Short-handed Nebraska adds pair of football players for Big Ten tournament

With only seven scholarship players available, Fred Hoiberg picked up QB Noah Vedral and OT Brant Banks on Tuesday. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

Fred Hoiberg knew he was going to be short-handed heading to Indianapolis this week for the Big Ten tournament.

So, the first-year coach got a bit creative.

Hoiberg added a pair of Nebraska football players to his roster, both of whom will be available for the No. 14-seeded Huskers’ first-round game against No. 11 Indiana on Wednesday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

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Nebraska picked up quarterback Noah Vedral and offensive tackle Brant Banks. Vedral played in five games for the Huskers last season, where he went 34-of-52 for 418 yards and ran for three touchdowns. Banks played in four games, but eventually redshirted.

Fred Hoiberg announced Tuesday that @HuskerFBNation OL @BrantBanks and QB @Noah11_V have been added to the @HuskerHoops roster for the #B1GTourney.

Here's Vedral's highlight tape under center. 👀 pic.twitter.com/sm9rop9yCc

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) March 10, 2020

Both played basketball in high school before attending Nebraska. Vedral played at Bishop Neumann High in Wahoo, Nebraska, and won three state titles there while losing just 16 games in four years. He averaged 13.6 points per game as a senior and put up 1,286 total points in his career. Banks, who stands 6-foot-7 and 300 pounds, hasn’t played since his junior year. He averaged 11.6 points and 7.6 rebounds that season at Westbury Christian in Houston.

Nebraska was down to seven scholarship players after guards Dachon Burke and Cam Mack were suspended in separate incidents last week. Neither will travel with the team to Indianapolis, Hoiberg told the Lincoln Journal Star on Tuesday. Burke said in a tweet early on Tuesday that he is now focusing on his academics ahead of graduation, and Hoiberg said that Mack is at home with his family dealing with a “personal matter.”

“That’s all I’ll say about that at this time,” Hoiberg said, via the Journal Star. “We wish him all the best and respect his privacy at this time.”

Nebraska finished the regular season with a rough 7-24 record. No. 6 Penn State will await the winner of the Huskers’ game against Indiana on Wednesday.

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