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UNLV’s Freddie Banks looks for an opening in the opposing defense. UNLV will retire his No. 13 jersey in a halftime ceremony Saturday, Nov. 27, 2021. In a 2008 column for the Sun, former Rebels coach Jerry Tarkanian wrote that Banks “was the most clutch shooter I had. I called him Fearless Freddie. He was fearless. He took more tough shots than anyone I’ve been around.”
Saturday, Nov. 27, 2021 | 2 a.m.
UNLV’s Freddie Banks got the ball at the top of the 3-point arc, and with the clock winding down against Memphis State, let loose on a shot. As soon as the ball left his hands, the Las Vegas native knew it was good.
The Thomas & Mack Center was filled to capacity for this Saturday afternoon game in 1986, and Banks’ nothing-but-net shot gave their beloved Rebels a 67-66 win in a battle of nationally ranked foes.
For Banks, it helped cement his moniker of “Fearless Freddie,” the one player who wasn’t going to shy away from a pressure situation. And because of Banks’ shooting prowess, UNLV started its climb to becoming one of the country’s elite teams during his tenure, which was capped in 1987 with a spot in the final Final Four — the first of three appearances in five years for the Rebels. The success of Banks’ Rebels paved the way for the national championship team of 1990.
“Once I got the ball at the top of the key, it was a done deal,” Banks said of the shot against Memphis. “I wanted the ball in my hands. If we were going to lose, we were going to lose with me and nobody else.”
Banks will be honored at halftime today of UNLV’s game against second-ranked UCLA with his No. 13 jersey being retired by the program. It will forever hang in the rafters of the Thomas & Mack, a building that opened during his freshman year of 1984 and where capacity crowds packed in for those 8:05 p.m. starts in the old PCAA to watch Banks, Mark Wade, Armen “The Gilliam,” Gary Graham, Gerald Paddio and Jarvis Basnight lead UNLV’s rise from mid-major power to the nation’s No. 1 team.
There was the night in 1986 when UNLV set an arena record with 20,321 fans against David Robinson-led Navy, when the Rebels won in blowout fashion, 104-79. Banks went off for 25 points that night when the Thomas & Mack was labeled a fire hazard because the crowd exceeded the arena capacity of 18,500.
The other memories are too numerous to count. And, Banks says they are each so special, it’s not fair to rank them.
Some will say the national semifinal loss to Indiana, where Banks established a Final Four record for 3-pointers in a game with 10, is at the top of the list. Banks had 38 points that night, but UNLV fell to the eventual national champions, 97-93. The record has stood for more than 30 years.
“Indiana can’t be the most memorable game because we didn’t win,” Banks said.
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What about the game before? UNLV overcame a 16-point halftime deficit against Iowa in the Elite Eight to reach the Final Four, although Banks had one of the worst shooting nights of his career in making just 5-of-20 field goals.
Walking into the locker room at halftime, Banks remembers barking at Iowa’s Roy Marble, “You slowed me down, but I will be back in the second half. Then, I hit a 3-pointer and Gerald Paddio hit a 3-pointer. It was over.”
Most coaches would have pulled a player who struggled shooting in such a big spot, but Banks said Jerry Tarkanian told him to keep firing away. Take the double-overtime win against Western Kentucky in the preseason NIT at Madison Square Garden, when Banks only made 10-of-30 shots, but drained a crucial 3-pointer with 15 seconds remaining in the game to give UNLV the lead for good.
In a 2008 column for the Sun, Tarkanian wrote that Banks “was the most clutch shooter I had. I called him Fearless Freddie. He was fearless. He took more tough shots than anyone I’ve been around.”
Banks holds the UNLV record for most 3-pointers in a season with 152 and is second all-time in career 3-pointers at 229. He’s one of the program’s top-5 all-time scorers with 2,007 total points.
But Banks doesn’t consider himself the best shooter in program history.
That, he says, was “Sudden” Sam Smith from the 1977 Final Four team. Banks grew up in Las Vegas going to UNLV games at the Las Vegas Convention Center, admiring players he grew up around in west Las Vegas such as Smith, who played at Clark High School, and Michael “Spiderman” Burns, who played at Chaparral High School.
“When you grew up in Las Vegas, you learned that soft basketball gets you on the bench,” Banks said. “Any time you step on the floor, you give it your all.”
Banks, who is the longtime coach of the Canyon Springs High School team, remains in contact with his former UNLV teammates, talking “almost every day” with Wade, his point guard, and coaching many years alongside Eldridge Hudson.
The ceremony will bring together everyone important in his life, including parents Martha and Tilmon, who are each in their mid-80s and still living in the same house on Lake Mead Boulevard and Engelstad Street where Tarkanian came to recruit Banks.
“Coach Tark kept every promise he ever made to me, may he rest in peace,” Banks said.
You can argue Banks’ jersey should have been retired long before 2021, but you won’t hear him complain. He’s thankful his parents will be able to be part of the festivities, and will surely be thinking about Tark and Gilliam — who unexpectedly died in 2011 — once he steps foot back in the arena.
He stresses that everything he’s achieved in basketball was a team accomplishment. There’s no big shooting night in the Final Four if it weren’t for Paddio and Gilliam getting hot enough to carry the Rebels in the second half against Iowa, and there’s no game winner against Memphis unless Graham comes off the bench to lead the second-half surge.
“As you grow older, you get more wiser in the game,” Banks said. “I had a lot of people help me out to become successful. That’s my goal now, to help my kids out at (Canyon Springs).”
