Banks sees a winner in NCCU's Moton

GENE BANKS
Scout
Washington Wizards

DURHAM, North Carolina  — Thing is, I didn’t recognize Gene Banks the other night when he sat in front of me at the Morgan State-N.C. Central game.

He had a head full of hair the last time I’d seen him on TV.

But once told that the tall, bald brother was Banks, I was like, “Oh, yeah – that bad mammajamma from Duke!”

The 1978 ACC rookie of the year, who played in the NBA, is a scout for the Washington Wizards.

Banks was in McDougald-McLendon Gymnasium to put his eyes on a kid from Morgan State, but he left liking what he saw out of three of NCCU coach LeVelle Moton’s guys.

Actually, Banks liked what the Eagles in general were doing.

NCCU’s tallest players are 6-foot-8 and 6-foot-7, while Morgan State had a 7-foot-2 guy in the starting lineup and brought a 6-foot-9 dude off the bench. So Moton spread the floor and dared the Bears to chase his smaller players, and NCCU won 69-61.

Uh, not that Banks was scouting coaches for the struggling Wizards, but he also left the gym thoroughly impressed with Moton.

READ MORE