Anteaters’ Shipp Ineligible to Play This Season : Colleges: Grades weren’t good enough for UCI basketball player, who is recovering from an accident.

Tchaka Shipp, the transfer from Seton Hall who was in a coma for nine days after a near-fatal car accident in July 1994, will not be academically eligible to play basketball for UC Irvine this season.

“Tchaka took more than a full load of solid classes this quarter and he did great,” Associate Athletic Director Petrina Long said, “but he had a rocky start in the winter quarter last year and this quarter’s grades just weren’t quite good enough to offset that.”

Shipp has passed enough classes to be eligible, but his grade-point average was shy of the required 2.0.

“I can’t blame anybody but myself,” said Shipp, who will be allowed to continue practicing with the team. “I now have a goal, and that is to do well in school so I’m ready to play next season.

“I just need to be more patient. I’ll be more solid of a player next year.”

Shipp’s family and school officials tried to dissuade him from returning to school on a full-time basis last winter. He was--and still is, to a lesser extent--suffering residual memory problems related to the severe head injuries incurred when his head repeatedly rebounded off the pavement after he fell asleep at the wheel of a rented convertible and it flipped on a street near the Irvine campus.

But Shipp, who thought he would lose a year of eligibility under the NCAA’s five-year rule, was adamant about getting back into the classroom so he could return to the basketball court this season.

“Tchaka has faced some incredible challenges over the past couple of years and he has done a remarkable job,” Long said. “Now, we have to make sure he can remain patient, stay focused and stay in school.

“I know this is a disappointment, but he’ll be OK. This is a young man with an incredible will and positive spirit.”

Long said the school will petition the NCAA to waive the five-year rule for Shipp under a provision which allows for exceptions.

“If ever there was a special case, I think we’ve got one,” she said. “Tchaka just attempted to do more than he should have because his five-year clock was ticking.”

Shipp, a 6-foot-7 forward who was an All-New York City selection at Brooklyn Lincoln High, averaged three points and three rebounds with 20 blocked shots and 11 steals at Seton Hall during the 1993-94 season.

“I cannot emphasize enough that the fact Tchaka is even with us is much more satisfying than whether he plays basketball again,” Coach Rod Baker said. “He will continue to be a valuable contributor to our program through his work in practice.

“This is really only a minor disappointment.”