courtesy of Jack Alden

Related pages Box score Season stats Possession analysis

"You should congratulate Nebraska because I think they outplayed us. I told Barry I almost felt sorry about the outcome of the game because I think he deserved the win more than we did. Yet I'm extremely happy for our guys. They made plays. We're down 12 or 14 or whatever the heck it was, and we kept after it and kept after it, and there at the end Kirk makes one of two, and that put it on an odd number, then Boschee steps up and makes two of two, and then Keith makes a big three for us. It was a set play we were trying to run. I'd called it on the free throw line at the other end. Brett went to the wrong side and Keith was trying to get his attention to try get it to go so it would be Boschee's shot instead of his, and that kind of unselfishness is what you have to have. But Brett didn't see him and took it to the other side, and that meant Keith was gonna be the guy comin' off the screen for the three, he got his legs underneath him and knocked it in. He hasn't made many threes this year. He made one against Nebraska last time and one today. "Brett gave us a big lift, Jeff Carey gave us a big lift, Keith didn't play very well in the first half, but he came and made the big one there and also got a big offensive rebound and basket for us. Drew was big for us to say the least in the second half. It's hard to play without Kirk, it's hard to play without Nick. I went to a little zone early in the second half to try to protect Kirk, because he already had three fouls, and they made two or three threes in a row our zone because we didn't get to where we were supposed to be. I asked the staff at that point, is it worth it to try to protect him, because they were scoring 'em three at a time. So we got out of that and Kirk did get his fourth foul, and it's hard to play without him. "They make more threes than anybody else in the conference, and they're 18 for 37. We've got to do a better job of getting up on those guys and knowing that they're wanting to shoot threes. I talked to Keith at one point and said, 'Why'd you let him get it back?' Robinson gave it up and he just backed off of him, let him get it back, and he shot a three right in his face. It's easier to guard somebody when they don't have the ball. But we just feel so, so fortunate, that's the bottom line. "We were playing our regular man-to-man (at the end of the game) except instead of having the big man guarding the goal, we decided to guard your own man so if they were coming off screens it would be a better switch situation for us. They got it to a big guy over on the sideline and didn't get what they wanted. Then they called a timeout, so we went to straight 22 at that point. We were gonna switch all the screens on the perimeter, but Boschee knocked it to the other end, and that took up a lot of time, and I think that probably rushed 'em at that point. "I told the kids in there that I hope they understand Nebraska outplayed us and we put ourselves in a bad position. And at the same time I wanted them to feel great because we are the champions of the league, and that means a lot."

Email Jack