Opening Statement

"You are always grateful to win. It's my first game on the job, and I get booed out of the gym for not getting Runzas for everybody." (all fans would have received free Runza's if Nebraska had scored 70 points).

Initial thoughts on the game. "I thought defensively we were okay, and we should've been okay. We had to make some adjustments and that's always good when you have to get your guys to make adjustments and not just do base stuff that we talked about in practice. I thought that was really good for us. Defensively, I thought we were okay. We didn't clean up and rebound. I don't know that we had much of a rebounding advantage, but 12 or 11 offensive rebounds is not very good. I think a lot of those were in the first half. I was not very happy with that. I think when you don't finish possessions, you give the team hope. I'll try and avoid the offense question. We just have to figure out where our scoring is coming from. We've got to get Brandon (Ubel) going. I'd like to free play and get more direction than that. We need to get Dylan (Talley) some clear looks. We need to get Brandon some good looks, and tonight he did get in foul trouble, but at the same time, we need to get him minutes in there. He didn't stand out the way we wanted him to."

On how he thought Benny Parker ran the point guard position tonight "I thought he did a solid job. I don't recall anything egregious, but I think he's definitely a spark for us. You can feel that when he's in the game."

On how this compared to what he expected going into the game "I hoped we would've played better offensively. I wish we would've run our steps with a little more crispness. I thought we practiced better, but you are in a controlled environment in practice, too. Games are a little more chaotic. That's the biggest thing. Defensively, I thought they'd get some threes on us that would drive us crazy. They would probably scrap and hustle and that would drive us crazy. That all happened. But I thought that was okay."

On if he saw nerves in the locker room "I think nerves might be an issue, I think earning confidence is another issue. Thinking we can do this and all of a sudden looking up and it is 13-12. I thought we played through that and got a lead at the end of the half."

Sophomore Guard/Forward David Rivers

On how game one went "It was exciting for sure. Everything was new (tonight). We had a new coach, a new offense, and new players. We still have a long way to go."

On getting going early on in the contest "The more games we play, the better the flow of our offense and defense playing together will be. Everything is so new right now we know what to do, but we are thinking too much. "

On whether or not his head was spinning ever in the game "Sometimes it was."

On the how the Huskers are installing the new offense "It is not really a lot of [changes]. Mainly it is a lot of details. You have to really pay attention to the details. The small things really come up big."

On whether or not he could feel the extra 20 pounds he added in the offseason helped his game "Yes, I definitely can. I've been working pretty hard and still have a long way to."

Midland University Coach Todd Eisner

On the opening half of the game "I just thought there were some opportunities that we left out there. I thought our bounce was pretty good, and obviously Big Ten vs. NAIA there are some things that we are used to doing that we weren't allowed to do, and we had some hard times adjusting to that over the course of 40 minutes. In the first half, we shoot 25 percent, and we probably missed five or six lay ups. Those are plays we will finish most days but when you are down 12 at half time you have pretty good chance of putting yourself in a good situation if you just convert some of the easy ones. I thought we did a nice job battling back to make it a seven-point game. We just broke down mentally on the offensive side and gave up some easy baskets.

On Jerome Vaughn's game "Yeah Jerome has been really good. I think his nose for the basketball coming off the rim has really made him someone we will count on this year. He was tremendous Monday night, and I thought he had good bounce tonight. He got hurt by some foul trouble, which was kind of shaky. I think over a span of 40 minutes, I think we saw a difference in competition level, talent level, size level and it wore us down.

On points off turnovers for Nebraska "Our turnovers were perimeter based turnovers for the most part, which allowed them to get some easy run-outs, especially in the second half. We are not able to mimic that type of ball pressure out on the perimeter. Our guys got caught back on their heels, with the ball picked up and no body to throw the ball to. It led to some sloppy turnovers which was really unexpected. When ever you have three assists and 24 turnovers in a game it is probably a recipe for disaster.

On what Midland is taking out of this game "I think right now we have some things that we need to get cleaned up in the locker room to be honest with you. We need to play with more energy and more passion and enthusiasm. I am not happy right now where our program is at and where our guys are at mentally on a daily basis of showing the enthusiasm in order for us to be good. Until that happens, the on court stuff will be secondary. We have to do a better job of appreciating each other and make sure we are doing things to make us a championship level team.

On what he and Coach Miles talked about post game "We talked about how in his first game he didn't go for the Runza sandwich. I appreciate the respect of not trying to go for the points, but I wouldn't have had a problem with it if he did do that. He has bigger priorities than Midland, but I appreciate the respect.

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                       1st   2nd   Total
Midland                18    22     40
Nebraska               30    38     68
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Source: University of Nebraska Athletic Dept.