Notes
*-Rienk Mast’s 31 points would have been his third career 30-point game while his seven 3-pointers would have been a career best (he had six vs. Ohio State during the 2023-24 season. The last Husker to have seven 3-pointers in a game was Kobe Webster at Northwestern on March 7, 2021.
*-Jamarques Lawrence’s nine assists would have been a career high (his collegiate high was seven) while Nebraska’s 24 assists as a team would be one off the high for a Hoiberg’ coached team at Nebraska
*-Nebraska’s 16 3-pointers would have been the most by a Husker team under Hoiberg (high is 15 vs. Kennesaw State on Dec. 22, 2021.
Nebraska Head Coach Fred Hoiberg
On the game
“I just really liked the way our guys went out and competed, I thought they had good juice out of the gate, we dug ourselves a little bit of a hole, but we didn’t panic, Rienk (Mast) kept us in it with his ability to stretch the floor, and kind of forced a little bit of a shift in defense. I thought we handled it really well, i thought our flow, our play within the play, all but those last two or three minutes of the first half was really good all game long. It was good to see Connor (Essegian) getting it going. I thought he made some really nice slip out of screens and stepping into shots. You just obviously see the difference of who we are and what we can do with Rienk Mast on the floor. Like I told the guys, this can’t be the highlight of our season, we have to bounce back with an unbelievable effort on Monday when we get back into practice, we’ll have a good long film edit, on some things that need to be cleaned up which there’s plenty. I’d like to see us rebound and finish possessions better, especially in those last five minutes of the game to seal it and make our free throws. Overall, it was good to see our guys go out there and compete at a high level for 40 minutes.”
On Rienk Mast’s performance
“I’m happy for Rienk (Mast). It shows maturity of a player to go out there and do the things that he did, you know how hard that is to go out there and play for the first time after not playing any competitive basketball against another opponent for as long as he did, and for him to step in like he did? If not for Rienk, I think it would have been 20-2 out of the gate. He just kept us in it with his unique skill set. As teams have to continue to go out and guard him, our guys still need to cut better, and I did think we missed some slips on our cuts, I thought we had some free looks at the basket, but again some of that had to do with their pressure with (Keiba) Kita, with a couple of their other guys. Overall, to have Rienk go out and do what he did is pretty remarkable.”
Senior Forward Rienk Mast
On protecting and passing the ball
“What I like about this team is we have a lot of guys that want to share the ball and that ball is moving and we try to find each other. I know we shot a crazy percentage from three today, but if you move the ball like that and try and find open shooters, when we get an open three, it’s going down more times than not. Our guys understand that and that just makes the game so fun.
Senior Guard Jamarques Lawrence
On responding to late offensive struggles and playing solid defense
“Just responding with more urgency on defense. We don’t want to be a team that just relies on making shots. We know there’s going to be nights like this, or it’s probably going to be worse so just really not relying on our shooting and being tough and gritty on defense.”
BYU Coach Kevin Young
On evaluating his team
“It’s a little difficult just because of our current health situation. Rob (Wright III) obviously is on a bit of restrictions. I really had three things I wanted to look at in this game; our starters together, Rob (Wright III) out, AJ (Dybantsa) came in with shooters around him, and then defensively. In between that it was fuzzy with the lineups that we had. I feel good about learning more about our group with those three criteria I laid out. No matter who we had out there, just being able to play a team like that that is really well coached. Fred (Hoiberg) is a really good coach and offensively they run their stuff super hard; that was a good thing for us to have to experience for our first time out so there will be a lot of good to take home.”
On responding to atmosphere
“If we look at our early season schedule it’s really jammed packed, so we wanted to test ourselves. I know a little bit about this place. My wife is from Omaha, so her family comes to all the games here, so I’ve heard how the atmosphere is here. It was good. We got what we wanted out of it from that standpoint.”
On Rienk Mast
“He’s incredible. He was really good. He is really, really big obviously, and he got going. I’m sure Fred (Hoiberg) would want him to shoot like that every night. We didn’t adjust and he made us pay. He’s a problem out there because of those two things I just mentioned.”
BYU Forward AJ Dybantsa
On his first game
“Any time we lose, I set myself to a high standard, so I gotta win for it to be a good game. I think just messing with the team though, I had jitters just being out there for my first college game, but I think we played solid and just need to adjust on defense a little.”
Getting the jitters settled in
“Oh no, they were gone after the first bucket.”
On his impression of Rienk Mast
“I didn’t know too much about Nebraska. He came out and hit 7 threes. Shoot, I would draft him first too.”
