Webster	Petteway	Shields
----------------------------- 1 2 total Wisconsin (5) 27 38 65 NEBRASKA (NR) 13 42 55 -----------------------------

Postgame Notes

Nebraska Coach Tim Miles

On the comeback in the second half compared to the first half "I thought our defensive intensity was pretty good. We held them to 35 percent in the second half from the field. For as bad as we shot in the first half to only getting out-rebounded by two was a surprise, but a pleasant one that way. We outscored them in the paint, we got more field goals than they did, our bench outscored their bench. But we just had such a slow start. We mixed up some things on offense. We were 2 for 12 at the rim the first half and 9 for 13 in the second half. We try and live at rim. When you're not able to score, and I don't think we shot a foul shot in the first half either, so when neither of those things go right it is hard for us to score. We just went away from some of our screen rule actions so we could maybe find other ways in isolation to get to the rim."

On being spooked or scared of Wisconsin "We were lethargic there's no doubt. I think they know Wisconsin is really good. This is a elite champion type of team. We did a lot of things to them and they made a lot of right decisions. They didn't make very many mistakes. Just with extra passes, finding guys, and making free-throws down the stretch. They showed a lot of veteran leadership. Those guys are really, really good players. Smart players. We tried to disrupt as much as we could, but that's hard to do to a team like that."

On being "lethargic" in an atmosphere like PBA "Maybe I shouldn't call it lethargic. I think that when you miss shot, miss shot, miss shot, you're kind of in the "I wonder what's going on state." You either make it happen or you wonder what happened. I think it's more of that. You have to have a certain aggressive mentality or you're in trouble. You can seem them having a conversation in their head, at least it appears to me. Like I said there are two types of players. Those that wonder what happened and those that make it happen."

On the frustration of getting the players to be aggressive "We ran some downhill actions early and settled for jumpers and just stopped or refused the action. But, three different guys refused the action so instead of getting the mismatch and driving it, they would just skip it and go the other way. Now all that action is designed to go to the weak side of the floor. Now you're driving into three guys and it screws everything up. Everybody just stands there and looks at each other. Even in our motion stuff when we gave them two entries into our motion, we didn't cut very hard and move the ball off those things. We did at their place, but we didn't today."

On getting better at the rim in the second half "I would have to watch the tape. I know the numbers and I know I felt like there was more space. There was just way more urgency and desperation in our play. And necessarily so."

On the players getting frustrated "That's just personal pride. That's my job as a coach to make sure they're ready for Purdue, and they'll be ready."

On the first half struggles pushing the guys during second half "I think they have really done us in. Once we have gone out and played with that urgency, that desperation, we seem to really play. We changed up our routine this week to try and give them a fighters mentality, and it didn't take. Eventually it did, but it certainly didn't in the first half."

On Tai Webster's performance "I think Tai's been doing better, I really do. I though he played a really good game tonight, I was really proud of him. I kind of like him off the bench. He's at least someone who is going to score off the bench."

On Terran's efforts late in the second half "Well, he was in foul trouble but I thought those were his best decisions as the end. I don't think he made as good of decisions earlier in the game."

Nebraska Guard Terran Petteway

On what sparked the second half rally "We were just more aggressive I guess. We weren't really worried about the refs not calling fouls. We were just going with reckless abandon, which we should have been doing the whole game."

On whether playing with reckless abandon was part of the game plan "We were trying to get to the basket, but it was just one of those nights where we weren't getting any calls. It was going in there, but it just wasn't happening. You've got to give credit to Frank Kaminsky. He did his job. Coach Bo Riley told him to stay vertical, and the refs didn't call it."

On confidence and the run at the end "It wasn't a confidence issue. We've been shooting bad all year. We just stayed with it and kept playing. Everyone tried to stay positive at the huddles and at half time because we've been shooting bad all year. That's nothing new."

On Tai (Webster's) impact on the game "One thing we did do is we didn't quit. When we were down, guys kept playing and Tai came in and played his butt off like he has been doing the past two to three weeks. Hopefully, he continues to do that and everybody continues to do that and we will find our run. "

On frustration levels "We have to stick with the process. Everybody can't be on their own agenda. We can't have guys coming in and doing their own thing because that would sink the ship right now. As captains, we have to come in every day and get our guys going and getting ready and staying with the process. Getting guys to listen to the game plan and preparing for the next team."

Nebraska Forward Leslee Smith

On the team's frustration "It's at its highest. I don't think it can get any higher than this. Losing consecutive games home and away...we're a very frustrated team right now trying to find ourselves. I think tonight we made a really big step even though we lost. We did pretty good in the second half defensively and offensively. We just have to stick with the process right now."

On the impact of bench players "We need everybody, we can't just rely on the starting five or one or two guys off the bench, we need a full five or ten guys who can come in and spark the team. Tai (Webster) picked up his play the last three weeks and we need other guys to spark, like Smitty (Tarin Smith). He fell off a little bit, but we need to get him back on track. We need everybody to contribute in order for us to be a good team. We can't rely on Terran and Shavon and Walt just to bring offense to the team. It takes a team effort so we just need to have everybody involved."

On if it felt like Wisconsin was on their heels late "I thought we had them on our heels, especially when we put the press on them. For a team that doesn't press at all in practice, we come out and really play hard in the press. I think we really had them on their heels and got a couple of turnovers, five second counts, and forced them to call timeout... We fought and at the end of the day we fought our butts off and that's all that really matters to me and my teammates. We know that we can be a good team if we stick together."

Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan

On being up double digits, did NU slow the game down to get back into it? "Take a look at Nigel (Hayes), the shots he had and he got to the free throw line, he had a chance to put up big numbers. Those two 3's were wide open. One of them was halfway down and came back up. If we score on those, we get a little more separation and maybe it is tougher for them to make the run. We knew it was coming. We are not going to tell the players, now of course, we are not going to tell them that they will cut the game down to five or six points. But we always are trying to get ready--especially for a team at home, you get a few to go and you get on a roll, you get your pressure working a little bit, a couple of bad decisions on the inbounds and rather than that, I like the way we stayed the course."

On the job the team against Petteway "He was 2-11 (in the first half), I have seen him take those 11 shots and make seven or eight of them, so that is just the way he is. He can light it up, or sometimes when he is struggling he is like a lot of guys, the hoop gets a little bit smaller and if you are hitting, the hoop gets a little bigger. We didn't change anything defensively from the last game."

On if they are the team to beat Kentucky... possible rematch... "Hey, my story last week was--somebody said something about the polls, it should be Kentucky, no. 1, parenthesis 'blue ', No. 2 Kentucky, parenthesis is "white." ---- I got a couple of chuckles ---- Everybody else is scratching and clawing."

On if Frank Kaminsky contributed in other ways than scoring "Oh yeah, oh yeah. Key rebounds, defensively on his rotations he did a real good job of stopping triple penetration. Frank can influence shots, and I think he did a real good job of that in the first half and then a decent job in the second half."

On grinding out a win with not the best offense "Well, Nebraska had a little bit to do with taking some looks away that we were trying to get. Same thing on their end, we think we had something to do with their shooting percentage."