Notable quotes from Nebraska’s 67-66 loss to Ohio State.
Tim Miles on Ohio State’s final shot:
“We called timeout to see what they were lined up in and they’re lined up in kind of a play where they cross a big and circle out their other big and they kind of cross their wings and they send one of those wings out. I just felt like it was going to be (Marc) Loving or Kam Williams coming off for a jumper so we decided we have two different types of end-out defense so we decided to switch screens and we switched it out just fine. In fact, they were watching the first option which is that guy coming off the single but Glynn (Watson Jr.) lost his feet and he’s down on his hands and knees and can’t get back in front of Loving. He was down for a while. They almost didn’t see him but at the same time I don’t care what you run if you fall down. You’re going to give up a layup and that’s what happened.”
On what he told the team:
“If you can get past the emotion of that last second play – this is what I told the guys in the locker room – let’s just look at our body of work. We played a really good first half. Nine assists on whatever it was field goals, on 18 field goals. We built a lead, kept a lead, played a very steady defensive game and then you come out the second half and we get 7 field goals, they get 17. They get us 30-10 in the paint. We don’t force a turnover. That’s the problem, right? Then we don’t close the game. From 3:58 to 2:07, we go 0-2 at the line, then we come down and get a 3, then we miss a layup and then we come back and miss two free throws. At the same time, we only hold them in those two plus minutes, they only score one time I think. We should have a 3, 4, 5 point lead by the time we took the lead so a lot of young mistakes. Guys that are freshman, sophomores that were making them but you know, I guess you learn by putting your hand on the burner and that’s what we did tonight. We got burnt.”
Tai Webster the first half versus the second:
“I think our pace was good. We were moving the ball around. It was sticking quite a bit as well but I think once we really moved it and got back to scoring buckets out of our defense in transition and stuff like that, that’s when we were able to get out and get the lead and we didn’t really come out in the second half with the same pace that we needed.”
Evan Taylor on how the Huskers ended up where they did in the second half:
“I think the biggest thing is regardless of the play, you’ve got to think about how you got there. We went into halftime with the lead. Like Tai said, we came out without the same pace so you know, if we go back to the beginning of the second half, everything leading up to that and think, ‘How did we put ourselves in that position?’ So when you don’t take it seriously when you get in that position, anything can happen. The ball didn’t bounce our way tonight but in the same breath, we have to have a short memory. We have a game Saturday.”
Michael Jacobson on his message to the team post-game:
“Just that I know it. That’s going to hurt a lot for everybody. That one definitely stings. I felt like we had control of the game, at least the whole first half and maybe had some chances to put them away and we didn’t. To come back and to play that bad in the second half and end up with that L, especially in a tie conference this year and now we’re .500 and I feel like maybe we should be better than that. I just said I know it hurts and we’ve got to get ready and come back Saturday and we can’t keep letting this thing slide.”
