Nebrasketball Player Profiles: Eduardo Andre

Last season, the Corn Nation staff had a running joke that Coach Hoiberg refused to sign any player that was taller than about 6-foot-8. This was in good fun, but a valid point by humor as the Nebraska Cornhuskers were woefully outmatched against a number of Big Ten opponents last season as the league featured stunning depth at center this writer has rarely ever seen before in conference play. No surprise that Nebraska ended up dead last in rebounding and blocked shots in the Big Ten with such huge size disadvantages.

Enter Eduardo Andre in the 2020 signing class. The Huskers finally have a true big man as 6-foot-10 Andre has the height to match a number of the elite Big Ten centers. Add onto that the freshman big also clocked in at 228-pounds, and has reportedly added another ten pounds of muscle since getting to campus over the summer.

Andre was born in Luanda Angola and moved to London at the age of four. He came stateside to play in the United States and competed at AZ Compass Prep in Chandler, Arizona for his senior season last year. His 7-foot-4 wingspan certainly helped him in averaging 10.3 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 3.9 blocks per game last year. Even more impressive is the fact he didn’t start playing competitively in basketball until he was 14 years old.

Andre played for the Dallas Mustangs program in AAU in Texas before the move to Arizona, and during his two seasons playing for Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas he averaged 12.3 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 4.3 blocks per game. He was at one time ranked a top-10 recruit out of Texas as well. Andre was a three-star recruit per both 247 Sports and Rivals, and a top 200 senior in the 2020 class per 247.

Being a freshman and still likely benefiting from a year of weight training and growth, it will be surprising to see Andre get too much time on the court this season behind Yvan Ouedraogo and Derrick Walker, Jr. However, expect to see him at least some of the time, and if he can pick up the pace of college ball quickly he may start to eat into the minutes we see of the older players ahead of him on the roster.