Irvine’s Banks Falls Short of Academic Requirements

The UC Irvine men’s basketball team has lost a potential starter with the departure of Cornelius Banks, a junior forward who failed to successfully complete academic work required for him to remain in school.

“Mr. Banks is no longer a student at the University of California Irvine,” Coach Rod Baker said Friday. “I’m disappointed he’s not with us. We’ll miss his playing ability, his basketball skills. But we still have student-athletes. You have to do both parts.”

Banks, who averaged 7.8 points last season and scored a career-high 21-points in a 114-86 loss to Nevada Las Vegas in February, attended two sessions of summer school in an attempt to make up academic work. But he said recently that he doubted he would be eligible, and that he might go to a community college this season. He had not been attending Irvine’s scheduled conditioning workouts.

Irvine’s leading returning scorers are Gerald McDonald, a senior guard who averaged 8.4 points, and Jeff Von Lutzow, a junior forward who averaged 8.3 points.

The top two scorers on last season’s 11-19 team were seniors Ricky Butler and Jeff Herdman. Dylan Rigdon, who would have been the leading returning scorer, transferred to Arizona this summer.

Eight players return from last season’s team. Newcomers who will be eligible this season are freshman forward Elzie Love, freshman guard Zuri Williams, and junior transfer Keith Stewart, a guard. Baker said Friday he expects to announce shortly the arrival of another transfer who will be eligible this season.