Nebraska basketball adds two football players for Big Ten tournament
Following the indefinite suspensions of guards Dachon Burke Jr. and Cam Mack, the shorthanded Nebraska men’s basketball team has turned to an unlikely source for help—the football team.
The Cornhuskers, down to seven scholarship players after the suspensions, have bolstered their roster by adding quarterback-turned-guard Noah Vedral and offensive tackle-turned-forward Brant Banks, just in time for the Big Ten tournament. Nebraska will face Indiana in the first round.
Vedral, a freshman, spent last football season primarily as the team’s backup quarterback, appearing in six games with two starts. His best performance came against Indiana, perhaps a good sign should he see the court on Wednesday. Against the Hoosiers, Vedral went 14-for-16 for 201 yards in a 38–31 defeat. He was a three-sport star in high school, playing football, basketball and track en route to being named 2017’s Lincoln Journal Star Co-Athlete of the Year. During his season basketball season, he averaged 13.6 points per game for Bishop Neumann High (Wahoo, Neb.), helping lead the team to its second straight state title.
Banks, a sophomore, appeared in four games for the Huskers’ football team in 2019 and redshirted. He did not play basketball his senior year of high school at Westbury Christian High (Houston), but averaged 11.5 points and 7.6 rebounds per game as a junior.