Nebraska Postgame Notes/Quotes: vs. Creighton

Postgame Notes
*-Tonight’s attendance of 15,939 is the 10th largest in Pinnacle Bank Arena since it opened in 2013.
*-Kobe Webster came off the bench and led NU with 20 points in his first game of the season. He had missed NU’s first two games with an injury. It marked Webster’s 27^th 20-point game of his career and third with Nebraska. Webster has scored 20+ against Creighton in two of his three games, as he had 24 against the Bluejays when he was at Western Illinois in 2018-19
*-Nebraska had a season-high 42 points from is bench tonight. The previous high was 22 against Sam Houston
*-CJ Wilcher posted career highs in both points (15) and minutes (32). His previous best in points was 10 against Marquette on March 3, 2021, when he was at Xavier.
*-Nebraska dished out a season-high 15 assists and had a season-low seven turnovers. The 15 assists is NU’s highest since also having 15 at Northwestern on March 7, 2021.
*-Nebraska hit a season-high 10 3-pointers in the loss, including four by Webster and three by Wilcher. NU’s season best was five against Western Illinois.
-Nebraska falls to 26-29 all-time against Creighton.

Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg
On Trey McGowens
“Quick update on Trey. He broke his (right) foot tonight. Devastating news for the heart and soul of our team. He came down on it wrong and broke the fifth metatarsal. He will meet with our team of physicians and trainers, and we will put a time frame on the rehab and when we can expect him back. We expect him to make a full recovery and be back to normal. We don’t know the time frame of it yet. but it’s just heartbreaking for a guy that has come in here and bought into his role. He is our best leader. He uses his voice every day in practice for the warmup all the way to the end. Really tough loss and really feel for him. He will have a lot of support through this process and hopefully he will be back as soon as possible.”   

On the key to the game
“We lost that game in the first five minutes. Every day, we put the key on what the games are and the last two we have not gone out and executed. The last game was (offensive) rebounding. They got four of them in the first minute and a half. Tonight was transition and after getting off to a solid start/ I think it was 5-1 in our favor, but they got anything they wanted in transition. That is disappointing.”
 
On the play of the bench
“I give our bench a lot of credit for going out there and playing the right way and in climbing back into that. We had a couple chances to get over the hump to take a lead. I do not think we ever got it. We had to hit one of those shots. I think we had a couple at the rim and an open three. Maybe it is a different outcome maybe the momentum shifts to our side, but give Creighton credit. They played well. I liked their team a lot. They got shooting all across the board and great size. For us, there is going to be things we can build off of in this game. You always have to look for the positives. There is a lot of things that we need to correct.”
 
On what the Huskers need to improve on
“The biggest thing is we have to come out and get off to better starts. We can not continue to dig ourselves a hole like that. It takes too much energy to get yourself out.”
 
Senior guard Kobe Webster
On mentality of the team when down and spark to get back into it
“The key to the game was getting back in transition so the first 5-6 minutes that’s really where a lot of their buckets came from. Once we cut that off and got moving on the offensive end, the ball started popping and we were able to get easy looks.”
 
On individual impact on game
“I know what I’m capable of. Coach has confidence in me. He had the confidence to put me in the game so I’m not going to harp on any individual stats because the goal is to win. Like I said I know what I’m capable of and glad I could give a spark but I want to win.”
 
On next step to get team back on track
“Stay me. Stay energized. Stay in guys’ ear. I said this from day one. We talked about it that whether I’m on the bench or floor that I’m always going to be the loudest person. Like I said just stay me.”
 
On managing after an emotional loss
“We said it multiple times. We have to flush away a win and flush away a loss. We got three games in six days so we have to start preparing for that and just get back to it.”
 
Creighton Coach Greg McDermott
On the play of his point guards
“It’s everything. It was good to have Shereef Mitchell back. It gives us another defender and another ballhandler and obviously he has some experience. Ryan (Nembhard) is a special player. He controls the tempo of the game for us. Defensively, he does a solid job and he distributes as well. He is hard on himself with those turnovers and that’s something that he will get better at as he gets older. He is going to make me a great coach.”
 
On Ryan Nembhard’s performance
“That’s pretty good poise and he has to guard a good player. Verge is in every ball screen and Webster came in and he’s chasing him off-screen. He’s got to exert energy on the defensive side. It’s not like we hide him down there and save him for offense. He’s got to play both ends of the floor, and he does it extremely well.”
 
On if he could feel the momentum start to change
“The game was in the balance without question until the last minute or two. They went small so we went small. In some ways, that allows us to spread them out a little more. We can throw it to someone in the block and try and draw that double-team and make the extra pass. It’s a lineup that we practice a little bit and that we want to use a little bit more as time goes on. We were a little handcuffed tonight because of Arthur’s foul trouble, but he will be fresh on Friday.”

NU Athletic Communications