Smith	Abraham	Fuller
----------------------------- 1 2 total Rutgers 23 26 49 NEBRASKA 26 39 65 -----------------------------

Nebraska Notes

Nebraska Coach Tim Miles

On getting Moses (Abraham) and (Leslee) Smith back

"I think with anything you look at the minutes with the guys. David only played 21 minutes, those other guys got 13 each. Just the fact that we didn't have to play these guys into oblivion. We could get Shavon and Terran out a couple times, without foul trouble, and just take them out to rest them and for a few minutes. I just think that is so important to what we are doing. I thought Walter was very sharp out there, he did some good things. But I think just having Moses and Leslee coming in helped so much. I didn't think they were great by any mean, but at least to come in and get their feet wet before we play a pretty tough Illinois team."

On multiple lineups

"Just getting everybody in and just cycle them in. I was a little upset though because I thought we started the first 12 minutes a little soft. I think you have to credit Rutgers. I thought they were playing at a very good pace. They are very comfortable, and you cannot let a good offensive team to get comfortable, especially when they are going to eat up a whole bunch of clock. I think just having that depth back and just figuring out who goes where because Nick (Fuller) is playing a little bit too. It is a little bit of a rediscovery mode and that is the way it goes."

On team minutes

"Now you have a little teeth as a coach. You can threaten them. If you don't play better, guess what? That guy wants to play."

On Nick Fuller's performance

"Nick did a good job. He needs to work on his communication. He had about three errors where he was involved with another player and he did not communicate what was going on and so we had a scoring error. That has to get cleaned up immediately. He has a lot of things going in his mind, but had four points and four rebounds including a couple offensive boards. His activity level was better, and I think we are better with him."

On David and Benny's performance

"Everybody kind of defers to Walter, Shavon and Terran and rightfully so. But at the same time, Benny looked like he had great rhythm. Benny can make those shots. He practices hard to make those shots. He can do it in games and I think that is nice to see. I think David just playing less minutes is really important for him."

On the first Big Ten win

"It is nice not to start 0-4, but they just keep coming at you. We have Illinois, then at Wisconsin and Minnesota, who I think is a really a good team. We are going to have a huge week next week. I am excited to get this team going and get better and better. Illinois really took apart an excellent Maryland team."

On this game being a fresh start

"The guys kind of look at this as, 'This is finally us.' This is finally our squad. And those guys are not even close to where they need to be. But at the same time to have that personnel out there is helpful. Moses was so hopped up he made three errors, but he will settle down and play better. But you have to give Moses credit. He got everybody Runzas.

On Trusting Benny "I have the ultimate trust in Benny. I never tell him not to shoot. I always say don't hesitate. I know he is going to take smart shots. There are some other guys I need to reign in, but he is not one of them. He is a guy I believe in. I know he can make those shots. Those are great numbers. I would like to see them more often. Terran was a great facilitator too, those guys were finding him."

Junior Guard Terran Petteway

On how critical it is to have a wide range of players scoring on offense "It's very critical. It felt like our offense was flowing a little better tonight. Guys were stepping up, coming in and making threes. Like Benny (Parker) made two 3s and others came in and gave us good buckets. Once that is happening, our offense started flowing way better."

On the importance of the first Big Ten win this season

"It's a little relief, but we still have a lot of work to do. We have a long way to go where we want to go. Illinois is coming in here on Sunday and they just beat Maryland, who was 15-1. That was a good team who was ranked three or four weeks ago so we have to get ready for that game."

Senior Forward Leslee Smith

On how it felt to play in his first game since March "It felt pretty good. There was a lot of excitement in the air. I feel normal though. I feel like I never left. Yeah, there was a little bit of rust. I haven't really gone up against that much size lately. In practice, I don't really have a lot of bigs to go up against, but it is something I can adjust to"

On when he knew he would play tonight "After we lost the last away game. I told myself I was ready. I couldn't watch my team suffer inside anymore. I had to come out and play hard defense."

On why he thinks he was able to come back from the injury so quickly "I had a pretty good start on rehab. The good thing is we attacked it early. We didn't let the muscle deteriorate more than it could have. So we attacked it early and did rehab twice a day. I rehabbed really hard. R.J. (Pietig) is a really good trainer and he knows what he's doing. I put a lot of work in and it put me in a position to come out and play tonight."

Rutgers Head Coach Eddie Jordan

Opening Statement

"First of all, we started well, and we just sort of lost our offensive flow. Our defense was good I thought in the half court. We turned the ball over, and we missed free throws. Petteway had his way with their pick and rolls. We didn't take away his strengths--we have been pretty good executing our game plan of taking away certain strengths teams have. Tonight, we didn't do it. We got out-classed. Just one of those nights."

On how the game got away from Rutgers

"We turned the ball over which hurts your defense. They get out and get some breaks, we had charges--it took away our offensive flow. We did not get into our movement offensively. We were stagnant. We did not get the juice we needed to have on offense to help out our defense. We didn't take away Petteway, his strengths were he 'snakes the pick and roll,' he splits you coming off screens. We just didn't handle him well enough."