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Postgame Notes
*-Nebraska’s 97 points is the most in Tim Miles’ tenure at Nebraska. The previous best was 90 against UMass in 2013-14.
*-Nebraska has won 15 straight season opener
*-Andrew White III’s 18 points was his college career high (had 15 as a freshman at Kansas vs. Belmont in 2012-13)
*-Nick Fuller’s nine rebounds was a career high (previous high was five on two occasions)
*-Nebraska’s 46 point margin of victory is the 12th highest in school history and largest since a 50-point win over North Carolina A&T on Dec. 19, 2005.
Postgame Quotes
Nebraska Head Coach Tim Miles
Opening Statement
“Tonight, I thought the kids played a good ballgame. I was especially proud of Nick Fuller. He’s been a guy that was kind of on the outside of the rotation, went down to the scout team, worked his way back in and really looked as strong as I’ve seen him play. He rebounded above the rim four or five times, ends up with 10 points and nine rebounds and that was really impressive. It’s guys like that that fire me up. I’m glad our stars were our stars. We’ll get some of these young guys kind of uncorked here one day or another, but you see a guy like Nick who redshirts and then goes through last year and then goes through a hard summer, and he really played tonight. I think he deserves a lot of credit for us being able to put a team away.”
On when Fuller’s jump in production occurred
“Since I told him he was on the outside looking in. I just said, ‘Nick, here’s where you are. You’re the third guy at 3 and third guy at 4, the small and power forward, so I don’t know how many minutes I can get you. Here’s who’s ahead of you’ There’s a freshman ahead of him, so he practiced really hard for a week and then really hard for another week and so tonight I put him in right away. Jack McVeigh had to wait and that was pretty impressive. Jack had to wait nine or 10 minutes and then came in and made two or three shots right in a row and then got a couple rebounds right away. Michael Jacobson was the same way, when you’re the third guy-deep, you’re just sitting there waiting and you don’t get in much early it’s hard to get a flow, but I thought those guys were good for us.”
On whether Andrew White III and McVeigh can continue to shoot well from 3
“They can if they want to, as long as Tai (Webster) gets one and Shavon (Shields) gets one and one of those freshmen give me one, too.”
On scoring easy baskets of rebound-and-outlets and turnovers
“This team is more mobile, so they’re going to need to score easily and we can’t do everything in the half court.”
On White’s play
“I thought he was good. I thought he was in a good place and his parents were here, which is great to see. I think he was really excited about that. His first shot went in and you could see a little fist-pump. For him, it’s a do-over and he wants to do it right and we’re going to give him the opportunity to make an impact and he is making a great impact for us.”
On the resiliency of players in the program
“We want to develop guys. We want guys to get better and so Nick needs to do it consistently. Benny (Parker), we know what he can do, and a couple of times tonight, he got going a little too fast. He got his shot blocked. He probably should’ve taken it up with his left hand and then got his head down on a ball-screen where he turned it over. Other than that, I thought Benny was really good and in the middle of a lot of problems. Then you saw Glynn (Watson Jr.) do some of the same things Benny was doing. He got a couple of steals the same way and I think you can see a talent in Glynn, too when he finally relaxes and it just kind of goes and he’s not rushing his shot or whatever, that he’s really going to be a nice player for us.”
On the upcoming game against Villanova
“Well, I haven’t watched a lot of them, but I saw them last night up about 43 on Fairleigh-Dickinson and I saw about six different 6-5 to 6-7 guys just jacking up 3’s and making them, so that didn’t make me feel that good as a “pack (defense)” coach. I don’t know, it’s hard to tell. I think we’ve got some guys that love the bright lights. I think McVeigh, the younger guys I’m talking, when you look at Glynn and Ed (Morrow Jr.) and some of those guys. They love the bright lights. They’re dying for a chance like this. You look at the Chicago element with the guard (Jalen) Brunson there and Glynn. Glynn knows that nobody was talking about him, they were talking about Jalen and he wants to make sure that he goes, so I’m really excited about some of those sub-plots and getting us out there and having a Philly Cheesesteak and seeing the Liberty Trail and doing the whole thing that way, too, so it should be a fun one.”
Nebraska Freshman Forward Jack McVeigh
On if he was in a rhythm early
“A little bit. It was fun. I got open shots from Shavon and Benny and they did a great job of just getting me open. Those went down and just playing in front of the crowd, it was fun.”
What was the attitude of the team entering the day
“I think it was pretty laid back. We were all excited and looking forward to it. It was pretty laid back. We were all just ready to get started.
On the team’s 17 assists…
“I thought it was really good. It’s been a massive emphasis in training, the coaches have been getting on us, making sure we make the extra pass. It was executed really well tonight. The whole team has bought into it and everyone is making the extra pass looking out for each other.
Nebraska Junior Guard Andrew White III
You hit those threes to start the game, would you consider those easy baskets?
The first shot of a half is always tough just because we warm up for so long, we’re working out an hour before the game, then you cool off and starting line ups with all of the hoorah going on, everybody is kind of testy when you first come off of the blocks. I just try to jump up and shoot it regardless of the situation and just be confident in myself. It’s just one shot, it’s not do or die, so I felt pretty good.”
You guys are going to guarantee you make that many three’s every night, right?
No guarantees. We put in a lot of work on our shooting, we come to practice early and shoot, we stay after practice and shoot. We have a culture in us now where guys are putting in a lot of extra time so I think a lot of our development is going outside of the practice hours and I think that’s going to be a big key for our team moving forward. So, you can’t make guarantees but when you’re making shots before practice and making shots after practice that gives you a little momentum and makes you feel good. I think that’s why our team has been in so much of a rhythm. Obviously, we have some tighter games coming up ahead so we will really test that so I think that our foundation being in just with our offensive system will help us so we can take and make better shots.
Mississippi Valley State Head Coach Andre Payne
Overall thoughts
“I think the game was a shock to a lot of my guys. Having eleven new players, I’ve been telling them how good this level is. They did an exceptional job of scouting us. They did an exceptional job of getting their players prepared for the things we do. We weren’t ready mentally because they don’t know how good a “Nebraska” can be.”
On what he liked about his team
“I like the fact that we were able to get some calls and turnovers that we were able to cause havoc. I like the fact that we rebounded with them. They didn’t blast us on the boards although we were giving up four or five inches in positions. I like the work ethic. What I didn’t like was we played a little selfish out there tonight.”
On how to move forward from this
“First of all, you have a short memory. You can’t carry this to the next game. You have to get yourself prepared. You have to watch film and learn from your mistakes. We have to move forward. One of the things we have to do, we have to make sure everybody plays their position and does their job because we don’t have two All-Americans or three All-Americans. We have no All-Americans. Everybody has to do their job.”