BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 9, 2022

Chris Collins

Boo Buie

Pete Nance

Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Northwestern Wildcats

Postgame Press Conference

Northwestern 71 - Nebraska - 69

MODERATOR: We are going to be joined with Northwestern Head Coach Chris Collins, Junior Guard Boo Buie and Senior Forward Pete Nance.

Coach Collins, congratulations on the win. Why don't you start off with an opening statement about the game.

COACH CHRIS COLLINS: It was kind of a tale of two halves. I give Nebraska a lot of credit for the way they came out. They had us on our heels in every way in the first half. They were quicker to the ball, their defensive intensity. We're not a high turnover team. I think we had 10 turnovers in the first half and they were pushing the ball, which when they get doing that, they're pretty good and no one was as confident as them coming into the tournament.

I'm proud of my guys. They challenged each other at halftime. There was very little what I said or any coaches, they were the ones that just said we've got to come out in the second half and regardless of what happens, we've got to fight a whole lot harder. Fortunately, we did that and I thought a lot of guys gave a lot of contributions. These guys were fantastic, which they've been for us all year. But I thought the energy of Elyjah Williams in the second half when he came in, I that Casey Simmons came in, gave us some really good minutes when we were just trying to get some life, trying to get some energy. And Ryan Young, the last 10 minutes of the game, we were able to go to him a little bit and get some baskets down low as well as some fouls. These guys deserve it. These guys up here, I love coaching them. They come every day. Win or lose they come every day and they're a resilient group of guys that just want to win. They love playing with each other. The stuff they were saying at halftime to get themselves going made me proud as a coach. I'd just hoped it would come to fruition and fortunately, it did. It's probably the first charge he took in his life, but I'm glad he took it with the came on the line. that was a big time play.

MODERATOR: We will start with questions for the students.

Q. Boo, so in the first half you struggled to score the ball, in the second half those big 3-pointers and a number of big plays. What did you kind of try to do to get yourself going during halftime?

BOO BUIE: Yeah, I mean, I didn't really do anything good in the first half. I wasn't making shots, I was turning the ball over. Really, I just got to give credit to all my teammates and coaches. In the locker room, I kind of got frustrated with myself, you know, just let my emotions out and my teammates were really there for me and they were just picking me up and just kept saying positive things to me like, Boo, we need you the second half, everything's good, you're going to bounce back. Really, credit to my teammates. If I was on any other team I would have been dead in the water, but my teammates kept instilling positivity in my head, so it allowed me to come out in the second half and play a lot better.

Q. Pete, in the first half it really felt like Nebraska, especially on those passes that you had to throw from the high post, they were breaking up more of those. From the second half it kind of opened up a little bit. Was that just you trusting that's your game, that's one of the best things you do for the team is the passing from the high post and that that was going to open up in the second half, you stuck with it?

PETE NANCE: Yeah, I think they were flying around defensively in the first half. They were kind of disrupting us. Like Coach said, they had us a little bit on our heels. But we came out in the second half and I think we were cutting a lot harder and we were setting a lot better screens and everything became a lot more open for us.

Q. For Boo, why did you sprint straight over to your own bench after taking that charge? Were you really excited that you did or what did you say to the rest of the guys?

BOO BUIE: It was a really intense game. As you saw, Walker got a tech down later in the game. It's early March, so, you know, guys are trying to continue their seasons. Some guys are seniors or whatever it may be, may be their last game so it gets chippy out there. The revs just kept telling us to keep our mouths shut and stuff like that, so I was just trying to celebrate without getting myself in trouble. So I would just run down for my team so I know that they grab me so I can't do anything out of character or anything like that.

Co: listen to that

Q. Pete, this is your first win with the Wildcats in the Big Ten tournament. What's the feeling right now?

PETE NANCE: Yeah, I mean, it really means a lot. You come into this year and you just -- you want to change things and I think that proves -- this proves that we're not that same team that we've been the past two or three years. I don't know if that group would have been able to dig this game out. We really came together and it shows how much we love each other and how much we love playing with and for each other that we came together and got a win in the Big Ten tournament, which really means a lot for our team and for our program. And we're excited to just be able to keep it going and make a run, so we're feeling good.

Q. Pete and Boo, as you both know, clutch players show up in the crunch time. Can you both or one of you describe or define what a clutch player is, in your opinion, and why you've both been able to be that for the Cats throughout the season?

PETE NANCE: Yeah, to me it all comes from belief in your teammates. You look down the line when it's time to make a play or take a big shot or grab a big rebound and your teammates have the ultimate confidence in you to make that play. I think that's what we all have in each other, I'm not sure it's necessarily either one of us. It's been many different guys throughout the course of the year. It's been Boo, it's been Ryan Young, it's been me, it's been Ty Berry, Greer, everybody has made some amzaing plays down the stretch and I think that just comes from having extreme confidence in each other and I think that's why we were able to come together tonight.

BOO BUIE: Yeah, I would just say the little bit going off what Pete said, he really nailed it on the head, but our group is such an unselfish group that in those moments we're just looking for our shot. It's not about us in those late game situations, we're just trying to put our team in the best position and our teammates are trying to put us in the best position for us to go out there and win the game. That's all that is. Like he said, on any given night it could be us two, Ryan Young or Chase, someone stepping up late in the game. That's the benefits of having a good team like this.

Q. Pete, so in that first half, a lot of visible frustration on your guys' end, but you were continuously there with your teammates trying to get them to keep going. What were you telling everyone as frustration was kind of mounting?

PETE NANCE: It's a long game. With the -- the momentum wasn't our way and it's kind of hard to kickstart and get things going. I knew we just needed to keep a positive attitude because we have a lot of experience together and I knew we were going to figure it out at some point, we just needed to get that momentum going our way. Being able to stick together as a group, we're able to get that done. If we fragment early on in the game, that could have -- they would have blown that game wide open, but the fact that we stayed together and stayed with the game, we're right there within five minutes of the second half right back in the game. And I think that was the biggest thing for us tonight, was just kind of keeping our heads and staying relaxed and just kind of coming together and getting back in the game for sure.

Q. Coach, obviously you went to that 3-2 zone a little bit there in the second half, especially during the big run that really got you back in the game. It did obviously slow down Nebraska's offense a little bit. But when you went to that, what did you think this is what we need to take away from Nebraska's offense right now?

COACH CHRIS COLLINS: Yeah, I thought they were in a little bit of rhythm and they're a very good offensive team. They have great spacing. Fred does a great job coaching offense. A lot of pick and rolls. Verge was in a rhythm not only scoring, but finding others. And we just used it as a change of pace. We thought it might slow down their movements a little bit and I thought it worked. It didn't work every time. They scored a few, but I thought it allowed us to get back in the game. I think the one thing you just want to do, we wanted to make sure that Kobe -- ghe was on the floor at that time. He's probably their most lethal shooter on the floor. We knew Verge and Trey McGowens were more probably guys we wanted to get into our paint, so we wanted to give a little help off those guys and make sure we knew were Mayen was, knew where Webster was. the guys did a good job. You know, that group that was in during that time, it was a collection of our starting five, but then Elyjah came in, Casey came in, Ty came in. You know, those three guys, I thought all three of them off the bench gave us really good energy when we were trying to dig back into the game.

Q. Traditionally Power 5 Conference teams that finish above 500 get a nice berth or post-season berth. You guys are at 500 now. Tomorrow if you beat Iowa, it's a signature win. what do you think of this team's resume and where it stands?

COACH CHRIS COLLINS: Yeah, unfortunately, which kind of stinks, we lost two home nonconference games over the holidays. We lost a game against Prairie View A&M and we lost a home game against DePaul, so we're kind of two under, which stinks because those were two games. Nothing's guaranteed, but you're playing at home and we felt at that time we were playing pretty well and maybe would have had two more wins. I think right now our guys are just in the moment. I think we're a good team, I do. Whatever people think about us, we've competed pretty hard, pretty well all year long in this conference save for a couple games. We've been in pretty much every game, we've fought, we've competed, we've won some, obviously we've lost some, and I think we're playing pretty well. We're 6-5 in our last 11 against really high level competition. Certainly a couple of those games in the first 10 got away from us, a couple home games. And remember, guys, we weren't allowed to have students at some of those games. We lost a game in double overtime to Maryland, we lost a close one to Penn State and we lost a home one to Michigan state. So I think we're a team that's pretty darn good.

I don't get into a lot of that resume stuff because I'm not smart enough. I'm just excited we get a chance to play tomorrow. When we played Iowa last week, it was a humbling experience, first of all, for how well they were playing. We had a lot of sickness on our team. It's not excuse an excuse. They drilled us, but we had a lot of guys who were really down and out, and hopefully we can get some rest and have some energy because I think they're playing as well as anybody in the country right now. And certainly Keegan Murray -- we've got to do a little bit better than we did last time, 26 and 18.

So we've got to get our guys some rest I love coaching this team, I think we're a good team. I think we're better than our record, but it's fun to come here tonight and get a win, especially when it wasn't going so well the first half to be able to dig down and come back from 15 down and win that game. Really happy to walk in that locker room and celebrate with those guys.

Q. Coach, obviously Pete was asked what it meant to him to finally win a Big Ten tournament game here in his career. I wanted to ask you what it means to see guys like Pete and Ryan Greer who have lost so many times here get that win.

COACH CHRIS COLLINS: Great question. It was all about those guys. I talked about it a lot coming into this game. It's not easy to beat a team three times in a season, I don't care who you're playing. And these guys were playing so well. We knew that we were going to really -- even though we had won by double figures when we played, this is a different team. We just played them a couple weeks ago. They know us. They know what we're trying to do. They're confident. We knew this was going to be a really tough game, but for your legacy you want to be able to have some postseason success. For these guys the last three years we've come up short for those seniors, so it was really important to me personally to see those guys be able to come here and get a win and have a chance to play tomorrow. I think it will be a great atmosphere in here for that session. You've got a local team, you've got Indiana playing Michigan right before us, should be a lot of people in the stands. I think there will be a really good energy in the building and any time you can get to that second day, it's always fun to stick around a little bit.

Q. You talked about at the top of this, nice playing from Elyjah Williams and Casey Simmons in the second half when you guys were working out of that rut. Do you see that shifting up the minutes or the rotation going forward? Williams obviously brings some March Madness experience, Simmons has been playing well of late.

COACH CHRIS COLLINS: Yeah, I think tomorrow it's going to be all hands on deck. You guys know the way Iowa plays, they're a fast-paced team. They like to get up and down, they press, they push the ball, so I foresee having to go into the bench a little bit. We're going to need Ryan Greer tomorrow. We kind of went with some other guys tonight. He only played five minutes. Casey, those guys, even a guy like Brooks Barnhizer played 21 minutes against Iowa last time. We're going to need everybody because I'm going to have to keep fresh bodies in the game because Iowa feasts on teams playing tired and that's when they go on those big runs. It's going to be really important.

But you touched on it, Elyjah's been in these moments, he played in the NCAA Tournament. I thought he was fantastic tonight, his energy was great, and Casey, his best basketball's going to be ahead of him. He's such a great athlete, such a willing worker. Once we get him some muscle on those bones and he gets some experience, this guy's going to be a real force in this league in my opinion.

Q. Coach, you talked a lot throughout this season about how the toughness of the Big Ten and every night you have to bring your A game. How does that sort of sharpen you when you're playing the 13 seed in Nebraska and they've beaten two Top 25 teams recently?

COACH CHRIS COLLINS: Yeah, they were far from a 13 seed, what we faced tonight. They just went on the road last week and won at Penn State by about 30, they won at Ohio State easily and went to Wisconsin on a day when Wisconsin was trying to win the league out right and went into their building and beat them without Bryce McGowan. So that shows you how well they were playing and the credit you've got to give Fred and that staff for getting those guys ready. This league -- to your point, it either sharpens you or it eats you alive. You better do one or the other because nobody feels sorry for anybody. Everybody's good, everybody's well coached, everybody has good players. So you better come out, whoever you're playing, and you better be ready to play and you better play really well or you're going to get exposed and you're going to get humbled real quickly in this conference.

Q. Coach, you saw Boo was not successful in the first half versus the second half. Can you talk about -- I mean, you've seen his playing career develop over the years and now seeing him being able to keep his composure at halftime or come out into the second half and just clean slate, can you talk about that impact?

COACH CHRIS COLLINS: Yeah, I told him afterwards it's a big sign of his maturity. Early on in his career when things weren't going well, he had a hard time getting out of it. He's an emotional guy which I love and sometimes the emotions, you've got to get them in check. I think what happened tonight, and he didn't want to say it, but sometimes the right buttons have to be pushed. He was kind of out of it a little bit and he got a little brotherly love at halftime from Talor Battle. Talor knows him as well as anybody, and it wasn't yelling or screaming or anything like that, but he was able to get to Boo and let him know that what he was doing out there wasn't what needed to happen. Sometimes you need that and I thought it got Boo kind of out of whatever funk he was in because he got mad at his brother. So he used that anger to go out in the second half and kind of start fresh. But that's why you have a staff, that's why you have the relationship building with these players. And then Boo's maturity, to be able to go out there, it was probably one of his worst halves and to come out in the second half and I thought he was fantastic not only with scoring but the charge. He comes over and takes the charge on the last play there with the one-point lead to really kind of seal the deal, which was awesome.