Postgame Notes and Quotes: vs. Gardner-Webb

Postgame Notes
*-Ed Morrow Jr. grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds in the loss. Morrow’s previous high was 13 against Creighton on Dec. 10. His 18 rebounds were the most since Aleks Maric had 19 rebounds against Missouri on Feb. 24, 2007. Morrow has now reached double figures in rebounds four games in 2016-17. *-Morrow also tied his career high with four blocked shots, as he also had four at Penn State on Feb. 25, 2016.
*-Tai Webster has reached double figures in all 11 games for the Huskers this season and 12 straight games dating back to last season.
*-Nebraska’s 20 turnovers were a season high and most since 22 against Villanova on Nov. 17, 2015.
*-Nebraska shot just 15-of-26 from the line after entering the game 13th nationally in free throw percentage (.783). In the previous five home games this year, NU shot 84.9 percent from the foul line.
*-Evan Taylor and Anton Gill made their first career starts for Nebraska on Sunday. It is the first college start for Gill, who began his career at Louisville, while Taylor made 15 starts as a freshman at Samford, most recently the 2015 Southern Conference Tournament vs. UNC Greensboro.  It is the first time in 11 games that Nebraska has started a different lineup.

Nebraska Head Coach Tim Miles
Opening Statement: “First of all, I think you have to commend Gardner-Webb for coming in with a mentality of fearlessness that they were coming here to win. They came in here to kick our butts and they did. Obviously, I can’t think of a word beyond disappointment that I didn’t have our guys ready. We had a practice on Friday and it wasn’t going well and we were at the end of the time. So we went 40 extra minutes and we only got moderately better. We wrapped it up and we had an OK practice yesterday [Saturday].”

On the Huskers’ struggles from 3-point range: “I’m surprised we are not shooting better at home. There are some guys that don’t take great threes. Other than that, I thought there were a few guys that got really good looks too and they just didn’t go in. Confidence is earned, you just got to do it. You can’t wish and hope for it.”

On Michael Jacobson: “The only guy I’m going to let of the hook is Michael Jacobson. He came out and didn’t look right, I went to put him back in and he says ‘Coach, something is wrong’ I think he got sick. He comes back in and say ‘Coach I can play’ toward the end of the first half.”

On changing the starting lineup after last game “In practice, you know how guys perform, who is locked into a game plan because we struggled on Friday in practice, that’s how Jordy Tshimanga got out. I’ve seen Jordy play better, I think he can play better. They why Michael Jacobson got in. Other than that, it was the second group that started the second half against Kansas.”

Gardner-Webb Head Coach Tim Craft

Overall feelings on the game

“Just proud of our players to give a great effort on the road, to beat what I feel is a really good team who’s played an unbelievable schedule. I’m proud of our guys, I thought we defended really well other than we got beat on the glass. We got hurt on the class, and Nebraska was terrific on the offensive glass. Other than that, I thought we guarded them well and gave ourselves a chance to win the game. We made enough plays down the stretch to get a win.”

On the first half

“I just think we were able to string some stops together, guys made a couple plays on the offensive end, and we were able to kind of build whatever it was. I think seven was the max lead. I felt like they could come back really quickly, but we were able to make just enough plays and just enough free throws down the stretch to pull it out.”

 

On the defense in the last 15 minutes

“I think we’ve got a good defensive team. We are getting better and better there. I’m just proud of the way the guys competed on that end for sure.”

 

On Tyrell Nelson’s performance

“He came up big. He had a couple plays in the post, they started to double him to take it away a little bit. We had a critical play there at the end in the last two minutes where LaQuincy Rideau kind of came to a stop and bounce-passed it to (David) Efianayi for a layup. That was huge. I think we made just enough plays to keep that two-possession lead there. It seemed like every time they had a chance to close it down, something happened. We got a blocked shot or we scrapped out a big rebound and were able to put a stop together.”

 

On the win’s impact on the program

“It’s a great win for our program, and I think what it does for our players is it validates some of the things that we’ve been talking to them as a coaching staff about and how good they can be if they can play in a stance all the time and defend with max effort all the time. It’s exciting to see them have success against a team in the Big Ten. That’ll validate some of the things we’ve been working on for the last 50 practices.”