Nebraska Postgame Notes/Quotes vs. Kansas State

Nebraska Postgame Notes

• Alonzo Verge Jr. scored a game-high 21 points, his fourth game this season and 16th time in his career surpassing the 20-point mark.
• Verge Jr.'s 21-point effort marked 10th 20-point game of the season.
• Verge Jr. dished out a team-high five assists, recording his sixth game of the year with at least five assists.
• Bryce McGowens had 14 points, scoring in double-figures for the eighth time this season.
• The Husker defense forced a season-high 12 steals. The previous season-high for the Big Red was 11 in a four-OT loss at NC State.
• Kelsei Tominaga tied his career-high with three steals on Sunday (also vs. Western Illinois and Auburn).
• Derrick Walker Jr. finished with nine rebounds, the fifth time this season he has grabbed eight or more boards.
• Nebraska caused 19 K-State turnovers, the second-most by a Nebraska opponent this season. One shy of NC-State's 20 in the four-OT game.

Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg
On shots not falling
“Yeah at times, I think so. Again when Keisei (Tominaga) hit those first two I thought he was off and running. I thought he was going to have a huge night and unfortunately a couple that hit every part of the rim bounced out. That is how he has been at practice. He has probably hit 14 for 18 in these last three days. When he made those first two, I thought he was going to continue on, but unfortunately those shots stopped falling. We had those 12 minutes that were as good as we have played all year on both ends of the floor and unfortunately we just lost our rhythm and they made the plays at the end and we did not.”

On shot selection
“We got good looks early. I thought they were really good shots. I thought we had some good ones throughout the flow of the game the rest of the way, but the step-back ones we talked about have got to stop. We just have to continue to move it. We played through Derrick (Walker) a little bit, but I thought but not enough. We have to get him the ball in better positions to make plays. I knew there was going to be some growing pains through this. We have another week after this next one to work on some of the nuances of what we are looking at but overall it just goes back to what made us successful early you have to continue on with that and continue with those type of possessions. We did not do a good enough job tonight.”

On Kansas State's defense
“It is what they do. It is how they play. We knew it was coming. We had our pressure releases which we executed really well early in the contest. We drove in there a few times I thought we had wide-open shooters on the perimeter, and I thought we tried to finish over length. It is going to be a good film session tomorrow to learn from this one and hopefully have a good last one here before the break.”

On the importance of finishing strong before the break
“It is important. We need it. We need to win. We need to get some confidence going with this group. Through this time nobody is going to feel sorry for us. You cannot drop your heads. You have to keep grinding keep working and hopefully come out and play well on Wednesday.”

Nebraska Forward Derrick Walker Jr.
On the difference between the first 12 minutes and after
“We were not moving the ball. You want to hit the shots. We were not being tough with the ball. We allowed them to get a lot of points in transition and also second-chance points.”

On Kansas State gaining momentum
“We stopped boxing out. We were not hitting our open shots. We were not defending as good as we should. We were not talking as much as we could have talked. When we took a step back from what we did (early on) is when they took a step forward.”

Kansas State Coach Bruce Weber
On his team's defensive effort
“What we did was settled down and protected the paint, that was the key against them. Don’t let them get in the paint. Once we stopped that and got the ball going, the turnovers helped us get some easy baskets. We got to the shooters. The one big emphasis this week no matter where we were we needed to get our hands up and contest those shots to make them a little tougher. I thought our offense was going to dictate what our defense was like. Also keeping them off the free throw line was going to be a big key. For the most part we did a pretty good job of that.”

On how to get out of scoring slumps
“Move the basketball and make them breakdown. Every game is different and every one defends differently, and you got to adjust to that.”

On points off of turnovers
“We did a good job. That was a big part of that stretch going into halftime where we not only go the steals, but we made the right plays. It’s something we’ve worked on and talked about. We are getting more efficient. If our defense can create offense and make the right plays, it’s obviously going to help us.”





NU Athletic Communications