Nebraska vs. Minnesota Postgame Notes & Quotes

Nebraska Postgame Notes
*-Nebraska shot 50 percent from the field, its best shooting night since shooting .533 vs. Creighton on Dec. 8. NU's 52 percent first half shooting was its best since the second half against Maryland on Jan. 2 and the first time NU shot 50 percent in a half since the second half at Indiana on Jan. 14. 
*-Husker coach Tim Miles won his 50th conference game at Nebraska with the victory. Only three other Husker coaches (Joe Cipriano, Danny Nee and Moe Iba) won 50 conference games at the school.
*-James Palmer Jr. now has 12 20-point games this season, which is the most by a Husker since Terran Petteway in 2014-15 (13).  Palmer has now reached double figures in 24 of the Huskers’ 25 contests, as he finished with a game-high 24 points. Palmer has reached double figures in 21 consecutive games dating back to Nov. 20.
*-With the victory tonight, Nebraska has now won seven of the last 10 contests against Minnesota. 11 of the last 12 meetings have now been won by the home team dating back to 2012.
*-Nebraska trailed by 11 points and came back to win, the biggest deficit the Huskers have come back from to win this season. The previous largest deficit overcome to win was seven against Oklahoma State. The 11-point deficit marked the eighth time Nebraska has overcome a double-digit deficit under Tim Miles.
*-Brady Heiman’s basket was his first since Dec. 29th. On the season, he is 6-of-6 against Minnesota from the floor.
*-Thomas Allen corralled nine rebounds tonight, a new career high. His previous best was six caroms vs. Penn State last month.
*-Nebraska now has 19 20-point games from Husker players in 2018-19. 
*-This was Nebraska's first win this season after trailing at halftime. The Huskers trailed 31-30 at the break.
*-The Huskers shot 50.0 percent (24-48) from the field and are now 5-0 when shooting 50.0 percent or better this season.
*-With his eight free throws made against Minnesota, Palmer moved into a sixth on NU's single-season chart with 149. He passed Aleks Maric, who had 147.

Nebraska Head Coach Tim Miles
On the mood of the team after snapping the seven game losing streak
“What’s interesting is on a few of those guys you could see some relief, and then James Palmer is talking to them saying ‘hey we need to build on this going into Northwestern. We need to get ready for this game’. I thought that was a lot of maturity and a lot of leadership and that really did my heart well. There’s no foolishness, no celebratory stuff it was just, let’s get ready. This is good and there was a collective sigh of relief, like finally, okay. Glynn said something, ‘okay we got one now we can go’. I’m just proud of them. They really defended well. Minnesota is a tough team, physical team, and we hung around on the glass. I thought our screen and roll (defense) was much better than the last time and just a better game plan, better execution.” 

On what he noticed from the first half to the second
“I think it was just, we were more relaxed, we fought back. I told the guys if you’re going to get down, to get down early when we were down 10 or whatever it was, and Thomas Allen kind of looked at me and said ‘yeah, that makes sense.’ I didn’t really mean it but we’re still trying to convince you guys that we’re going to win this thing. The whole point is we made some tweaks. We stuck with what we were trying to run, we tried to get guys going downhill a little bit more. (Daniel) Oturu made some outside shots early and we said ‘okay that’s the one you can have’ then he missed some the second half and that helped and so over the course of the game. They are a very good team so it didn’t surprise me that they could get up on us.”

On the team's resilience and the atmosphere tonight
“You have to be resilient to hang in there and everybody has heard the noise, everybody. I thought our fans were phenomenal, by the way. I thought they really created an environment that was positive and guys could respond to and I’m thankful for them because they had a big impact on winning. If you look at the way we won, there is that accomplishment that you know, like hey we can do it this way, and nobody is going to quit on this thing. Whether you’ve lost seven in a row or whatever, we’re not going to. We’re going to stay positive and figure out how to get better and better. We’re going to keep doing it on Saturday too.”

 

Nebraska Players Quotes
Senior James Palmer Jr., Senior Glynn Watson Jr. and Freshman Amir Harris
On the last possession of the game
James Palmer Jr.: “When I got the foul called, I was trying to draw contact. I pump faked maybe once or twice, and he bit a little bit and I jumped into him, so I got the foul. The free throws, I missed a one and one before so I knew I had to get two to seal the deal.”

On how good tonight felt after facing struggles
Glynn Watson Jr.: “It felt good. I just stayed with it, kept working and the guys found me, and things like that. I just found the rhythm and got it going.”

On the importance of getting the win
James Palmer Jr.: “It definitely felt good for us. We were working hard. I know we lost seven in a row, but even in practice, we still were going hard. Harder and harder each and every time, and we just wanted to focus and come out with a defensive mentality. Thanks to the fans. They really showed support tonight. We appreciated it.”

On being emotional after the win
James Palmer Jr.: “I mean, if you lost seven straight and you finally won one, you’d feel good, right?”

On being able to play a lot of minutes
Amir Harris: “It felt good just finding my rhythm and just being able to play in spots where I can rebound and get deflections and just get us open wide. That was really nice because that’s what I’ve been doing in practice the past couple weeks, so being able to put it in the game really helped.”

Minnesota Head Coach Richard Pitino
Opening statement
"I'm really, really, really disappointed with the way that game ended. But with that, my guys showed heart, my guys fought, and it's unfortunate the way that ended. It's absolutely unfortunate the way that ended."

On getting stops late in the game
"We got the stop we needed to get. We got a little bit unlucky when Dupree (McBrayer) stepped out of bounds. We played good defense. We made the right plays and put ourselves in position to win the game."

On how the game ended
"That one stings. In my six years in this league, that one stings the most out of any game I've been a part of because we deserved to win that game."

On how the team moves forward
"You move on. No one is going to feel sorry for you. We put ourselves in position to win the game. We'll go get ready for Indiana."