The Nebraska basketball team had a pair of players earn academic accolades recently as senior Paul Velander and freshman Christopher Niemann earned a spot on the 2008 Big 12 Commissioner's Fall Honor Roll.

Velander, a biological sciences major, was named to the honor roll for the seventh time in his career. A native of Blacksburg, Va., Velander was recently selected to the CoSIDA Academic All-District 7 First Team and now has his name among 40 players eligible for Academic All-America honors. He has earned first-team academic All-Big 12 honors each of the past two years and this spring, he is expected to become just the fifth Husker to earn the honor three straight seasons.

Niemann, a native of Kühlungsborn, Germany, is in his first year at Nebraska and earned his first career academic honor. His spot on the team marked the third straight season a true freshman has made the squad in his first semester at Nebraska, although Niemann is the first scholarship player to earn the distinction.

A total of 324 Nebraska student-athletes earned spots on the 2008 Fall Big 12 Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll, including 38 Huskers who posted perfect 4.0 grade-point averages. In order to earn a spot on the honor roll, a student-athlete must post a grade-point average of 3.0 or higher during the semester.