MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The NFL has reinstated Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, clearing the way for him to return after missing most of last season while facing child abuse charges in Texas.

The league announced its decision on Thursday. Commissioner Roger Goodell sent Peterson a letter advising him of his reinstatement. Goodell wrote that Peterson will have to fulfill all the obligations of his plea deal with authorities after he reached a plea deal to reduce a felony charge to a misdemeanor.

Goodell also told Peterson he would have to continue attending counseling while adhering to the league’s new personal conduct policy to avoid further discipline.

Peterson’s agent has said the star running back wants to play elsewhere next season. But the Vikings say they have no plans to trade him.

NEW YORK (AP) — NBA players will be blood tested for human growth hormone beginning next season. The league and the Players Association announced Thursday that HGH testing will start during training camp next fall. All players will be subjected to three random, unannounced tests annually — two during the season and once in the offseason.

A positive test will result in a 20-game suspension for a first violation and a 45-game ban for a second violation. A player would be dismissed and disqualified from the NBA for his third violation.

Owners and players had agreed during collective bargaining negotiations in 2011 to determine a process for how HGH testing could be implemented. The league hasn’t previously done blood testing.

Lincoln – For the third straight season, the No. 23 Nebraska baseball team (28-11, 5-4 Big Ten) and the Ohio State Buckeyes (24-9, 7-2 Big Ten) are set to meet at Hawks Field for a three-game Big Ten series. The Huskers and Buckeyes have met 15 times dating back to 1991, while meeting 13 times since the Huskers joined the Big Ten, with NU posting a 9-4 record since 2012.

Nebraska enters the series fifth in the Big Ten standing with a 5-4 record. The Huskers have been tough at home this season, posting an 18-2 record, including a 5-1 record in Big Ten games at Hawks Field.

Ohio State enters the weekend third in the league standings with a 7-2 mark, one game back of both Illinois (8-1) and Iowa (8-1) for first place. The Buckeyes are 7-3 over their past 10 games, including a win at home over Louisville on Tuesday. Last week the Buckeyes hosted UNLV and took the first game of the series, but then dropped the final two contest. Like the Huskers, the Buckeyes have played well at home this season with a 15-4 record at Bill Davis Stadium. Also like the Huskers, OSU has not been as good on the road with a 9-5 mark, including a 6-5 record in road games. The Buckeyes have played six of their nine Big Ten games at home, with their lone road trip to Piscataway, N.J., where they took 2-of-3 from Rutgers.

Chance Sinclair is scheduled to make his 26th career start on Friday night and will look to even his record on the season, as he sits at 4-5 on the year in nine starts. Over 57.0 innings, Sinclair has struck out 40, while walking 11. Last season against the Buckeyes, Sinclair tossed his first career complete game at Nebraska and struck out seven, while walking none.

The Buckeyes are scheduled to start sophomore lefty Tanner Tully on Friday, who is 3-1 on the year in nine starts with a 2.63 ERA. Tully was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year last season, as well as a freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball and Perfect Game. Over 51.1 innings this season, the Elkhart, Ind., native has recorded 33 strikeouts to 10 walks. During league play, Tully is 2-1 in three starts and leads the Buckeyes with a 1.31 ERA. Tully started the middle game of the series last year in the Lincoln and no hit the Huskers over the first 6.2 innings of the game before Tanner Lubach delivered a two-out single. Tully held the Huskers to one run on three hits over 7.1 innings, but didn’t factor into the decision on April 5. Tully also started against the Huskers in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament and again didn’t factor into the decision after allowing three runs on seven hits in 7.0 innings, while striking out eight.

Senior Kyle Kubat is scheduled to start on Saturday and for the fourth straight week he’ll try to notch his 20th career win. With a 4-1 record on the year and a 19-4 career record, Kubat is looking to become the 11th pitcher in school history to record 20 wins.

Sophomore Travis Lakins is scheduled to start for the Buckeyes on Saturday. In nine starts this season, he is 1-2 with a 3.83 ERA in 54.0 innings of work. During league play, Lakins has worked 18.0 innings over three starts and has a 1-0 record with a 3.00 ERA. The righty from Franklin, Ohio, saw action out of the bullpen in three games against the Huskers last season, and he gave up six runs (four earned) on five hits and four walks over 3.2 innings.

Sophomore Derek Burkamper will take the hill on Sunday for the Huskers and he’ll be in search of his fifth win of the season. The Muscatine, Iowa, native has not factored into the decision in his last two starts, and hasn’t made it out of the fifth inning of either start after working 6.0 or more inning in four of his previous five starts.

Senior Ryan Riga is scheduled to start on Sunday and enters the weekend with a team-best 1.76 ERA in nine appearances, including eight starts, over a team-high 56.1 innings. Earlier this season, Riga posted a school-record scoreless streak of 30.2 innings, and had the streak snapped at Penn State on April 6. It’s the longest streak by any pitcher in the country this season and broke OSU’s previous record of 22.1 scoreless innings by Bob Spears in 1995. The 6-0 left hander didn’t throw against the Huskers in any of four meetings between the two teams last season.

Due to impending weather on Friday night, the Nebraska baseball team has announced that its series opener against Ohio State will now begin at 4:05 p.m. on Friday. The game was previously scheduled for 6:35 p.m.

At this time, Saturday (2:05 p.m.) and Sunday’s (1:05 p.m.) games are still scheduled for their original start times.

For all schedule announcements, remember to check Huskers.com. Updates will also be posted on facebook (facebook.com/NebraskaBaseball) and on twitter (@Husker_Baseball).

TV Coverage

Saturday’s game will be carried statewide on NET.

Web Streams

Both Friday’s and Sunday’s games will be carried in HuskersNSide (subscription required). Saturday’s game will be streamed on BTN Plus (subscription required).

The Mid-Plains Community College Rodeo will compete in the University of Nebraska – Lincoln rodeo April 17 -18 at the Lancaster Event Center in Lincoln.

Mid-Plains men’s team is currently ranked seventh in the team standings with 920 points.  The women’s team is 10^thwith five points.

Individually for Mid-Plains, in the bull riding event, five cowboys are in the top 15.  Keali’I’aukai Kaai is in fourth place with 290 points. Colter Glendy is in fifth place with 230 points.  Tyler Wriedt is in ninth place with 80 points.  Tyler Viers and Dakota Rice are tied for 10^th place with 70 points.  In steer wrestling, Tyler Murray is tied for eighth place 200 points.

The top three students in each event, and top two men’s and women’s teams from the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association’s 11 regions will qualify for the College National Finals Rodeo held in Casper, Wyo., June 14 – 20.

Lincoln – University of Nebraska men’s basketball coach Tim Miles announced Wednesday that Bakari Evelyn(Detroit, Mich.) and Jack McVeigh (Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia) have signed National Letters-of-Intent to join the Husker basketball program next season.

Evelyn, a 6-foot-2, 175-pound guard, spent the 2015 season at Hillcrest (Ariz.) Academy playing for Coach Nick Weaver. Evelyn averaged 25.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.8 steals per game in just nine games after becoming eligible following his transfer. He spent his first three seasons at Southfield (Mich.) Christian, helping the school to a 73-7 record and three straight Class D state titles. He was considered the top player in Class D and one of the best players in the metro Detroit area heading into his senior year. As a junior, he averaged 17.4 points and 4.4 assists per game, highlighted by a 28-point, seven-rebound and four-assist performance in the state title game victory. During his sophomore campaign, he averaged 20.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.6 steals per game to earn first-team all-state honors. Bakari, who also visited UTEP, is the son of Cassandra Stone and Gerald Evelyn.

“Bakari is a great kid with a big personality who is also an excellent student,” Miles said. “He is also a student of the game of basketball which excites me. He is a combo guard who shoots the ball well and uses screen and roll very well. He finds shooters and inside guys alike while penetrating, which has been an important missing ingredient in our style of play. Because of his attitude and the fact he can play either guard position, he’s a great fit for our program.”

McVeigh, a 6-foot-7, 210-pound wing, is one of the top international players in the class of 2015, as he attends the Australian Institute of Sport, the same program that produced seven NBA players in the last 15 years, as well as Husker great and 2012 Olympian Aleks Maric. McVeigh made his debut for Australia’s Senior National Team at the 2014 Sino-Australia Challenge and was voted captain of Australia’s Under-19 National Team in 2014. He was unable to play because of illness, but the Under-19 team qualified for the FIBA Under-19 World Championships this summer in Greece. In addition, he was also chosen to play on the Australian Select Team in 2014 and represented his country at the 2013 adidas Nations event, averaging 11.6 points and 3.6 rebounds while playing against some of the top basketball players in the World in his age group. In domestic competition, he led his Queensland team to a runner-up finish at the 2014 National Under-20 Championships, averaging 27.5 points per game on 55 percent shooting and 9.3 rebounds per game. His efforts earned McVeigh the Bob Staunton Medal as the tournament’s most outstanding player, joining a list of past winners that includes Dante Exum and Patty Mills. He averaged 24.3 points and 10.8 rebounds per game playing in the National Under-18 Championships in 2013. He had a 41-point effort in the semifinals and averaged 17.6 points and 12.4 rebounds in 2012. The son of Jenny and Peter McVeigh, Jack also looked at LSU, Virginia and Boise State before selecting Nebraska.

“Jack is a young man we are very excited about,” Miles said. “He’s got a great attitude and energy level. He is a very good shooter, highly competitive player and has a nose for the ball. Jack has good size at 6-7 and length to play on the wing and rebounds the ball really well at his position. He has played at a high level for both the Under-19 and Senior Australian National Teams, giving him an opportunity to compete against high level players not only in his country but across the world. We believe these experiences have prepared him to successfully compete in arguably the best league in the country in the Big Ten.”

Player	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Hometown	Last Schools
Bakari Evelyn	G	6-2	175	Detroit, Mich.	Gilbert Christian/Hillcrest Academy
Jack McVeigh	G/F	6-7	210	Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia	Australian Institute of Sport

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A former Nebraska football team captain who authorities say didn’t show up to serve his 300-day pot sentence has been picked up in Omaha.

Online court records say 40-year-old Vershan Jackson was taken into custody on Tuesday. Lancaster County Jail records say Jackson remained in custody there on Thursday.

Jackson had pleaded no contest and was convicted of attempted possession for sale of a controlled substance. Lincoln police say an officer watched a marijuana sale occur July 18, 2012, between Jackson and another man in a parking lot.

Jackson’s subsequent appeal failed, and he was ordered to report to jail on Dec. 8 last year. He didn’t, so a bench warrant for his arrest was issued.

Jackson was a Husker captain in 1997.

 

MESA, Ariz. (AP) — Michael Phelps is aiming to compete in a fifth Olympics next year in Rio, although the 18-time Olympic champion won’t swim in the world championships this summer.

Phelps confirmed his intention to make one last run at the Olympics on Wednesday. The 29-year-old swimmer is in Arizona to compete in his first meet since serving a six-month suspension by USA Swimming after a second drunken driving arrest last fall.

But Phelps says he won’t be swimming at the world meet in Russia in August as part of the punishment set forth by the sport’s U.S. governing body. That is the last major international meet before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.

Phelps is back in Arizona, where he attended an in-patient alcohol rehabilitation program after being arrested on DUI charges in his hometown of Baltimore last September.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Kansas City became the last team in the majors to lose this season, as Kyle Gibson pitched into the seventh inning and Oswaldo Arcia hit a two-run homer for the Minnesota Twins in a 3-1 victory over the Royals on Wednesday night.

The Royals (7-1) were chasing the 2003 team’s 9-0 start as the best in franchise history, but Gibson (1-1) used 12 groundball outs and three strikeouts to keep the highest-scoring team in the majors quiet for a night.

The Twins (2-6) went 1-8 to begin the 1994 season, the only other time in the club’s 55-year history they started with seven losses in their first eight games. Glen Perkins pitched a perfect ninth for his first save.

Edinson Volquez (1-1) struck out seven in 7 2-3 innings, with five hits and one walk allowed. He loaded the bases with no outs in the first, but he escaped with only Brian Dozier’s sacrifice fly as the damage.

Lincoln – A 5-for-5 night from senior Austin Darby powered the No. 23 Nebraska baseball team (28-11, 5-4 Big Ten) to a 8-6 win over the Omaha Mavericks (16-17, 9-6 Summit) on Wednesday night at Hawks Field. With the victory, the Huskers took the two-game season series from the Mavs.

Darby’s career-high five hits included three singles and two doubles, while he also added a pair of RBIs. Taylor Fish and Blake Headley each notched three hits on the evening and each drove in a pair of runs. The Huskers needed all 16 hits they got on the night, as the NU defense committed three errors for the second straight game, which resulted in two unearned runs for the Mavs.

The Huskers had to rally late in the game after the Mavericks evened the score, 6-6, in the top of the eighth. The Huskers held a 6-1 lead after the sixth innings, but the Mavs scored four in the seventh before tying the game in the eighth.

Ryan Boldt started the bottom of the eighth with NU’s sixth double of the night and then moved to third on a groundball to the right side of the infield by Jake Schleppenbach. Blake Headley stepped to the plate and put the Husker back on top with a bloop single to left field and then moved into scoring position on a ground ball out off the bat of Ben Miller. Darby added a much needed insurance run with a two-out RBI single that put the Huskers ahead 8-6.

With a majority of NU’s regular bullpen arms not available, the Huskers turned the ball over to freshman Nate Fisher in the top of the ninth with Omaha’s 3-4-5 hitters coming to the plate. In his first save situation as a Husker, Fisher gave up a leadoff single to Clayton Taylor to start the frame. The Yutan, Neb., lefty settled in and got a pop out before getting a game-ending double play off the bat of Alex Mortensen.

Junior Austin Christensen gave the Huskers a strong performance in his first start of the season, going a career-high 5.0 innings. He allowed one unearned run on five hits and a walk, and left the game with a 3-1 lead, but didn’t factor into the decision.

The Huskers continue play at Hawks Field this weekend when they host the Ohio State Buckeyes for a three-game series, with the first game set for 6:35 p.m. on Friday night.