Former Beaver Falls standout Jeter to Nebraska

 Mike White | 10:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 1

Former Beaver Falls High School standout Lance Jeter will be a Cornhusker - for basketball.

Jeter said tonight he has made a verbal commitment to the University of Nebraska. He will sign a letter of intent with the Cornhuskers in a few weeks. Jeter played the past two seasons at Polk Community College in Florida. His coach there was Matt Furjanic, former Robert Morris head coach.

Jeter is now 6 feet 3, 230 pounds and was recruited to play point guard. He said Nebraska liked him because he is a "big" point guard. Jeter believes he has a good chance to start next season.

Jeter started his career at the University of Cincinnati - as a football player. He got a scholarship for football out of Beaver Falls. But he stayed only one year at Cincinnati before leaving and deciding he wanted to play basketball again. That's when he enrolled at Polk. He said he didn't regret his decision to first go to Cincinnati.

"I knew I could play basketball, but it was just that at that time, it just felt like the right decision [to play football]," Jeter said. "Things happen for a reason. I don't regret anything."

Jeter visited Nebraska last weekend. Duquesne and South Florida also offered him scholarships.

It will be interesting to see what he does in his two years at Nebraska. Polk plays a pretty good brand of junior-college basketball and Jeter was a standout there. Usually, colleges don't take junior-college transfers to sit on the bench. Don't be surprised if Jeter has an impact next season.

But from a personal viewpoint, it would've been nice to see him at Duquesne. It's always nice to see a local kid play Division I basketball at either Pitt or Duquesne. Jeter might have fit in at Duquesne. But we'll never know.

Jeter was the Post-Gazette Athlete of the Year in 2006.