Nebraska (21-9, 12-5 Big Ten) had plenty to say following a 66-57 win over Indiana (16-13, 9-8 Big Ten) Tuesday night.
Here are a few notable quotes from the postgame press conference.
Head coach Tim Miles with his thoughts on the win:
“I thought it was interesting for our guys. I thought the first half we were really jittery. Again, you could see that we shot 15 3s and no free throws, which is not like us. At halftime, they talked about playing with confidence, this, that and the other thing. I am like guys, ‘Nobody’s game has changed in the three weeks. You know, what has changed is the circumstances. But, you should embrace that.’
"That is kind of what an upstart has to do, they have to win a game like this to gain that confidence. Especially, when you're cruising along, you’re winning, you beat Maryland even though you’re a little tight. Then, all the sudden you drop one and its like oh boy. You just can’t play like its oh boy, you have to play like it's, ‘I know this is going to go our way’. But, you don’t do that until you’ve earned it. And that was kind of tonight, one of those nights when I think we earned a victory. I think it really helped them build that belief that we can beat anybody.”
Indiana head coach Archie Miller on limiting guard James Palmer Jr. to 15 points:
“He’s a good player. I thought, for the most part, we just tried to make him earn everything. I don’t think he had a whole lot of easy ones. If he did, it was off of our turnovers in transition. I think in the halfcourt, I thought [guard] Rob [Johnson] in particular did a good job keeping him in front. Our team kind of contained the paint for the most part. It’s hard, though. It’s hard to contain him. He’s big, he’s strong, he can score and he’s probably a first team all-conference player.”
Guard Evan Taylor on the differences in the way they closed out Indiana and Illinois:
“I think we got stops. In the Illinois game, we allowed them to get second shots. Tonight, we got stops.”
Forward Isaiah Roby on the defensive emphasis entering the game:
“Yesterday in practice we really focused on defense. We didn’t really do much, it was more of a mental day. But, it was probably 70 percent focusing on them, not on us. The coaches did a really good job of telling us what their game plan was offensively. We were able to disrupt them, frustrate them, and get some steals and force them into some tough shots.
“[Three-point defense] was the number one priority. When you've got a guy like Johnson, he made nine last game. That had to be a number one emphasis. It was our goal to slow him down, slow down their point guard and we did a pretty good job of that.”
Miles on how he feels heading into Penn State and making winning plays:
“No doubt you feel a little bit better when you win. We did not hustle the way we needed to in the first half, but we did in the second half. We did a much better job. Everything about our game in terms of our aggressiveness and the right way to play, you could see in the stat sheet but you’ve got to look for it. As a coach, you see it, as fans, you see that extra effort and it will show up in the right places.”
Roby on the team's mindset heading into the final game of the season:
“It is a must-win. Can’t lose anymore. If we want to go to the tournament, we have to build our résumé. We have another big game on Sunday. Today was a big game for us to win and then we have to make some noise in the tournament, too.”
Derek is a newbie on the Hail Varsity staff covering Husker athletics. In college, he was best known as ‘that guy from Twitter.’ He has covered a Sugar Bowl, a tennis national championship and almost everything in between (except an NCAA men’s basketball tournament game… *tears*). In his spare time, he can be found arguing with literally anyone about sports.
