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Postgame Notes
- Tai Webster and Jack McVeigh both finished with career highs in points. Webster had 23 points for his fourth career 20-point game, and topped his previous best of 22 at Iowa last season.
- McVeigh had 21 points, topping his personal best of 17 set at Indiana last season. McVeigh also had five rebounds and a pair of steals.
- Nebraska had its second game of the season with a pair of 20-point scorers (Webster and McVeigh). It marked the 15th time under Miles where Nebraska had two 20-point scorers.
- Nebraska held Louisiana Tech to a season-low 54 points, as they entered the game averaging 81.1 ppg.
- Nebraska went 21 of 24 from the line for a season-best 87.5 percent from the line. The Huskers are shooting 85.2 percent from the line this season.
- Nebraska held Louisiana Tech to 36.8 percent from the field, its third straight opponent under 45 percent shooting.
Nebraska Head Coach Tim Miles
On this game being the first real test for the Huskers and how they fared:
“I really like the way our defensive intensity was after the first x-amount of minutes. [Assistant Coach Jim Molinari] had a great game plan. I thought he did an excellent job of knowing exactly what these guys could do. This is a tough group, Louisiana Tech. They’re picked very high in their conference, chance to win it for a reason, great athleticism, and they know how to win. You don’t put up that many wins over how many years without knowing what you’re doing, and [Louisiana Tech Head Coach Eric Konkol] is an excellent young coach. I was proud of our guys to be able to grind out and really do a good job defensively. [Louisiana Tech junior guard Jacobi Boykins] got us a couple times early, and then we were switching, and they were settling behind for an open three. We quit doing that and [senior guard Tai Webster] did a really good job and [sophomore forward Jack McVeigh] did a really good job on [Louisiana Tech senior forward Erik McCree]. Now we just have to get some of those younger guys up to speed and go from there. Those six guys that played the most minutes tonight were really impressive to me defensively.”
On keeping junior guard Evan Taylor in the game for as long as he did:
“Yeah just the length, and especially with the ballhandling. Those guys are so quick, and you know you’re gonna get pressed in some form, and they’re going to harass you, just another handler. They just had too many guards out there, I couldn’t play the two bigs together as much as I wanted to. We missed them a lot on screen-and-roll, but that’s a credit to their front-line defense too. It’s hard to get past that.”
On whether McVeigh and Webster were a part of the offensive game plan or things just came to them:
“Nobody is, as you can tell. They just took what the game gave them. Now, we went to Tai. Tai probably thinks it’s about 1/3 as much as we should. Tai is a go-to guy. I just love the look in his eye, I like his body language, I like the way he’s approaching everything as a challenge. Even when he struggled tonight with some turnovers early, a lot of times he might’ve shut down and tonight he just kinda took his breath, stayed in there. He’s lucky, he’s a senior, his rope is longer than a lot of other ropes.”
On McVeigh’s improvement on defense in addition to his perimeter shooting performance:
“Well he was really good tonight. And he has improved. One of the things he does, he’s a very good help defender. He talks and gets other guys in their position and helps out, and his on-ball defense has been clearly better too. People will put him in the mix. Mary did it, [Sacramento] State did it. These guys did it. They get him switched on to somebody and try to drive him and he’s done a pretty good job. I just think he fools them by the way he runs, which is a pretty good trick for him.”
Senior Guard Tai Webster
On maintaining aggression despite turnovers:
“It was definitely something that was on the back of my mind. I knew I turned it over a lot. Something like five times in the first half, or something like that. Yeah, I struggled with it but I’m just trying to put it behind and carry on. Just trying to be aggressive, I felt like it didn’t really stop me from being aggressive.”
On getting to the basket:
“It just kind of played out that way. They’re a really aggressive defensive team and they forced a lot of turnovers, obviously I’m living proof of it. Just trying to match the aggression and just trying to not let me be on the back foot and not let them force me to be on the back foot. Always attack them. Bring the game to them.”
Sophomore Forward Jack McVeigh
On Tai Webster continuing to stay aggressive despite early turnovers:
“It’s big. It was funny, like Tai said a little comment and I thought turned it over to me, I like turned it over a couple times. I looked down and didn’t even realize that we were gonna win the game. He was just being aggressive and it helps all of us when he (Tai) is being aggressive. My man closes in, the bigs get open, duck-ins that helps on the offensive rebound. Its one of those things that when you’re playing out there you don’t even notice. It’s important for him to keep being aggressive."
On improving his game when attacking the basket:
“I mean yeah, a little bit. We’ve been in there trying to work on it and stuff. Improve the all-around game that comes with time and practice, just getting used to the American speed of the game as well helps a lot. The pace gaps close and hands come in, stuff I’m still learning.”
Sophomore Forward Ed Morrow Jr.
On increased scoring opportunities:
“I give credit to my teammates just for looking for me. The more they look for me, it creates opportunities for me to score and I just get better and better everyday, when I get opportunities at the basket.”
On being a big presence on the inside
“I thought I created a presence but I could have been better in a lot of areas. I thought I forced a lot of plays and stuff like that. But you know, we got the win tonight.”
Louisiana Tech Head Coach Eric Konkol
On tonight's game:
“There’s no question, we really just couldn’t get over the hump and really build some momentum. It seemed like every time we got close, we missed a shot or we turned it over or they’d get a bucket on the other end. We just couldn’t get over the hump tonight. Got to give them a lot of credit. I thought they played some stingy defense and made it very difficult on us. “
On Nebraska:
“Coach Miles has been a great defensive coach. They play a pack defense. They attack the ball when it gets to the paint. They run at you when you get open on the three-point line. We passed some that we should have taken and I thought that we took some that we didn’t need to take. But that’s where we are at right now and we’ve got to get better at it. This was a great test for us on the road in a terrific environment. We’ll learn from it.”
On Nebraska guard Tai Webster:
“Webster put a lot of pressure on us. He is a very good driver. He’s got a very good hesitation move. We were trying to do some different things to contain him and keep him out of the paint, but he kept getting in there and putting pressure on us. He shot 12 free throws tonight and that was a big part of it.”
On the changes Louisiana Tech made defending Webster in the second half:
“We were trying to funnel him to certain areas where we had help and keep him away from other areas that we didn’t and just put some more attention on him with the basketball because he had 17 in the first half. But those plays also opened three point shots from McVeigh I thought our defense was solid tonight. We look at the numbers and you feel like we should have had a chance in the free-throw shooting but we just couldn’t get in a good rhythm of it.”