Nebraska Postgame Notes/Quotes vs. Northwestern

Nebraska Postgame Notes vs. Northwestern

• Keisei Tominaga had 22 points, the highest point total of his career in a Big Ten game and one point shy of his overall career high. Tominaga scored 15 of his 22 points in the first half on his way to his 12th double-digit scoring effort this season. He scored the Huskers’ first 12 points of the game and was a perfect 5-for-5 from the field to open the game. The 20-point game was Tominaga’s second this season and the third of his career.
• Tominaga’s 22-point game was the ninth 20-point game by a Husker this season.
• Making his first career start, Jamarques Lawrence had a career-high 12 points, eclipsing his previous high of nine points against Kansas State last month. He was 4-of-8 from the 3-point line after entering the game with six 3-pointers this season. His four 3-pointer tonight ties a team season high for Nebraska.
• Lawrence made his first career start tonight, replacing Emmanuel Bandoumel (knee) in the lineup. It marked the sixth different lineup NU has used this season.
• Nebraska made nine 3-pointers against the Wildcats, above the team’s season average of six and the most since the Huskers also made nine 3-pointers against Purdue on Dec. 10.  
• Sam Hoiberg set career highs with six points and six rebounds in a career-high 17 minutes. Hoiberg entered the game with seven points and three rebounds in his first nine games of the season, playing a total of 12 minutes in his first nine games. Nebraska outscored Northwestern by 11 points in Hoiberg’s 17 minutes on the court.
• Sam Griesel had a team-high four steals tonight and has nine steals in the last two games.
• Nebraska outscored Northwestern 30-26 in the paint. The Huskers have outscored their opponent in the paint in seven straight games and have either led or been tied in paint points in 10 straight contests. 

Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg
On what his takeaway was from the effort on both ends of the floor
“Obviously the turnovers and the second-chance points in the first half did us in. They have great physicality. We knew that coming in. We knew they were going to pressure us, and we just let them dictate where we went. That led to too many turnovers, which got them out in transition. We made a great run with a lot of reserves in the game and got back and took a nice lead before they dominated the rest of the half on us. They hit shots and got comfortable. I thought a lot of that was off turnovers at the end of that first half. You can’t allow that to happen. You’ve got to value every possession and take care of it. I’m proud of those guys off the bench that came in there and gave us a nice lift, but we just couldn’t sustain it. They took a big lead with momentum going into half time and overall they were the aggressive team tonight. That can’t happen.”
 
On how Northwestern was able to contain Derrick Walker
“They made it tough on Derrick (Walker). He had some uncharacteristic turnovers in there. When the ball is in Derrick’s hands, he has shown time and time again he makes good decisions and good things happen. Tonight was not one of those days for whatever reason. Give Northwestern credit for coming out there and making it difficult. (Matthew) Nicholson’s big, he did a good job of walling him up, and Derrick couldn't get in any type of rhythm tonight. Obviously, he is a huge part of what we do within our system and getting the ball on the top of the floor and making plays, but we had some uncharacteristic turnovers that led to easy baskets for their team.”
 
On Jamarques Lawrence’s career high 12 points and other bench contributions
“It was good. He didn’t back down at all or show any fear. He was really down after the Penn State game, but I thought he bounced back with great effort and preparation and went out defending one of the top guards in this league in Boo Buie and did a solid job on him. It was good to see four threes for a freshman in this league against that defense is pretty darn impressive. You look at some of the other bench guys, I thought Sam (Hoiberg) gave us a nice lift, he was +11 out there on the floor. We need to bounce back. Can't let this affect our preparation. We are going to see a good defense on Saturday that we haven’t seen all year and need to have two good days of prep.”

Nebraska Guard Sam Griesel
On what allowed Northwestern to have the success they did
“Obviously, they shot it well. Credit to them. I mean from the jump, we just have to be better. We need more energy. Defense is a lot of mental stuff. We didn’t come out with the right mindset tonight. Like I said, we lacked the energy we needed to be able to fly around and talk like our defense needed. But, the biggest thing is that we can’t let this game topple over into the next few (games). Obviously, we have some tough road games coming up. We will be back to practice tomorrow. We can’t have it hang over into the next few games. We’ve got to stick to our culture and what we know. We need a better start next game.”
 
On the impact of not having Emmanuel (Bandoumel) defend the perimeter
“Those two (Buie and Audige) are very talented players. We talked about it before the game that those two are the heads of the snake if you will. If you want to beat Northwestern, you’ve got to stop those two. Obviously, we didn’t do a good enough job in defending them. Losing Emmanuel and Juwan (Gary) is awful, but it is a next man up mentality. Northwestern doesn’t care. Any team that we play doesn’t care what happened and what adversity we are going through. That’s the bottom line. We have however many games left in the season, and we’ve got to figure that out and figure out our roles and move forward.”
 
On what disappointed him on the offensive play tonight
“I think our slow start offensively kind of dictated how we played defense. I think we can’t let that happen. We need to come out with more energy defensively and let the offense take care of itself. We can’t be down. That starts from the top down. That starts with me and Derrick being the leaders of this team. If we don’t have it going offensively, we need to be able to rely on our defense and let that trickle over to the offense and not the other way around.”
 
On what he thought of Jamarques’ (Lawrence) first start
“I think he can shoot the ball really well. He just plays hard. Like I talked about before, he’s just a great kid. He’s coachable and listens to the older guys. He takes coaching very well. Anything you tell him, he’s going to try and do it to the best of his capability. If he makes a mistake, he knows. He’s a freshman. Freshman are always going to make mistakes, but it’s just about moving on to the next play. He’s understanding that and I’m proud of him.”

Northwestern Coach Chris Collins 
Opening Statement
“Anytime you get a chance to get a win on the road in this league, it is big. Whoever you play. Wherever you play. There is always such great support in this building. I feel for those injuries. I really do. I feel for Fred (Hoiberg) and his staff because I have had a chance to watch this Nebraska team play all year, and it has been my favorite Nebraska team to watch in quite a while and having those two guys get hurt just so unfortunate. Two guys I really enjoyed watching play, and obviously I wish them the best with their recovery. I thought Nebraska came out with great energy. (Keisei) Tominaga was brilliant early. We didn’t do a very good job. When a guy is a terrific shooter, if you give him layups, the basket can look really big. We gave him two layups early on drives right away, and he really gave them a huge lift early. I think he had 15 maybe in the first eight to ten minutes of the game. I thought we did a pretty good job on (Derrick) Walker and (Sam) Griesel. We knew coming into the game in order for them to be at their best those three guys were going to have to put up big numbers. Walker is a really difficult guy to defend because Fred does such a good job at getting him in places on the floor that it is hard to get a lot of help. He is right in the middle of the floor. I thought we did a pretty good job with our help with our doubles. We got him to turn the ball over five times, and he only got seven points, so that was a huge key in the game coming in. They made a conscious effort to get the ball out of our guards’ hands which I thought they might do. They had shown that in some of their previous games. They were double-teaming a lot of our ball screens with Boo (Buie) and Chase (Audige), and we really talked to our guys about being willing passers and understanding that if they are going to take the ball out of their hands that other guys were going to be open. And obviously Ty (Berry) was the main beneficiary of that. The 20-whatever points he had in the first half were huge. It was like two guys I thought were playing horse out there. Tominaga and Berry in the first half. And then our defense kind of settled in, and we were able to have a 16–20-minute stretch in the game where I thought we played really good defense, forced some turnovers and got out in transition. We were able to push the lead out and then held on. I was real concerned. This was our second game in three days. Obviously, we haven’t practiced much since guys got sick and we were out. So, when you have a lead like that with five minutes to go, I could kind of since our guys getting a little foot off the gas pedal. When you do that in this league all of sudden guys score on you. I give them credit I think they cut it to 14 there. I thought Audige had two huge baskets. He gets a tip dunk and then a back cut against their 1-3-1 trapping zone they were doing for a layup, and we were able to bring it home. Really proud of the guys. Really proud to get two league wins in three days with traveling. We are in the midst of a big stretch for us right now. We have six games in the next 13 days. These two being one of them just to recoup some of the games we didn’t get a chance to play. We have to get home and get a chance to get back at it Saturday morning.”
 
On Northwestern’s defensive performance
“I just thought we got a little more physical with (Nebraska’s) cutting. That was the main thing. Fred does such a great job. He is such a brilliant offensive coach. There spacing is so good. You have a passer in Walker at the big guy position when they are in that five out they are constantly moving and back cutting and slipping cuts. I thought we were more physical as the game (went on). That was a point of emphasis. If you don’t get your body on those guys, they are going to get open because they cut quick. They have great spacing. I thought early in the game their freedom of movement they were kind of going wherever they wanted to go. I thought we just got a little more physical against their cutting, against their actions. We were able to force some turnovers and get out in transition and get some baskets which always helps too.”
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