UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Anteater Basketball Team Can Bank on It Whenever He Puts Up a Shot

His parents are serious Laker fans, his brother plays basketball at high-scoring U.S. International, and Cornelius Banks is ecstatic to be an Anteater.

“I love it,” he said. “I was sort of raised on the fast-paced game.”

Eyebrows were what he raised Friday--not to mention expectations--with a remarkable debut against UCLA in his first game for UC Irvine.

A 6-foot-5 forward, Banks came off the bench and scored 20 points, making five of 12 three-point basket attempts.

“When I threw up the first shot, I didn’t feel it was going in,” Banks said. “But it kind of eased its way into the basket.”

After that?

“If I had thrown the ball up backward, I think it would have gone in.”

Banks scored 16 points in his second game, a victory over Texas Tech, and 12 in his third, a loss to Siena.

After three games, he is shooting 50% from the field and 53% from three-point range, making 10 of 19.

His shot is not beautiful, by purist standards.

“He’s got a shot that doesn’t have a lot of spin on it, almost like a knuckleball,” Coach Bill Mulligan said. “Purists would probably try to change it.”

But Mulligan is no purist, as evidenced by the shot-happy style his team is playing this season, in an attempt to recover from a 5-23 record in 1989-90.

Another distinguishing quality of Banks’ shots--at least those closer to the basket--prompts jokes and teasing: Banks banks them in.

“I shoot a lot of bank shots,” he said. “It’s easier to use the backboard. You get a better angle.”

Irvine felt fortunate to get Banks, who played at Crenshaw High School before playing last season at Santa Monica College.

He had met the NCAA’s freshman eligibility requirements on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, but had struggled in the classroom.

“I kind of took my academics lightly,” he said.

After a year of community college basketball, Banks and his parents thought he should move on.

Mulligan and his staff moved in.

Because Banks had made the SAT requirement out of high school, he needed only 24 transferable units to switch to a four-year school, not a full degree, as is otherwise required.

“No one knew it,” Mulligan said, “or we didn’t think people knew it.”

Irvine landed him, and got more than it bargained for.

“I was surprised how well he shot in our first practice,” Mulligan said.

The UCLA game was even more of a surprise, even for Banks.

“I had no idea I would be the leading scorer,” he said. “I just wanted to do something to help the team.

“That was a big confidence-builder for me. I really wanted to come in here and put up a lot of shots. That was what Coach wanted me to do. Everything just seemed to fall into place.”

Not to mention into the basket.

That’s not basketball: UCLA Coach Jim Harrick could hardly hide his distaste--and hardly tried to--after playing Irvine Friday in a game the Bruins won, 134-101, setting a school scoring record in the process.

“I don’t want to criticize Coach Mulligan, I don’t want to sound like that, but it’s not right. That’s not basketball,” he said.

To which Mulligan responds:

“Basically it gets down to recruiting. If Jim Harrick was me, what would he do? How else can I play?

“I watched Syracuse and Indiana play. I saw UCLA and Virginia and I see the guys (Mike) Krzyzewski gets at Duke. If we had those players . . .

“But with our players, if we played a half-court game, it would be boring, and besides that, we’d get beat.”

Dylan Rigdon, who played well as a freshman for Irvine late in the season last year, spent much of the Great Alaska Shootout rolling his eyes and muttering to himself after missed shots.

He has made only six of his first 24 shots (25%), and four of 20 from three-point range. In two of the three games, he failed to reach double figures.