Nebraska Head Coach Tim Miles
On defending Corey Sanders: "First of all, we remembered that he torched us last time and made the game-winning play. That didn't escape us. And we're not the type of team that always accumulates causes and has revenge on the mind. But at the same time, we know how difficult it is to win here. We had a lead late last year, they came back and we turned it over a couple times. I was worried when we started turning it over in the second half that it was going to happen again. But Glenn (Watson Jr.) did a good job, Anton Gill did a good job, Evan Taylor did a good job (defensively). We tried to run different guys at he and Geo (Baker) because they're a handful. I thought we did a nice job chasing guys off the three-point line, contesting shots. We have some length inside that can help us too."
On deciding to attack the rim: "Towards the end of the first half. I thought we were taking too many dribble twos, and so we called a few actions to kind of get us downhill. James (Palmer Jr.) is really good at that. He was able to get the ball to the rim, and get I think he got fouled and got some hoops. James is really tough when he can get in there, get the contact and still score. And then in the second half, we had a couple actions that were draw ups. We drew up the first one where we get a dunk off (Isaiah) Roby and a dunk off a transition hoop. That's a great way to start the half confidence-wise. The guys really feed off of that."
On James Palmer and Issac Copeland: "Short turnaround, we were just at Ohio State grinding and come down to the last minute, and lose that game. And then grinded them back into oblivion today. They did an excellent job. James looked good at the end and so did Issac. Issac probably felt more confidence, hit a couple threes, had a couple inside scores that were strong for us. And made some really nice defensive plays on (Deshawn) Freeman. We have the length and do defend well. We held to them to 16, 17 percent from three and 34 percent from the field. That's pretty good D against anybody. I know that neither of us two teams are juggernauts offensively. I'm not going to pretend we're the Warriors. We're like the Doland Wheelers, which is my high school team. God bless."
On pushing the tempo: "We just need to get downhill, whether it be transition or action that got us to the rim. We know how difficult they are to score on the rim. I think we probably moved them around too much and then hung up jumpers early because we said I'd rather attack later in the possession. For young guys, attacking usually means a 17-foot jumper, coach. We just talked about making it happen, and then some good things happened. We tipped the ball out there for a few long rebounds. There really wasn't a design or a plan or a commitment to this is what we're going to do. I think it just kind of happened. But it got us confident and we were able to get the lead, keep the lead, and they may have went ahead once or tied it once, but you have to play from the lead on the road."
On Glynn Watson: "I'll tell you his grin from ear to ear in the locker room tells me his confidence is doing okay right now. He made some really tough plays, the charge he took late and then that layup right before that. Those were big-time plays, and plays that we needed. I hope Glynn can build off that because those are winning plays. You don't win without them."