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at home by 15
 Talley |  Ubel |  Gallegos |
*-Nebraska is now 9-2 when getting at least three players into double figures
*-Nebraska's 15-point margin of victory is its largest at home this season (previous high was 13 against UNO on Nov. 18)
*-Nebraska held Northwestern to 32.1 percent shooting, the lowest shooting by a Husker opponent this year. The previous low was 34.0 percent by Valparaiso on Nov. 18.
*-Nebraska's 64 points marked the 10th time the Huskers scored at least 60 points in a game. In those games, Nebraska Is 9-1, and has not lost when scoring above 60 points (NU scored 60 vs. Kent State)
*-Nebraska shot 45.1 percent against Northwestern and is 10-0 on the season when shooting above 40 percent.
*-Dylan Talley collected his fourth 20-point game of the season with 20 points and tied his season high with eight rebounds. Talley's 20 point is his highest total in a Big Ten game at Nebraska
*-Nebraska now has 11 20-point games this season by six players.
*-The Huskers out-rebounded Northwestern 43-34, the first time in conference play Nebraska has out-rebounded an opponent.
*-Brandon Ubel collected his fourth double-double of the season and fifth of his career with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Ubel's 12 rebounds were one off his career high.
*-With 14 points today, Ubel moved into the top 50 scorers in school history and now has 755 points, tying Bus Whitehead (1948-50) and Jorge Brian Diaz (2010-12) for 48th place on the chart.
Nebraska Head Coach Tim Miles
On the biggest difference from the second half compared to the start of the game "I thought we had a good energy level going on during the game. We missed some open shots, and we made some rash decisions and took some bad shots and then kind of steadied ourselves a little bit. Once we got even at 11, I'm like we're O.K., now we can go. I thought we were pretty good from there on out."
On if he was glad Northwestern switched to zone defense "I thought we attacked the zone pretty well. They gave us some pretty good 3-point looks. I don't mind zone. I think it gives us different looks; looks we can make. I like to think we can score off of man, but we haven't proven that yet."
On Ray Gallegos' three-point shooting performance "He had just had his head down because nobody's harder on themselves than Ray. I mean we practiced last night, and Ray stayed for a half hour after practice to work on his shot. I get here this morning at 8 and he's got a full sweat going because he's already been here. There's a young guy that is working for it and I'm so happy to see his success in the second half. When he made that first one, he kind of hung that follow through up there extra long. And that's good. I know that if we can get him good looks, he can make them. Sometimes, we just put a lot of pressure on him. We get him going 100 miles per hour running off screens away from the basket and everyone's keying on him. And then everyone's hedging on him. We've put him in some tough spots, but I think he's done a good job and tonight in the second half, he was really important to us."
On the team's energy tonight "I thought we had these guys really well scouted. Coach Craig Smith had the scout and he does a really nice job. I think that we were in a position to guard their actions. I thought we did that and in the end, made them one-dimensional. You have to win the paint against Princeton teams. Tonight it was 30-22, and we won. That's a really important element of the game."
On Dylan Talley's performance tonight "I thought Dylan did a really nice job on both ends of the floor. Offensively, he got us into our stuff and facilitated some of our stuff. He handled the zone for the most part pretty well and he made some shots. Dylan puts a lot of pressure on himself. He wants to be perfect and he wants things to go really well. Sometimes he'll make mistakes because of that. We had a little deal at the end of the first half where we didn't rebound really well. I wanted to make sure that we finished the half well because against these Princeton (offense) teams, they kind of wear you out at the end of the game and the end of the half and that's where they really hook and phase you. I just felt like we were losing our focus a little bit, and Dylan was in the middle of getting the guys organized and did great the whole night."
Northwestern Coach Bill Carmody
Opening Statement "Nebraska did a great job defensively tonight. They've been a pretty good defensive team all year, so I knew we were going to have to make shots. I thought defensively in the beginning, we did a good job. I didn't think they were getting great shots. I thought we were getting some pretty good shots, but then after 8-9 minutes, it was like 10 to 5. I think we had to capitalize more at the beginning of the game. Then we got down to 4 or 5 and then Gallegos hit a couple 3's from the corner and that's when things turned around for us.
We got a little too undisciplined defensively. There were too many holes. Basically, I just looked at the stats, and we were 6 of 29 for three. Early on, we really didn't have a lead. At the end, there, we weren't getting very good shots. After that, just so so. Sobolweski was hitting a few shots there early, but then they tightened up on him. We'll just have to start again on Monday."
On switching up the zone in the first half "Our offense was so bad and their defense was so good. With that combination, I just wanted to do it to generate some offense, you know? See if we could get their hands on a few balls, see if we could get something easy because it seemed like it was a struggle all night. There just wasn't a good flow, and that's a credit to their defense. That was the reason I switched, to see if we could get out of it. And guys made threes against our man, too."
Nebraska Head Coach Tim Miles
On the biggest difference from the second half compared to the start of the game "I thought we had a good energy level going on during the game. We missed some open shots, and we made some rash decisions and took some bad shots and then kind of steadied ourselves a little bit. Once we got even at 11, I'm like we're O.K., now we can go. I thought we were pretty good from there on out."
On if he was glad Northwestern switched to zone defense "I thought we attacked the zone pretty well. They gave us some pretty good 3-point looks. I don't mind zone. I think it gives us different looks; looks we can make. I like to think we can score off of man, but we haven't proven that yet."
On Ray Gallegos' three-point shooting performance "He had just had his head down because nobody's harder on themselves than Ray. I mean we practiced last night, and Ray stayed for a half hour after practice to work on his shot. I get here this morning at 8 and he's got a full sweat going because he's already been here. There's a young guy that is working for it and I'm so happy to see his success in the second half. When he made that first one, he kind of hung that follow through up there extra long. And that's good. I know that if we can get him good looks, he can make them. Sometimes, we just put a lot of pressure on him. We get him going 100 miles per hour running off screens away from the basket and everyone's keying on him. And then everyone's hedging on him. We've put him in some tough spots, but I think he's done a good job and tonight in the second half, he was really important to us."
On the team's energy tonight "I thought we had these guys really well scouted. Coach Craig Smith had the scout and he does a really nice job. I think that we were in a position to guard their actions. I thought we did that and in the end, made them one-dimensional. You have to win the paint against Princeton teams. Tonight it was 30-22, and we won. That's a really important element of the game."
On Dylan Talley's performance tonight "I thought Dylan did a really nice job on both ends of the floor. Offensively, he got us into our stuff and facilitated some of our stuff. He handled the zone for the most part pretty well and he made some shots. Dylan puts a lot of pressure on himself. He wants to be perfect and he wants things to go really well. Sometimes he'll make mistakes because of that. We had a little deal at the end of the first half where we didn't rebound really well. I wanted to make sure that we finished the half well because against these Princeton (offense) teams, they kind of wear you out at the end of the game and the end of the half and that's where they really hook and phase you. I just felt like we were losing our focus a little bit, and Dylan was in the middle of getting the guys organized and did great the whole night."
Northwestern Coach Bill Carmody
Opening Statement "Nebraska did a great job defensively tonight. They've been a pretty good defensive team all year, so I knew we were going to have to make shots. I thought defensively in the beginning, we did a good job. I didn't think they were getting great shots. I thought we were getting some pretty good shots, but then after 8-9 minutes, it was like 10 to 5. I think we had to capitalize more at the beginning of the game. Then we got down to 4 or 5 and then Gallegos hit a couple 3's from the corner and that's when things turned around for us.
We got a little too undisciplined defensively. There were too many holes. Basically, I just looked at the stats, and we were 6 of 29 for three. Early on, we really didn't have a lead. At the end, there, we weren't getting very good shots. After that, just so so. Sobolweski was hitting a few shots there early, but then they tightened up on him. We'll just have to start again on Monday."
On switching up the zone in the first half "Our offense was so bad and their defense was so good. With that combination, I just wanted to do it to generate some offense, you know? See if we could get their hands on a few balls, see if we could get something easy because it seemed like it was a struggle all night. There just wasn't a good flow, and that's a credit to their defense. That was the reason I switched, to see if we could get out of it. And guys made threes against our man, too."
Nebraska Guard Dylan Talley
On if the team had a different energy at the start of the game "Yeah the last couple of home games we came out flat, so in this game we came out with a sense of urgency. We went out there with a purpose to play hard and let it all hang out and see what happens."
On bouncing back after an slow start early "We didn't even think about the offensive side of the ball this game, we just knew we had to keep competing on the defensive side of the ball, and we knew that the offense would come later on and eventually it did. That is what kind of attitude we need to have."
On his overall play during the game "Oh I don't know yet, I haven't put much thought into it. I'm just happy to get the win. I don't really care if people tell me how good I played today, I am just happy we got our first home win in the Big Ten."
Junior Guard Ray Gallegos
On where he thought his shot was coming into today's game "I mean the last couple games I felt like I was just off a little bit so I figured I should put up some more shots and try to get my rhythm back. In the first half, I was pretty quiet, but my teammates encouraged me to stay confident and then in the second half I continued to come out and shoot."
On what Brandon (Ubel) and Dylan told him at halftime "They just came to me and told me to stay positive because they knew I could shoot. They told me that they were going to get me open and get me shots so I just needed to knock the shots down."
On what time Ray got to the gym this morning "7:15 a.m."
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1st 2nd Total
Illinois 22 27 49
Nebraska 24 40 64
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