Story by NU Athletic Communications
*-Nebraska improves to 11-2 on the season for the second straight season. It matches NU’s best record since opening the 1991-92 season with a 12-1 mark after 13 games.*-Nebraska finishes its non-conference slate with a 10-1 mark, marking the sixth time since WW2 that Nebraska has finished non-conference action with one loss (2023-24; 2018-19, 2003-04, 1991-92, 1977-78).*-With the win, Nebraska has now won 19 straight at home dating back to December of 2023. The Huskers are one shy of the program record of 20 set two previous times. *-With tonight’s win, NU is 19-1 at home in non-conference action over the last three seasons.*-Nebraska had an 11-0 run in the first half, the 11th double-figure run of the season.*-Connor Essegian (20) and Andrew Morgan (11) both finished in double figures off the bench. NU now has 14 double-figure efforts from the bench this season. *-Essegian led all scorers with 20 points, his third 20-point game of the season and fifth of his career. It marks the 10th time in Fred Hoiberg’s six seasons that NU has had a player come off the bench and finish with at least 20 points.*-Essegian matched his career high with six 3-pointers (also vs. South Dakota and North Florida). He has hit five-or-more 3-pointers four times this season.*-Nebraska finished with 22 assists, its second-highest total of the year. In addition to Rollie Worster, who had six assists without a turnover, Sam Hoiberg added a career-high five assists.*-Brice Williams has reached double figures in 12 of NU’s 13 games, finishing with 11 points. He went over the 1,500-point mark for his career. Williams also matched his season high with seven boards.*-Nebraska tied a season high with 13 3-pointers, the third time this season NU hit 10-or-more 3-pointers in a game.
*-Nebraska’s defense posted season lows in field goal percentage (25.4%), 3-point percentage (12.5%), 3-pointers made (3) and free throw percentage (37.5%).*-The 43 points allowed and 25.4 percent field goal percentage by Southern were the lowest since Mississippi Valley State had 37 points and 19.1 percent shooting on Nov. 6, 2018.
*-Berke Büyüktuncel tied his career high nine rebounds, the fourth time this season he has grabbed nine or more rebounds.
Nebraska Head Coach Fred Hoiberg
On setting the tone defensively
“That’s the biggest thing we talked about the last couple days, was getting off to a good start. This team – Southern – has shown that they’ll hang in games if you allow them to get off to good starts. They did that against Texas A&M, they were up 14 at half and had Ole Miss all the way to the end. This team is very capable. It was important for us to get off to a really good start, and that’s what we did defensively. I’m not really thrilled with how the offense was in the second half. I thought we got stalled, I thought we got stagnant and held the ball too much, after a really good couple days of moving that thing around and playing point five basketball. Tonight, in the second half, we just didn’t have it. The group I’m really proud of is that group that ended the game. I’m going to give Gavin (Griffiths) a lot of credit for keeping himself ready. He had a good week of practice, and that’s what this thing is all about, is taking advantage of your minutes and going out there and playing to the best of your ability. I thought he did that on both ends, not only offensively, but I thought he had a good couple defensive possessions out there as well. That’s what leads to more time. Another guy, probably nobody even realizes it, but we put Jeffrey Grace and Cale Jacobsen in the game against Oregon State with nine seconds left. Cale flew across the court to contest a shot. Jeff Grace had maybe our best block of the night. He dove on the floor. People don’t see those kinds of things, behind the scenes, what those guys do for the culture. There’s never any emotional outburst, there’s never any adversity with those guys. They just come in and work every day. It’s nice to see them go out there and get recognized by their teammates for making those kinds of plays. Those are huge. At the end of the year, when you’re looking at your resume – I’m proud of that group for going out there and playing the right way. Sometimes, in a blowout, you get out there and just try to jack up shots, but that group finished the game. With Jeff, Henry (Burt), Gavin, most specifically, those guys were plus nine, plus seven in under three minutes. Gavin played four. I wanted to give those guys a shoutout because of what they mean for our program.”
On perimeter defense
“Our defense has to be our constant. We’re not a real pretty team, so our defense has to be our calling card. Every time we step on the floor, that has to be what gets us going. We had a little bit of a rhythm, we shot the ball, I think we made 13 threes, but if we go out there and guard like we have been, then we’re going to have a chance to win most nights that we step on the floor. We can’t back off that, we’re not a finesse team. Last year I thought we were, with Keisei (Tominaga) with his shots, CJ (Wilcher), other guys that could get it going from the perimeter. This team has a chance to be a gritty, dirty, grimy team, similar to what it was a couple years ago with (Emmanuel) Bandoumel and (Juwan) Gary when they were healthy. I’ve liked how we’ve gone out and competed on that end, we’ve got to get better on the glass. They got 17 but they missed a lot of shots. I think it’s about 30%, that’s the number we want to keep them under on their offensive rebound percentage. Clean that up, clean the turnovers up, and hopefully we’ll have a chance to have a good season.”
On the challenge of a non-conference game
“This is always a dangerous game. It’s the last bye game for these teams. After this they get to go home. This is a grind for teams like this. I’ve had a lot of close games and situations like this. A game, Mississippi Valley State, shoot eight years ago, they hit a three at the buzzer, we beat them by one. I mean these games cause a lot of anxiety for a coach, but our guys came out with a lot of energy. I give them credit after coming back from the west, and that’s not easy to do. I remember the hardest game to play in my NBA player career was when I was coming back from the west coast. Our guys came out, took care of business, and were exactly where we should be right now. You lose one non-conference game, very similar to last year, we’re 1-1 in league. We won a home game and lost a road game. It’s very important here that we have good preparation. Guys can’t go out and go crazy for new years, have fun after the season. We’ve got two days of prep, Wednesday Thursday, to get ready for an early game on Saturday. We’ve got to put this one behind us, and get ready for an incredibly skilled, talented, tough UCLA team.”
Nebraska Junior Guard Connor Essegian
On his good games
“Honestly, it just comes to me. We did a really good job passing the ball. There were a couple of turnovers too. I had three, that needs to change. It’s just kind of playing the flow, we knew they were going to be in a lot of different types of zones, and that does help as a shooter. But when you have guys like Rollie (Worster) that do a good job at finding guys like me, it works together.”
On the importance of building Gavin Griffiths’ confidence after scoring drought
“It’s huge for all of us. We’re the type of team that loves to see our teammates succeed. For him to come in and still be ready after that drought, to be able to come in and play like he does and knock down two threes – to have that energy, it’s hard to do in situations like that so I’m really proud of him, we’re all pretty proud of him and happy for him.”
On what lies ahead for conference play
“It’s going to be a gauntlet, it always is every year. That’s just what the Big Ten is, and we’ve got a really good team coming in here to start things off in this back end of it. You just have to be able to take care of your body, making sure you’re doing the little things every day to make sure that you feel good. If you don’t, it’s going to hurt and you’re going to pay for it. We do a pretty good job of that, so I think longevity is a big part in this.”
Senior Guard Rollie Worster
On growing from the first non-conference games
“I think that we have gotten a lot better, and still need to improve. I think it’s good to be successful in these games and it’s better to learn from a win, as Coach (Hoiberg) always says. But I think for us, building on what we’ve done and looking back, we’re a much better team, especially defensively, and we just need to keep improving.”
On playing as point guard“I think we just need to get into certain sets. Obviously, they try to slow the game down a little bit on us and cause havoc. But I think for me, just pulling it out, getting us set in our positions and then also running, I knew we could out-transition on this team. And I think versus zone, getting out in transition, offensive rebounding was key to beat a zone. I think we did that pretty well.
On how the Hawaii experience helped the team come together ahead of conference play
“Any game or tournament like that is big, especially in the pre-season. See where your team is at and have the chance to win a championship. You don’t have a lot of those opportunities. I think for us, we just wanted to go down there and handle business, it was a business trip. I think getting back from a long trip like that, and obviously, the time change and all of that, taking care of your body was key, and making sure that everyone was locked in for this game and going forward. I think we are doing a good job of that.”
Southern Head Coach Kevin Johnson
On playing in a power 5 environment
“I thought they fought, this is not the first power five environment we’ve been in. We’re a little bit short handed tonight, missing two of our three leading scores so we knew it was going to be tough. But Nebraska’s got a really good team, so I’m not surprised by the outcome.”
On Freshman Jayce Depron
“He’s just a freshman, and not many freshmen get an opportunity to play, but if he keeps shooting the ball and keeps learning and keeps getting better at defense. He probably gave up as many threes as he made, but if he keeps learning, he’ll get another opportunity.”
On expectations for conference play
“I expect to compete for a championship, but we’ve got to get healthy. Without our starting point guard, and leading scorer off the bench, it’s difficult. So if we get healthy I like our chances.”