Postgame Notes and Quotes: North Dakota State

Nebraska Postgame Notes
*-Nebraska improves to 2-0 all-time against North Dakota State, as the other meeting came in 1933.

*-Nebraska held North Dakota State to 29 percent shooting, the best defensive performance by the Huskers under Fred Hoiberg. It was the best defensive performance in 70 games dating back to the 2018-19 season opener against Southeastern Louisiana (26.8 percent).

*-Nebraska has three games with 10+ steals in 2020-21, equaling the entire 2019-20 total of games with double-figure steals.

*-The last time Nebraska had three straight games with 10+ steals came during the 2016-17 season (at Indiana, at Maryland, vs. Iowa). That is the only other time it happened in the last decade.

*-Teddy Allen’s 22 points marked his fourth career 20-point game and first at Nebraska. He had three at West Virginia during the 2017-18 season.

*-Allen had five steals against North Dakota State, matching his season and career high. Allen, who came into the game 10th nationally in steals at 4.0 per game, has 13 in three games at Nebraska. He had 13 in 35 games at West Virginia during his freshman year.

*-Trey McGowens’ 19-point effort was a season high.

*-Dalano Banton threated with a triple double, finishing with 13 points and season bests in both assists (eight) and rebounds (nine). He has dished out at least five assists in each of NU’s three games and nearly a 4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

*-Nebraska has committed 10 or fewer turnovers in each of the first three games this season.

Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg
On the defense:
“I thought we were really good. We had that nine-minute stretch where they scored the majority of their points. I thought we took the foot off the gas a little bit. I thought we got a little extended. They got into the paint 16 times in the last nine minutes, as opposed to four the first 11 minutes (of the half) and just the activity level out of the gate was exactly where it needed to be. We have to continue that. We have to continue to get off to great starts. The way we converted those turnovers obviously was so much better than it was against Nevada the other day. In a one-possession game those matter, and maybe it doesn’t get to that last shot if we finish a couple of those plays early in the game. But I thought our defensive energy was off the charts. I thought it started with Trey. I thought he did a great job on (Tyree) Eady because he is a hell of a player and limit him the way he did. Thorir did a great job staying in front. (Sam) Griesel is a big strong 6-6 point guard and that’s different for our guys. These guys want to drive they want to probe and the short turnaround like we had the mental preparation is such a key to going out there and playing the right way. And that’s what our guys did. They had great preparation in a short amount of time. Third game in four days and I thought we played with great energy all the way through.”
 
On thoughts after three games:
“The thing I talked to them about after the game against Nevada was the way that our guys care the way they compete I knew we would bounce back with great effort. Now the thing about this game especially early was the ball went through the hoop. That didn’t happen against Nevada. We talked a lot about movement. We talked a lot about shot selection. We had one little stretch where it wasn’t great, but for the majority of this game I thought we made the right play out there on the floor and we played for each other. You can just see it. You see how much it bothered them in that locker room after the loss to Nevada so I did sense a good bounce back and I was happy to see us come out with the energy early and then the way we finished off those last seven or eight minutes shows what we are capable of.”  
 
On steals through three games:
“We’ve been really active. I thought when we shrunk in our gaps that’s when we got a lot of those deflections and as you know with Doc’s (Assistant coach Doc Sadler) teams it’s all about trying to keep the ball out of the paint. We did a great job early. In the one stretch where we gave up the majority of points in those last nine minutes of the half that’s when we got extended. When we are in our gaps and we keep the ball out of the paint we really give them one option. When they get in the paint, they can get to the rim they can spray out to shooters. So when we keep it tight we are a pretty darn effective team. The other thing we have is length this year. You got length across the board. You got guys who are out there battling and talking. I love what this group is all about. I like the makeup and that’s why we are going to have a chance this season.”
 
Junior Guard Trey McGowens
On the defense:
“Going into the season, we knew we were really versatile, and we would be able to use our length on the defensive end. North Dakota State is a great team. They got a lot of good pieces. They definitely out rebounded us. That is something we have to work on. Just being in the passing lanes and ball pressure that is something that coach preaches especially how athletic we are and just the length we have. Even our offense didn’t go well especially against Nevada, defensively we were good like he said we should have made a couple more shots. Going back on film there was a couple key possessions we should have locked in and been better, but I think we are learning definitely getting better.”
 
On the second half:
“I think it was just a lot of movement and then we tried to key in on stops and rebounds. They had 26 offensive rebounds so that is way too many. I feel like when it was time to really lock in and we did (in the second half). We really locked in on the defensive end and we understand that the offensive is going to come because we have scorers. Thursday obviously wasn’t one of our best nights scoring and hopefully it is one of the worst nights we are going to have like that. Just defense is going to keep us in ball games and then offense is going to win it for us.”
 
Sophomore Guard Dalano Banton
On coming back after a loss:
“That was the fuel to this fire. We know that after a L the bounce back is where it’s got to be. We can’t hang our heads on it. We all know from me to everyone down in that locker room we know that our next important game is going to be the next game. Every time whether we win or lose. So just to not hang our heads on the past whether it is a win or loss we know that our next important game we got to do whatever we got to do to come out with the victory and if we leave everything out on the floor we are going to be happy regardless of the outcome.”
 
North Dakota State Head Coach David Richman
Thoughts on the game 
“Do you want the perspective or the reality? I’ll give you the reality. We’re not good enough right now, it’s the bottom line. I think we need to get tougher; we need to play with more poise, and we need some experience. When I say the experience part that’s more the perspective. The perspective is we were hoping to have an exhibition game to play Missouri State or Southern Miss or Milwaukee, someone that we would consider more of a peer and that didn’t happen. But this is exactly where we need to be to, because you can talk about a lot of things in practice, work through a lot of things, show some things, we need some game experience, we need some guys to play tougher, play with more poise. We need some guys to grow up and be a better version of themselves. We need that to happen quick, but we also got a little time here too to work towards where we need to be when it matters.” 
 
On the offensive run at the end of the first half 
I thought Jaxon Knotek just came in and played with swagger, he played with confidence and that was it and everybody just started feeding off of him a little bit. I thought Jax [Knotek] was really good today. One of the big question marks was how are we going to be at the point. We got some things to work on and get better and fix, but I’ve been very pleased with how Sam Griesel has been at the point, taking pretty good care of the ball in the minutes he’s played against some good teams. I thought Jax gave us some swagger and that’s what helped us cut into the margin but both half's we didn’t start very well. That’s something too as a staff, myself got to look at and see what we can do to get better right away.” 
 
On turnovers  
“Certainly, they pull some length and athleticism things that we don’t see on a daily basis, that we don’t see in the Summit League. That being said, you could fall into excuse traps real quick. I’m still going to put the ownership on us. We get rattled by that pressure and put our head down and we get sped up and travel or how many times in the last couple of days did we step out of bounds. Little things where length pushes you out just a little farther than your normal comfort zone, but that’s good. Score sucks and that’s the reality piece of it but the perspective is that I figured there would be a little bit of this and guess what there’s going to be some more real quick against some really, really good teams if we don’t fix some things.  
 

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