Nebraska Postgame Notes/Quotes vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff

Nebraska Postgame Notes:
*-Nebraska’s 82 points were a season high, topping the previous high of 79 against Maine. NU averaged 1.53 points per possession in the second half. 
*-Nebraska placed a season-high four players (Juwan Gary, Wilhelm Breidenbach, C.J. Wilcher and Blaise Keita) in double figures.
*-Keita posted his first career double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds in 24 minutes. It marked his second double-digit rebounding effort of the season. 
*-With Keita’s 10 rebounds today, a Husker has grabbed 10+ rebounds in each of the last four games, the first time that has happened since the 2010-11 season. 
*- Gary reached double figures for the second time this season with 17 points (previous season high was 14 vs. Maine) and added seven rebounds and matched his career high with three steals.  His 17 points were two off a career best.
*-Wilhelm Breidenbach had a career-high 10 points on Sunday, all in the first half. That bettered his previous high of nine on two occasions, most recently against Maine in the season opener. 
*-NU has had seven different players in double figures during the first four contests.
*-Sam Griesel dished out a season-high seven assists, topping his previous NU best of four against St. John’s.
*-Nebraska committed a season-low 10 turnovers in the win. 
*-Nebraska won the rebounding battle, 37-25, including a 23-7 advantage over the final 20 minutes.

Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg
Opening Statement
“It’s was a game going into that I knew was going to be a battle. This was a team that’s been on a long road trip and knowing you get to go home right after is a dangerous game. This is a team that’s played very well. They had a shot to beat TCU at the buzzer. TCU was 14th in the country at the time. Then there was a two-point game with about 40 to go against Oklahoma. I knew this was going to be a tough team that had a lot of fire power. That certainly showed in the first half. When they got hot, I thought our rotations were slow. Our bottom, low man was late getting out of the paint to get hand pressure. The second half we completely flipped it. I give our guys a lot of credit for coming out and getting chewed out pretty good at halftime and really flipping the script. We were all over the place. Zach Reinhart really had it going in the first half. He didn’t score in the second half. I thought our guys did a good job adjusting. We had different combinations out there. When their big guy came out, we went small and switched everything, which I thought really helped as far as slowing that team down.” 
 
On how the players handled being down at half
“It wasn’t really panic. I thought we were hanging our heads a little bit. You can’t do that. To their credit, they turned that around. Our energy on the bench was phenomenal. In the second half, a guy I give a lot of credit to is Wilhelm. You saw his energy over there, and that’s infectious. That goes throughout the whole team. I thought our whole group over there had it. Give Emmanuel a lot of credit. I thought his ball pressure slowed them down.”
 
On how important it was for the team to respond the way they did
“It was a huge stretch for us to know what we are capable of. If we can combine the first 20 minutes at St. John’s and the last 18 minutes of this game, we have a chance to be pretty good. Just really proud of the guys for hanging in there. Once we got going, it just shows what we are capable of. That’s a talented team that we played. I have been worried about this one for a long time, especially after what they did opening night. To come out and take care of business was very important.”

Nebraska Players
On the talk at halftime in the locker room
Juwan Gary: “We just know basketball, everyone knows it's a game of runs. Coaches really emphasized we’ve just got to cut that off. A lot of teams can go on their run, but at the same time we just have to come as a unit. Come together and just cut it off because that’s what we did. We didn’t fall into pressure, and we didn’t separate, nothing like that. We just went into the second half with this mindset of stopping that run and that’s what we did.”
 
On NU’s defense in the second half
Emmanuel Bandoumel: “Coming into halftime, we told each other we were feeling way too comfortable out there. We had to disrupt the rhythm that they had. That’s exactly what we did. Being physical on cuts, rebounding, on the ball and pressure and all of that. I think we did a good job of applying that knowledge and applying it for 40 minutes. We are still trying to be consistent with that but that’s really how we set the tone. We stay learning but that’s pretty much what we got out of it for the second half.” 
 
On Blaise Keita’s second half
Bandoumel: “It was huge for us. He was huge. He had three rebounds in the first half and finished with 10. He was being more physical. We asked him to do that. We told him, Blaise, ‘you need to control the paint’ and that's exactly what he did in the second half. Grabbing rebounds, being physical with it. Same thing they do on the other side. Controlling the pain. He had two or three dunks so he responded pretty well.” 
 
On making a pair of early 3-pointers
Gary: “Within the game, a team with a belief in my shot, I’ve been working on that all season. I’ve got that, but at the same time, my teammates are finding me at the right time, at the right spot. I was still finding my teammates and still feeling out their energy. Their energy really does help me get to the basket anytime I want to, make open shots, make the right read, but all of that was just me playing within the game.”
 
Bandoumel on how important it was to win and take control of this game before playing Oklahoma 
“It’s really important especially after what happened last game at St. John’s. We needed to flush it out, and I think we responded tonight in a big way of making a statement that we still do what we are supposed to do. We are still staying on course. Whatever happens, we will keep grinding and keep grinding everyday. Everybody knows it’s a one step at a time thing. We’re not going to be extremely successful from the beginning. We’re still learning, we’re still learning how to play together, still learning our defense out there and hone it and be able to shut down teams. It’s about doing that at the end of the day. It’s game four, so there's still a lot of games left in the season."

Arkansas-Pine Bluff Head Coach Solomon Bozeman
On how his team responded from early deficit
“It’s simple. We got to defend and rebound. We defend and rebound, and we can compete with anybody. As we’ve shown against TCU and Oklahoma, we defend and rebound. We are a tough, gritty team. We got to do better for two halves. We did it for a half today, not even really a half. We did it for 10 minutes. I thought we did a good job of being a tough, gritty team. It's going to take some time. That's got to be our identity: a tough gritty team.”

On the challenging beginning of schedule
“I think this experience is going to help us a lot. We are playing against some of the top teams in the country. They have size, they have length and they have athleticism. I think that is going to help us down the road especially when we get into conference. We just got to keep competing and getting better. I love this team. I love this group. We do a lot of good things on the offensive end. At the end of the day, it all comes from the defensive end. As long as we defend and rebound, we are going to be fine.”

On Zach Reinhardt’s career day
“He’s a worker. He is one of the hardest workers I've seen in a long, long time. I’ve been around some pros that work three times a day, and he’s in the gym three times a day and sometimes four. Getting shots up, he’s going to be a big-time player. Love his confidence. He’s not scared of the moment. He’s not shy. He’s confident, and that's because he works. He continues to put it in every day.”

NU Athletic Communications