Postgame Notes

• -With the win, Nebraska improved to 12-0 on the season, extending its best start in school history. 
• -Nebraska has now won 16 straight dating back to last year, extending its own school record streak
• -Nebraska men (12-0) and women (12-0) are both unbeaten as Nebraska joins Iowa State and Vanderbilt with unbeaten men’s and women’s teams
• - Berke Buyuktuncel‘s triple-double tonight (12 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) was the fourth in school history and the second this season. Before tonight, Buyutuncel never had a double-double
• - All of NU’s triple-doubles have come under Fred Hoiberg – Buyuktuncel and Rienk Mast this year, Dalano Banton in 2020 and Cam Mack in 2019.
• - Buyuktuncel’s 10 assists more than doubled his previous career high of four set at Ohio State last year.
• - Four Huskers scored in double digits – Braden Frager (17), Sam Hoiberg (15), Jamarques Lawrence (13) and Berke Buyuktuncel (12).
• -Braden Frager’s 17 points off the bench was NU’s 13^th double-figure game of the season. It also marked the second time Frager led NU in scoring this season
• -Nebraska had 22 assists and six turnovers, the eighth time in 12 games NU has had 20+ assists
• -Sam Hoiberg finished with four assists and no turnovers and now has a 48-to-8 assist-to-turnover ratio
• -Nebraska held North Dakota to 33.3 percent shooting, the ninth opponent held under 40 percent this season
• -Nebraska now has won a school-record 21 straight non-conference games dating back to 2004 and 15 straight non-conference games at home dating back to 2003

Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg

On differences between first and second half
“We started moving, that helped. First half, I give North Dakota a lot of credit for their game plan. They put a smaller guy to get up underneath Rienk (Mast) and I thought we just stood around and ball faked and that thing never got shifted side to side. Now that being said, I did think we had some decent looks, if those are going in, you know those are great ones to take. As the half went on, I thought we took some contested ones, settled, and we just didn’t get the ball in the paint, and you know that's credit to North Dakota and what they did. That team played with confidence after what they did with their win against Winthrop in their last game. We know how good they are with our game (against Winthrop) earlier in the season, so we knew coming in that this was going to be a tough one. We really challenged our guys in the second half to get back to playing Husker basketball. I think we shot 63% in the second half after shooting under 30 in the first, and that was all due to our movement. I thought Berke (Buyuktuncel) as the playmaker was unbelievable, got a couple of tip-ins for us that really got us going, and I thought our cuttings were elite in the second half and that’s who we are. I love the 22 assists with six turnovers and 22 assists on 28 baskets. Our energy was better defensively and that’s just how this game works a lot of times when the balls not going in, it effects your defensive energy, we are not getting deflections in the first half and everything picked up there in the second, good win for us, this is always a tricky one, you know the getaway game but proud of how the guys responded in the second half.”

On being off some nights and bouncing back
“Pryce (Sandfort) went scoreless in the first half. Some nights that’s what happens, you have to find a way to bounce back. There are ups and downs, highs and lows. The best advice I ever got was Reggie Miller, my very first NBA practice, called me “rook” and said you’ll last a long time in this game if you don’t let your highs get too high and you don’t let your lows get too low, stay emotionally stable. Braden (Frager) had a good week of practice and then carried that over into the game tonight.” 

Redshirt freshman forward Braden Frager

On the halftime message
“Coach Fred just came in and said be ourselves, we weren’t ourselves the first half. He didn’t scream at us, he didn’t need to get in us, he just said be ourselves and we came out ourselves in the second half.”

On how much trust he has in the team when down at half
“I feel like we trust each other a lot, especially on a night where we didn’t get going behind the arc, we just found a way and that’s what I feel like good teams do, they find a way to win.”

On getting downhill and to the rim
“I just kind of had it going, I didn’t hit a three today, so I had to find other ways to impact the game. Getting downhill and getting to the line was one of them.”

Junior forward Berke Buyuktuncel
On the gameplan offensively
“Our game plan was going to the pocket every time because they were blitzing really aggressively, and they were getting the spur pass so the direct pass. We were getting the pocket and the cutter or the corner shot, that was our game plan. It kind of worked.” 

On when he knew he was close to a triple-double
“Frager was shooting a free throw, and a fan told me ‘oh you need one more point and one more assist’ and I was like ‘oh really’ then I just looked up.”

North Dakota head coach Paul Sather

On how hard their guys played
“Yeah, we left some points out there. We had some really easy, good looks around the rim. And, you give yourself maybe a little bit of that six to eight-to-ten point lead instead. Now we're gonna look and say they probably had the same things. We definitely lost them a few times where they just missed some shots. They're a pretty good team. I felt we did some nice things against them, but as things broke down a little bit, we would have some slippage on just keeping the mind in the right place.  But they've been one of the best defensive teams in the country with whom they have played so far. And I thought throughout that game, a lot of it was just that it was really hard, and then when we had some easier opportunities, we just didn't take advantage. They make it hard. They make it hard to score around the basket when we’re five of 15 hard touches in the first half, and we had a lead. So if we have a normal kind of 10 of 15, it's a different deal. There's at least three or four of them that were just clean layups we just missed. I thought we did some really good things to give ourselves a lead defensively, I thought we were pretty connected and doing a really good job of making it hard. But we didn't give them second opportunities in that first half, that second half, they started getting some second opportunities right out of the gate, right away.”

On Sam Hoiberg
“Sam Hoiberg was their igniter in that section. And that's what he is for their team. That's kind of what he does for the team. When you talk to their staff, he is the guy when he's not in the game. I think you know when he's in the game, I should say that juice is falling a little bit differently, a little bit differently.”