Rhode Island - Notes and Quotes

Notes
*-Nebraska overcame an 11-point deficit, the largest deficit the Huskers have overcome in 2015-16.
*-Nebraska’s 61.1 percent shooting in the second half was NU’s best of the season. The Huskers shot 60.7 percent in the second half against Mississippi Valley State.
*-Nebraska’s shot 6-of-8 from 3-point range, the highest NU shot from 3-point range since going 9-of-12 vs. UT-Pan American in 2009-10. That is the school record (10 att. to qualify for the school record).
*-Glynn Watson finished with a career high 17 points, topping his previous best of 14 against Southeastern Louisiana. 
*-Michael Jacobson tied a career high with 11 points (also vs. SE Louisiana) and four rebounds in a career-high 26 minutes.

Head Coach Tim Miles 
On Benny Parker’s and Glynn Watson Jr.’s performance down the stretch…

“The defensive pressure. I thought Glynn was doing a good job, and he was scoring, which is, for a young guy, that’s kind of his M.O. I think it gives him confidence which it would a lot of people, but I think their defensive pressure was more important than anything. They really helped us. We were in a tough way and we had guys like Nick Fuller in, which really helped stop the bleeding. Once again, Nick, you know, didn’t play in a couple of games, comes in and plays really well. Important minutes for us. We just kept stubbing our toe over and over with turnovers. They bank in two or three three-pointers and you’re going, ‘Holy cow!’ We’re trying to foul at the end of the first half and they bank in a three. It was just one of those nights where you felt like, ‘Uh oh!’ But then you also kept looking and I’m like, ‘But they’re not getting away from us, you know.’ I thought that last six… I think the under eight timeout was 6:43 or whatever, I thought we played really well after that. I think we limited our turnovers. Maybe we just had one right away by Andrew (White III) right away on the other side. Glynn kept breaking off the offense and scoring. I wanted to get more touches for Shavon (Shields) and the other guys, so I’d say, ‘Well let’s run our offense.’ and then we play kickball on the other side with it, twice in a row. Forget the offense… score.”

On if he thought about fouling on the last play of the game…
“Yeah, you know, we talked about it a great deal, but he missed the front end and we were up two. So now you enter into a situation where you could be tied and we could be up three. I’ve got some young and inexperienced guys and I wanted (them to have) a clear mind. So I thought it would just be better to formulate a good defensive game plan, to chase them off the three point line, to make sure anything they took would be a two. I wanted to save my timeout because I think I had one left, in case we couldn’t get it in. So that’s what we did because, in that huddle, it was a two point game with him shooting one free throw, so I just decided not to foul, but we could foul in that situation.”

On Glynn answering the call every time it looked like Rhode Island was starting to pull away…

“Well, you know, he’s a state champion in the state of Illinois and that’s not easily done by anybody. But when you’re a lead guard and you’re a state champion, you likely had a whole bunch to do with it and I think he played like that guy tonight. A little bit of a rite of passage game, maybe, for this team. We’ve been by the chalk the whole time. If we’re the dog, we get beat. If we’re expected to win, we win. I thought tonight was a tossup game and the guys came out and did a heck of a job finding a way to win even though it wasn’t easy for a long, long, long time.”

Shavon Shields, Glynn Watson Jr. and Michael Jacobson

On how good it was to see Benny hit the shot at the end

Shields: “That’s what senior leaders do. Step up, make big plays and I know everyone believes in him. He just stepped up and made a big play for us.”

On how the freshmen stepped up

Shields: “They were big time. Mike gave us good post presence and gave us a threat on the offensive end from the post, which helps a lot. Glynn stepped up and made big plays, hit big shots and that’s what we need from them going forward.”

On how confident he was playing offense.

Watson Jr.: Credit to my teammates. They told me keep playing with confidence, so that’s what I did. I tried to make a play and made a big shot.”

On how the team hung around in the end

Jacobson: “I think it’s because we’re so close as a team. I would say this year’s team is definitely together. We all really like each other, and we knew if we stayed the course, stayed together, had each other’s backs, good things were going to happen.”

On if Jacobson settling in

Jacobson: “Yeah, I would say I am definitely getting my confidence back. I am definitely getting more and more comfortable on the offense end and defensive end, not thinking so much, just kind of starting to become a little bit natural and ready to play.”

On if it matters to Watson Jr. if he starts or not

Watson Jr.: “I just come in and try to do my role. I believe in my coach and believe in my teammates so I just come in and try to play my role and do what I need to do to help the team win.”

Shields: “He finished the game, that’s what matters.”

Rhode Island Head Coach Dan Hurley

Opening statement

“This is obviously a tough pill to swallow. I felt like a couple things really hurt us. Obviously second-half turnovers, especially when they made their run. You know they’re going to make a run here at home with the crowd so that was a big factor. We lost our composure, turned it over and lost our minds in terms of execution, which we have been better at this year. We didn’t get many free throw opportunities but up one late in the game, you can’t miss the front end of a one and one on the road and expect to win.”

On the teams response to being one of their first true road games

“I helped that we played well. We played well for a while, especially offensively. We were able to keep it quiet. Then our turnovers led to some easy baskets and dunks and the crowd got into it. Tim (Miles) does a great job with those guys. He’s an excellent coach. He kept his guys in there until they made a run, but we certainly did some things that fueled their run. You just can’t win on the road against a Big Ten team turning the ball over like that.”

On takeaways

“It was the first road game of the year. I thought we played well for a large portion of the game. We were in major foul trouble early with two of our better players not being available to us. I thought we handled things very well in the first half. We played well up until the last couple minutes of the game. They made a huge run and some big shots. They did things to win and we obviously did things to contribute to losing.”