Nebraska Head Coach Tim Miles

On free throws
“I think everyone was going to the line tonight. When 70% of their shots are misses and 68% of ours, then everything is a loose ball. That’s hard to officiate and that’s hard to play. Players started to drive it harder and rebounds are more contested, so it’s just an ugly game. Those are hard to officiate and we’ve been in a few of those this year.”

On the win
“I thought our game plan was solid. I liked how we were defending them. Once we get a lineup on the floor, I played guys with two fouls throughout the first half which is a risk, but I feel that if we get a good lineup out there, then we can build a lead and we did. Then the fouling got worse but early in the second half I thought we were able to build on that.”

On what was going right
“Well they didn’t make a lot of threes, so you can do a lot of things. If you can win the paint defensively then you can make it hard on them. We didn’t over extend and we played a pack defensive style. Against teams that aren’t going to make a lot of threes then that can be highly effective and I think it was tonight. Some of it was just the contrast of styles, also they didn’t have (Tim) Frazier and Pat is in a tough spot. I think they are doing great. I think he’s doing all the right things energy wise. They play no surrender and those are important steps. To the common fan they don’t always think that’s necessary but it is to that locker room and to that program, no doubt about it. I’ve been in his shoes.”

On how satisfying this win was
“Well they’re all satisfying but like I told the team, we’re catching something. We’re either catching Penn State by losing and move backwards or we have a chance to catch Northwestern or Iowa. Two of those won in the last couple of days so if we truly want to catch them, we have two games against Iowa and one against Illinois and we have to win. We have to go out and find a way to win and we did. That was important.”

On how much the week off helped
“I thought it helped some. We got to work on some things and just clean up some things, but you lose a little bit of your timing too. It’s nice to have that mental break.”

On if he expected a seven point lead at half with Ubel and Shields only playing nine minutes
“No I wouldn’t, we need those guys on the floor. They are very bright guys and they know what the game plan looks like. Shavon is a freshman so he’s going to have good days and bad days. Brandon was in a little bit of a funk early, but I thought he did some really good things too. He got inside and got some rebounds.”