Postgame Notes: South Dakota at Nebraska
- Lat Mayen finished with a career-high 12 rebounds, doubling his previous career best of six on two occasions. It was his first career double-figure rebounding game. He also tied for team-high honors with four assists.
- Nebraska put five players in double figures, the third time in four games NU has posted at least four double-digit scorers.
- Teddy Allen posted his second straight 20-point game with a 23-point effort tonight.
- Yvan Ouedraogo tied a career high with two blocked shots. He had two blocked shots against George Mason and Michigan State during his freshman year.
- Nebraska posted a 24-12 advantage in bench points, including 11 points apiece from Shamiel Stevenson and Kobe Webster.
- Nebraska has held three of its four opponents to under 40 percent as South Dakota shot 35.4 percent from the floor.
- Nebraska committed a season-high 15 turnovers, including 10 in the first half. It marked the first time NU had committed more than 10 turnovers.
- Nebraska went 21-of-30 from the foul line, the third time in four games where the Huskers had at least 20 points from the foul line.
Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg
On Teddy Allen:
“He’s one of those very unique players. He can score inside. He can drive it. When he gets a guy on his hip, he is so strong in keeping them there. He’s very crafty finisher in the paint. And when he gets it going that opens up the 3-point shot where he knocked down a couple of those as well but again we just put the ball in his hands. Unfortunately, he picked up the three fouls in the first half and wasn’t out there much, but he certainly got us going at the rim at the right time when we needed it most. It was enough to hold them off there in the end.”
On the defense:
“I thought we had good stretches. I thought we had some really good defensive stretches, but then we had some where we had some bonehead plays especially late when we lost the shooter. There was that one stretch where we gave up three offensive rebounds in a row. We had three great defensive possessions, and then we don’t finish it off by getting the rebounds securing the rebounds where we can get out and run. I thought when we did rebound it in the first half stretch where we played well it was all transition. Shamiel did a phenomenal job in my opinion was the player of the game with his defense. He forced (Stanley) Umude into really tough shots, and we gave him a couple second opportunities to score and put him on the free throw line. Second half, we did a better job at not fouling again until the end we fouled a three-point shooter. We can’t do that. Put them on the line a few times but they didn’t get in the bonus until close to about six minutes left. Listen we have work to do there’s no doubt about it. We are seeing different looks every single time we step on the floor. We are going to continue to get better. I know that. I know this group has a lot of pride, but like I said earlier it is much better to learn from a win than a loss like we had last week.”
On Yvan Ouedraogo:
“I thought Yvan was terrific. He did a really good job. He was out there when we put that big run together. He had two great blocks in a row and had a good block in the first half and rebounded the ball. He had that really nice finish in the lane tonight. He didn’t force anything. That was the thing as much as anything for Yvan was he wasn’t trying to force it up through three or four guys. That’s exactly what we need out of Yvan. Five rebounds in seventeen minutes with no turnovers. That’s huge for Yvan.”
On finishing the game strong:
“That’s the good thing about this game. We get to learn from a win. There is a lot of things that we can take from this game and get better at and that’s a big part of it. We came out with so much fire and energy in our first three games. I thought South Dakota played harder earlier than we did. Give South Dakota credit for that. I thought they had a really good game plan coming into this. When we went up 18, we did some really good things and some things that we can certainly build, on but the complete 40 minute game we are going to have to have those to have a chance to compete in the league this year.”
South Dakota Coach Todd Lee
On what USD could have done to maintain first half lead
“We sent them to the foul line a little too much in the first half. They got there 17 times, and I thought we fouled a little bit too much. We did hold them to 35% shooting in the first half, which was very good. Anytime you're on the road and you can do that, it's a good effort. We made some mistakes on a couple of their shooters. (Lat) Mayen is a very good shooter for a big man, he made a couple threes in the first half and both of them are mistakes we made. Other than that, I thought we did a good job in the first half.”
On slowing down Teddy Allen in the second half
“We talked about that at halftime. He got in early foul trouble. We did a great job of taking charges on him. He didn't play a lot in the first half; we knew he'd come out in the second half and be very aggressive. He's a tough matchup. Unless you've got a bigger bodied guy to put on him, he can post it up, he can step outside and shoot it. He is talented and he is a tough match up defensively for us.”
On Kanon Koster’s growth
“The redshirt season was big for him. We had three players redshirted last year: AJ Plitzuweit, Kanon Koster, and Brady Heiman. This is his first year playing Division I, and I don't think those guys have played a game for almost 600 days. From the spring of the previous year, then the year redshirting, and then with COVID. Kanon, unfortunately a like a lot of guys on our team, has had some time off because of being in quarantine. Kanon continues to get better; he's a great young man. I think it's an adjustment coming to this level, but he's obviously a very good athlete, tremendous student. He's just going to get better, so he just needs to keep working. I think for those three redshirts, it's been a little bit tough because of all the time that they have had off. Not because they might have gotten COVID, but because they were in a close contact situation, they've had some time off. It's been it's been adjustment this fall.”
On areas of improvement for Koster
“I'd like to see Kanon continue to get in great shape. He needs to be a knock down jump shooter for us; he has the ability to shoot the basketball and he's really good at attacking the rim if people are honoring his jump shot and going to finish. He's a good athlete, he’s strong. He needs to improve defensively, just like a lot of our guys do, but that's an adjustment coming to this level. Everything from defending better athletes, to scouting reports, to all the things you need to do. So, he can improve obviously a lot, and is working on all that.”
On players from Nebraska returning tonight
“For a lot of our guys from Nebraska, it's a big deal. Brady being from here and playing here, and Kanon being from here. It's obviously a great opportunity to come down here and play, unfortunately not in front of fans. You’d like to have their families here and the fans and make it even more special but that's the situation we're living in right now. “
