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Notes
*-Nebraska’s 19 assists matched the most by a Tim Miles coached team at Nebraska. The Huskers also had two other games with 19 assists under Miles, both coming in the 2013-14 season.
*-Nebraska’s 12 3-pointers were the most by the Huskers under Tim Miles (previous high was 11 on two occasions) and is the most since NU hit 13 3-pointers at Minnesota on March, 3, 2012.
*-Andrew White III set or tied a career high for the third straight game finishing with 20 points.
*-Shavon Shields recorded his first 20-point game and 16th of his career with a game-high 21 points. Shields’ seven assists was one of his career high.
*-Jake Hammond finished with a career-high seven rebounds in 13 minutes, doubling his previous best of three set in NU’s first two contests.
Nebraska Head Coach Tim Miles
On Delaware State’s second half run…
“First of all, you have to credit Delaware State. They were down 26 points or whatever it was and they don’t quit. They just came out and said, ‘Hey, let’s go after these guys.’ We had three turnovers, we missed a layup, we missed two free throws, we missed a wide-open three and then we started to get tentative. I didn’t think at 26 we were tentative or 21, but now when it was 16-14 we kind of felt like… the bench, some of the assistant coaches thought we should call timeout, but I thought, “No, let’s play through it. Let’s figure it out.’ I didn’t intend for it to get to four – and my wife yells at me if I don’t call a timeout before it goes under double-figures – but that didn’t stop them. The good news is this. We did enough ball sharing, 19 assists on 22 field goals, and solid defense to build a big lead. Then we relaxed, and that really hurt us and it’s really hard to turn momentum back, but we did. So that’s the good news, bad news. That’s what’s good about these games. This is probably better for us in the long run then had we stayed at 26 because we would’ve had our opener the same way, our exhibition the same way and so now we had to feel a little bit of an edge. You can’t play not to lose.”
On if he didn’t call a timeout to test his team…
“Yeah, every team has to learn how to win and I just felt like you’re limited in timeouts and we had enough guys out there, I thought, with Benny (Parker), Shavon (Shields) and Andrew (III), even Tai (Webster), and they all made critical plays whether it be assists. Tai had a big offensive rebound. Andrew hit a big three, and Shavon did his deal once he settled down a little bit. Those things are all important, but I thought a lot of guys played well tonight really. Glynn got in foul trouble, so even though he had a good line, he didn’t get as many minutes. We couldn’t get any of our centers on the right track. We need to get those guys going. Jack McVeigh was really good. If you look at Jack’s line he had eight points, two assists, three steals and, you know, I was going to put him in again late, but I felt like Tai was the best matchup on No. 1 (Haywood), so I didn’t like that. I liked Benny on the point, so I just wanted to stay with our defensive stuff because I thought if we could get enough stops we’d win the game. I don’t know, maybe the guys weren’t feeling the fans love and didn’t want to get them Runza’s because we were on 63 for eternity. (laughs) I mean that’s a 20-point run and 22-point run in consecutive games. We have to do something about that.”
On what they can do to prevent these big runs…
“Well, one (thing) is to quit turning the ball over. We turn the ball over far too much. We have to eliminate turnovers. That’s the most important one to me.”
On Benny and Tai combining for 16 total turnovers the past two games…
“That’s got to get better. That number… it can’t be like that and they know that. I talked to Benny a great deal at halftime and Benny looked… you could see he was wearing worry in his body language. Just like he was down. I just said, ‘Benny…’ and he goes, ‘I’m just so mad at myself.’ and I’m like, ‘On to the next, man. Enjoy this. This is your senior year. You’re not playing exactly where you want to be right now, but it will happen.’ And I thought he came out and played a pretty good second half.”
Junior Guard Andrew White
On what happened during Delaware State’s second half run
“I think we took our foot off the gas a little bit. I take a lot of responsibility for that. The older guys, it’s our responsibility to keep the team as sharp as possible no matter the situation of the game. I think they called a timeout and it was media timeout and I think we just took the foot off the gas. Not intentionally we just had a big lead and naturally that kind of thing happens. That was a good learning experience to still be able to come out with a decent win. We can learn, but learn with a win. I think that’s something we can do better and we can correct on. Our coaches have addressed that already so it is going to be a big emphasis for us going into the next week of practice.”
On his calm demeanor when shooting threes
“I think this game was a big test for me because we gave up a run, and I knew I had to step up and do some things to help my team. I was kind of part of that little spurt of time when they went on a run. I was just trying to get other guys involved because they had done such a good job of looking for me before we got to that point. I had two turnovers and I had two dumb fouls so going into the stretch I just wanted to challenge myself to get use to playing under pressure. That was my first time being in a situation like that so I just wanted to challenge myself to be there for my teammates and do what ever it took to get us out of there with a win. It was definitely just a choice that I need to go out there and be confident the same way I would in the first half.”
Senior Forward Shavon Shields
On Nebraska’s success against the zone in the first half
“We were making shots. Making shots makes it a lot easier to get shots. We spread out the zone and Drew (Andrew White III) hit a couple, Jack (McVeigh) hit a couple and then it just kind of spreads out and makes it easier to play against a zone.”
On the improved ball movement
“I don’t know what the assists were, but it felt like there was always an extra pass to an open three. Last year it kind of felt like we’d stand and stand and then jack up a three. I think that was different and just getting off the pass and into your shot which makes it a lot easier.”
On Delaware State’s second half run
“Like Drew (Andrew White III) said that’s on us upperclassmen because we got taken out of the game and we were up 25. It just kind of started falling apart like we lost our focus and stopped playing defense. They got on the attack and once you give a team confidence like that they can start making shots and start playing harder on defense. It makes it harder and then instead of playing to win you’re playing not to lose. We finally got one in the basket and we turned it around.”
Delaware State Head Coach Keith Walker
Overall opinion on the game
“I’m happy with the way our guys fought and came back. I thought early on we weren’t sticking to the game plan, but we hung in there with Nebraska. When you play high majors like Nebraska, most of the time in our league you’re giving up forty or fifty point wins. I thought our guys played hard and that’s the key. We just have to stay a little more focused on sticking to what we want to do as far as our game plan is concerned, and I think we’ll be okay as the year progresses.”
On the performances by junior guard DeAndre Haywood and sophomore guard Todd Hughes
“We have a lot of guys on this team, and we look to those for leadership. We have a team with two seniors and three juniors, those are the guys we have to have leadership from. They’re on the main stage. They are the ones we look for for leadership and they did a great job of that tonight.”
On moving forward
“We just have to get better at what we do. This is game three for us. All three games, we’ve been in every one of them. We have to get over that hump to be on the other side. We have to try and get some wins in. On the developmental side of thing though, I’m pretty happy with what I see.”