Postgame Notes and Quotes: McNeese State (11/25/20)

Postgame Notes
*-Nebraska’s 102 points was the Huskers’ highest point total since scoring 106 against Mississippi Valley State on Nov. 6, 2018. It is the 42^nd time Nebraska has scored 100 points in a game (38-4 record)
*-Nebraska put six players in double figures, the first time that has happened since Nov. 11, 2018 against Southeastern Louisiana. All six players who reached double figures were making their Husker debut today.
*-Nebraska forced 27 turnovers, including 16 steals. Six players finished with multiple steals. Nebraska turned the 27 turnovers into 43 points.
*-Lat Mayen’s 13 points was his career best, as his previous high was 12 when he played at TCU in 2018-19.
 
 
Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg
On the first game:
“I wasn’t surprised. I knew we would come out and compete. That I was absolutely confident in. How you come out with jitters and that type of thing in the first real game setting. You just don’t know how that will go down but I was very confident that we would come out and compete. That’s just what this group is made of. I was really impressed on how we came out and shared the ball early. 12 assists on our first 16 baskets was great. 19 assists overall and 10 turnovers. I thought we did a really good job for the most part of making simple plays and taking care of the basketball. And had we finished some easy ones that could have very easily been 25 or 26 assists. I thought the group out there played really well together. I thought our spacing was very good overall for the most part and it was a great first game for us that we can build on.”
 
On the defensive performance:
“I thought the activity level on the defense was exactly where we needed it. I thought our guys had great hands. We had some deflections that led to some runouts and that’s what gets your confidence going when you can deflect balls and get into your transition game and get easy baskets. That makes everything else easier. So to see 43 off of turnovers. 29 on the break, that’s a great sign. That’s going to be something we have to do because again we aren’t going to be the biggest team here for the first half of the season so we are going to have to find a way to manufacture points get deflections and hopefully we get some transition baskets.”
 
On Thorir Thorbjarnarson:
“We just felt like he would be our main defender on Dru Kuxhausen. Just because we felt like he is our most disciplined guy and he was able to lock on that hip. We weren’t helping off of him. We were going to chase and not switch anytime unless it was an emergency and I thought Thorir did a really good job. If you get on top of him and let him get into your body it’s over and if he is open it’s going in. You just look at the difficult the caliber of shots he takes. The difficulty it takes to shoot 46% from the 3-point line is incredible. The kid is one of the best shot makers I have seen with deep, deep range. I thought Thorir made him work for everything he got. I thought Kobe did a nice job on him as well there at the end of the game.”
 
On the physicality at the rim:
“That obviously wasn’t one of the strengths we had today. Yvan obviously had three or four where he needs to kick those out. That’s something we have worked a lot on when you get surrounded inside that you need to make the right play and kick it out. That’s a great time to get an open three. But that’s an area we’ve worked really hard. We get a lot of attempts. We led the nation in attempts at the rim last year but we also led the nation in our shots blocked and that was a perfect example of what happened when we didn’t kick the ball out and make the right play. We will get better. We will definitely get better in that area.”
 
 

NU Athletic Communications