LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Nebraska received its first commitment from the 2026 transfer portal on Thursday. Belmont forward Sam Orme gave his pledge to the Huskers.

Orme is a 6-foot-9 sophomore that emerged as a top portal target earlier in the week. Orme averaged 12.7 points while shooting 55.9 percent from the floor for the Bruins.

Orme joins Nebraska after the most successful season in program history. The Huskers won 28 games and advanced at the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

Orme’s commitment comes on the same day that Braden Frager, the 2026 Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year, re-signed with the Huskers.

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Nebraska volleyball will play in three exhibition matches this spring. The Huskers will open the spring against Iowa State on April 11 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The Cornhuskers are hitting the road for all three spring exhibition matches as the John Cook Arena at the Devaney Center has been under construction since late February. The facility is undergoing locker room upgrades and adding roughly 10,000 new seats with cupholders.

Last season, Nebraska finished the season 33-1 and No. 3 in the final AVCA poll. Iowa State ended the season 23-8 and lost to Minnesota in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

The Cyclones are coached by Christy Johnson-Lynch, who is entering her 22nd year as head volleyball coach. She also played and coached at Nebraska.

More than a year after voters overwhelmingly approved medical cannabis in Nebraska, the state is nowhere near having a functioning program.

Some state lawmakers and cannabis advocates say the latest blow landed Tuesday night, when a bill offering protections to healthcare practitioners who recommend medical cannabis faltered on the legislative floor.

“If there are no practitioners, there are no patients in this program,” Crista Eggers with Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana said. “What seems to be the goal of this is to make sure Nebraska never has a functioning program.”

The stories of families fighting for a medical cannabis program stack up every day.

“His seizures happen all the time. He’s probably he’s having probably hundreds a day,” Dominic Gillen said. “We thought we were the only family. And we’ve come to find out that there are thousands of Nebraskans that are in need of this.”

Gillen’s son Will has Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy. So does Matthew Bronson’s son Teddy. Bronson is a disabled veteran and carries chronic pain with him every day.

“I want to take something or use something that will help with the pain, but not impair me to the point where I cannot give aid to my child,” Bronson said.

Both families celebrated when Nebraskans overwhelmingly greenlit a medical cannabis program.

“That means 71% of the state says, ‘Let’s do this. Let’s try it,’” Bronson said.

But they say lawmakers and other state officials hung the program out to dry since 2024.

“The legislature has not fulfilled the real intent of the voters,” Gillen said.

Sen. John Cavanaugh championed LB933, aiming to protect healthcare practitioners who recommend cannabis, a Schedule 1 substance.

“Not a single doctor in Nebraska has made a recommendation because they are afraid that the retribution by the attorney general or other law enforcement against their license,” Cavanaugh said.

A number of amendments, including one from Sen. Brian Hardin, throttled the bill on Tuesday night. Hardin called LB933 a “recreational marijuana bill masquerading as a medical marijuana bill” in an interview with KETV on Wednesday.

That means practitioners still won’t have legal protections this year, something Cavanaugh said will be chilling to the program facing a critical attorney general.

“You cannot have a medical cannabis program if no doctors are able to make a recommendation for their patients,” Cavanaugh said.

Attorney General Mike Hilgers’ office said on Wednesday that he is “responsible for ensuring the safety of patients.”

“[The Attorney General] is charged with reviewing complaints as to medical professionals who violate the terms of their licenses,” the statement said. “We take that obligation very seriously, and the office will look at any medical professional who has been alleged to have violated the conditions of their license.”

Every other state with a medical-only cannabis program has protections for practitioners. Nebraska

“It feels like a slap in the face,” Bronson said. “There’s no nice way of saying it.”

Bronson and Gillen said they’ll continue to advocate for what they say is necessary for many Nebraskan patients.

But they say they’re uncertain about the future as Nebraska continues to chart its own course. The Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission has missed deadlines, restricted forms of cannabis patients can use, and capped the total number of plants cultivators can grow to just 1,250. That’s a total of 5,000 hemp plants across the four licensed cultivators.

“What I’ve heard from people who want to get licenses, they’re already saying that that won’t be enough,” Gillen said.

The Medical Cannabis Commission did not respond for comment on Wednesday. But it will hold its next public meeting next Monday at 1 p.m. in the State Office Building in Lincoln.

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