For example we knew if we eventually played small we would be fine. So being up only six or eight in the beginning of the second half didn't worry me because I knew that we had a lineup that could go out and really guard. And we did we got 10 stops in a row and that was our smallest, most agile lineup. And sometimes with teams like this you have to do that. So as we fine tuned and got the right people out there and the right things going we were okay. Overall would I prefer we got in foul trouble? No. Would I prefer we come out locked in? Yes. That is all learning experiences and we will be better each week out."

Junior Guard Terran Petteway

On the cause of the slow start

“Coach (Tim) Miles was talking to us about that. We just had too much energy. The defense let in today. We were jumping on all of their fakes and getting on every one of their footsteps. That kind of led to our slow rhythm offensively a little bit.”

On if there was an effort to try to get to the basket more

“That’s just what our motto has been. Love the rim, like the three. We were just trying to get to the rim as much as possible. Plus they were going on in on the screen, so that kind of opened up the lane for us. We were able to drive to the basket and get easy shots.”

On having a small lineup at times tonight

“We do it in practice. He runs a lot of different lineups, trying to get different looks. He’s trying to see who fits in where in different groups. That’s just Coach Miles trying to figure out the situation and rotation.”

Junior Forward Shavon Shields
On if he felt they were able to rebound better than two nights ago
“Yeah, we did better than we did two nights ago, but we have a lot of tough competition coming up, so we have to get better at that.”

On what needs the most improvement between now and the first road game

“Playing a full 40 minutes. From start to finish, everyone on the same page. Everyone locked in. We had quite a few mental lapses, like we said. Jumping on fakes. Getting out of position. I have 100 percent faith in these guys. I know we can get it going.”

 

Central Arkansas Head Coach Russ Pennell

Opening Statement

"I thought we played awfully hard. We are playing against an outstanding basketball team. I told the guys in there---let's not lose sight, we are playing the 21st team in the country. We are not into moral victories, even though we did have a good first half and kind of lost it near the end. I wish we would have only been down a couple of possessions instead of nine points. The guys gave great effort.  This one feels a little bit different than the other ones because of the effort level and energy they put forth."

On second-chance points, rebounds, being competitive against a Big Ten team

"That is what we wanted to do.  I just thought we had better fight tonight. We played harder, competed harder and I honestly think today, with the ESPN Tip-Off Marathon that helped us. We sat there and watched games and the guys saw the effort that some of the teams were giving. Especially the game out of our league, Stephen F. Austin and Northern Iowa. That was a knock-down drag out game and it is the second game of the year. We are learning because we are young how hard we have to play. I thought we did that for the most part and it showed on the glass--only losing by five on the glass to a team like Nebraska is a positive sign for us."

On difference in the second half

"I thought they upped their intensity and their pressure out a little bit. I honestly thought we got tired, the six days on the road caught up to us tonight with the young team. We tried to talk them through it on the timeouts and use our bench, but to no success. We also got a bit sloppy at the end and just did not shoot the ball well. We had some good looks, but their length bothered us, especially our smaller guards."