Dusty May’s Monday press conference previewing Minnesota and Illinois

Two wins and it's all yours. Just how long this season was getting to here, I guess the importance of getting that done. It's not done. We're so consumed now on playing well against Minnesota.

They're going to play desperate, they're shorthanded, they have 5 or 6 guys that are playing significant minutes and those 5 guys can all play. And so we're not really thinking that big of a picture now as opposed to just taking care of business and we know if we get this win we at least at worst case scenario clinch a share. But I don't think anyone in our locker room wants to share anything.

And so we've just got to continue playing one possession at a time and get back to playing good ball.

You know, I don't really want to divulge what we learned internally. I can go big picture that as of February, whatever the date was, we weren't ready to beat one of the top programs, teams in the country. And so, we don't have to, we didn't have to be ready. In mid-February.

Hopefully we have a chance to see them again because they're going to be playing late in March and possibly April. So, it would be awesome to have another opportunity. That means we're taking care of business. But, you know, they— Duke, they made winning plays.

I mean, it wasn't— after the first 6 or 8 minutes, the game was a slugfest for both teams. And it's rare that our group doesn't outperform the other team the last 3, 4 minutes of a game in a tight situation. And we weren't able to do that. And so credit them.

You know, them playing well doesn't take away any of our shine of what we've been able to do. Or, you know, that's kind of how we're wired, where if he does this, then that takes away from something with us. Not necessarily. That day they played better.

They've got a great program. We're striving to be be that on a consistent basis. So, um, but yeah, we learned a lot schematically. We learned a lot, um, that we would do differently.

And, uh, you know, we tried some new things also in the game just because we feel like they're— later you get, you're gonna have to go make some adjustments. And, and so we tried some different things, and credit Duke, um, they used Boozer really, really well to leverage us in so many— leverage our defense in so many different ways.

And the intangible plays that he made were more impressive than his reputation, than his winning percentage, whatever the case. He's a great screener. He played— the two on the ball, he passed and just kept the game very, very simple offensively. And then he made his desire to go get 50/50 basketballs and rebounding was as good as I can remember and Nebraska member. His drive to win is incredibly impressive.

Everyone's welcome to their own opinion. You guys have watched a lot of ball, you guys have your own opinions. It didn't work. So once again, if we talk about resulting, then yes, it was a bad move, it was a bad decision.

If we're resulting. It was obvious he picked up his third foul and it didn't allow him to play aggressive. Yeah, I wish in hindsight we wouldn't have done that, but when you sit down and you say, alright, can we really go the next 15 minutes without Aday, and can he play well in the second half if he sits for these next 15 minutes? And so, we trust him, we trust our guys.

Obviously some have better impulse control than the others. And it'll be a good learning experience for him because the thing with his fouls, his first one was a missed blockout. And so it was legit. And then the second one, I think we all, you know, other than Boozer, we probably all feel, everyone on the planet feels the same way about that call.

But if you don't make the first mistake, then that second call is not nearly as relevant. And so, you're going to get, I mean, we received some bad calls. They received some bad calls. It's positioning, it's a very, very tough job.

So, talk about minimizing risk a lot. And if you don't make that first mistake, then the second one's not near as consequential. But would we do it again? Tomorrow, I'm not sure.