Notable quotes from Nebraska’s 72-61 loss to the Michigan State Spartans.
Tim Miles on what he learned about his own team tonight:
“You know, I always say I like to play Coach Izzo’s teams because you learn so much about your own team. What I learned obviously … At one point, I felt like there’s not many more things we could do wrong and can allow them to do right because we didn’t take away anything on one end to create anything easy for us on the other end and we didn’t get much bench help. You know, 31-9 on the bench and (Nick) Ward is a big part of that too because he usually doesn’t come off the bench but at the same time, the other guys (Cassius) Winston, (Alvin) Ellis really hurt us so it was a disappointing night because of the idea of the night with Tyronn Lue having his jersey retired.”
On if he felt it was more Michigan State’s play or Nebraska’s that affected the end result:
“I think you give credit where credit is due. I think Miles (Bridges) came back from the injury, take some time and maybe they’re hitting their stride. We had gotten them a few times in a row, so there’s some incentive there. I’m not foolish enough to think that Tom Izzo didn’t bring it up once, but you don’t live on that with these guys. I was just disappointed in that second half when it was a two-point game with seventeen minutes left in the game, and we just go not compete.”
Tom Izzo on Nebraska:
“I think we beat a good team that has been playing good and has a tough time losing some very tight games, but the job Miles has done here is unbelievable. Tim has done a great job. I watch his team. They play hard. They play well, and they are very well coached.
On whether or not Michigan State took this game more personally than others:
“Nebraska has beat us like a drum. In fact, I don’t think we had any players that beat Nebraska. That’s the funny thing in the Twitter era. No one thinks about the day before so there’s positives to Twitter. I just haven’t found one yet but that era, it seems like people don’t think about the past as much. I do but you’d have to ask them. I didn’t hear that as a battle cry and maybe that’s good because right now we’ve just got to get better every day.”
Evan Taylor on Michigan State’s 3-pointers:
“I guess our game plan was that they had a big guy No. 44 (Nick) Ward. We were going to double off him but he didn’t start so that kind of changed the game plan. When you double a big, it’s a risk and you have to rotate and just like Purdue, they hit shots. It’s hard to get the shooters out of that, especially with a team that passes that well so it was tough.”
On Michigan State’s Miles Bridges:
“He’s so versatile, especially to be that size. He can go both ways. He can shoot the 3, shoot the midrange. Obviously he’s a freak athlete so you’ve got to play him straight up, trust your help. Good players are always going to make good plays but the goal is to make them take tough shots. I don’t feel like we did too bad on him, but like I said, good players make good plays.”
On the team’s defensive energy:
“From the beginning I didn’t think our defensive energy was there tonight like it was against Purdue. I think we wanted to be there but we weren’t. We weren’t bouncing and flying around and I mean, when you don’t come to play every night on defense, especially defensively, you take that risk that people could get hot and next thing you know, they have eight 3s in one half. I think our mindset going into the next game should be defense, defense, defense and getting stops.”
Jordy Tshimanga on whether or not he feels he has made a big jump recently:
“I feel so, yes. I haven’t been practicing that much. They’ve been monitoring my foot so I was trying to come in early before practice and after practice and just shoot some more jumpers and some more free throws. I think that really helped.”
