Courtesy of JCSU Athletics
CHARLOTTE – Johnson C Smith University (JCSU) President, Dr. Valerie Kinloch has announced Antwain Banks as the Interim Head Men’s Basketball Coach. His appointment, which is on an interim basis for the year, is effective May 15, 2024. Banks will be reporting directly to Dr. Denisha Hendricks (new Athletics Director).
Before getting the role at Johnson C Smith (JCSU) Coach Banks spent three seasons at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) as Associate Head Coach. While there, he was in charge of the defensive schemes and alignments. He also served as IUPUI’s Director of Operations. He coached and helped to develop two players named to the Horizon All-Freshmen Team as well as a player named to the Horizon All-League Third Team. One of his proudest accomplishments was the team posting a 3.58 Team GPA, which was the highest Team GPA in the past ten years.
He returned to IUPUI after spending three seasons as an assistant coach at Alabama A&M (AAMU). Coach Banks, who was named one of the top five assistant coaches in the SWAC by Stadium Insider’s Jeff Goodman during the 2020-21 season, was instrumental in helping to lead the team to their most regular season wins since 2015-16.
In 2020-21, they owned the nation’s top RPI early in the season, becoming the first-ever HBCU team to claim the nation’s top spot. AAMU boasted a pair of All-SWAC sophomore guards in Garrett Hicks and Jalen Johnson in Banks’ final season with the program and went 5-1 against in-state mid-major foes over the final two seasons with victories over Alabama State, Jacksonville State, North Alabama, Troy and South Alabama. That AAMU team was ranked as one of the nation’s top defensive teams, finishing No. 4 in three-point field goal percentage defense and No. 14 in field goal percentage defense.
Before AAMU, Antwain Banks was an Assistant Coach at Clayton State (Ga.) University where he helped the Lakers to a 24-7 mark in 2017-18, including a Peach Belt Conference Co-Championship and an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Clayton State’s 24 victories were the second-most in program history while the Lakers went 19-3 in league play. They finished the year fourth in the regional rankings and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Before joining IUPUI in 2015, Coach Banks was head coach at Kentucky State University, serving at the top of the Thorobreds program for four seasons. After serving two years as an assistant coach and one year as interim head coach there, he was eventually promoted to head coach. Prior to his time at Kentucky State, Coach Banks spent seven years as a member of the Indiana University Southeast (IU Southeast) basketball program (two as a player and five as a coach). He helped IUS reach 166 victories (.712 winning percentage) and five appearances at the NAIA Division II Men’s Basketball National Championship. Additionally, Coach Banks helped to lead the Grenadiers to the KIAC Tournament finals in six out of seven years. He also coached four NAIA All-American Honorable Mention athletes and eight KIAC All-Conference players during his five years at IUS.
A graduate of South Bend Adams High School, Antwain Banks was Second Team All-Conference and was selected to the Sunburst All-Star Game during his senior year. He helped lead the Eagles to an IHSAA Sectional Championship during the 1997-98 season. After high school, he attended Ancilla Junior College where he started as point guard for two years. At Ancilla, Coach Banks helped his team to the first-ever Michigan Community College Athletic Association (MCCAA) conference tournament appearance in school history.
His Bachelor’s Degree is from Indiana University Southeast and his Master’s Degree is from Western Kentucky University. Coach Banks has participated in leadership trainings such as the Leadership Academy for Assistant Coaches hosted by the NCAA. Recently, he was named to the 2023-2024 Achieving Coaching Excellence Program.