Nebraska's men's basketball team will enter the 2020 Big Ten Tournament with the No. 14 seed, a 2-18 record in conference play and open with No. 11 seed Indiana on Wednesday night in the first round. When the Cornhuskers lace up the sneakers to battle the Hoosiers, they'll have two new interesting additions to the roster.
Basketball coach Fred Hoiberg announced Tuesday that he's dipping into the football team's well as quarterback Noah Vedral and offensive linemen Brant Banks will join a squad that has no shot at the postseason unless it runs the table and claims the conference title in Indianapolis this week. The move comes just three days after guards Cam Mack and Dachon Burke were suspended indefinitely and ruled out of the tournament.
What should fans expect from the two football players?
Vedral, a 6-foot-1, 200-pounder, took home third-team All-Nebraska honors in basketball during his senior season at Bishop Neumann High School in Wahoo, Nebraska, leading the program to the C-1 state championship. He played his freshman football season at UCF as McKenzie Milton's backup in 2017 prior to transferring back home to Nebraska.
Vedral completed 34 of 52 passes for 418 yards and rushed for 106 yards and three touchdowns as Adrian Martinez's backup in 2019. He played in eight games for the Knights in 2017 behind Milton, completed 22 of 29 passes for 276 yards and accounted for three touchdowns (one passing, two rushing).
Banks is a 6-foot-7, 300-pound redshirt freshman offensive lineman from Westbury Christian School in Houston, Texas. He played in one game during his true freshman season in 2019 before taking a redshirt. He played offensive and defensive line on the gridiron in high school, averaged 11.5 points per game on the hardwood and pulled down 7.6 rebounds per game during the 2017-18 basketball season according to MaxPreps.
