Gonzaga makes top four for former Iowa guard Tavion Banks after eligibility ruling

The Gonzaga Bulldogs have already landed two star players from the 5-in-5 eligibility rulings, but they aren’t done yet.

Even as the team circles a potential starting point guard – with Xaivian Lee and Donovan Dent thought to be the top targets – Gonzaga remains on the hunt for more perimeter scoring to bolster this program heading into the new-look Pac-12.

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The hunt has led them to Tavion Banks, a high-level scorer from Iowa who listed Gonzaga as one of four schools on his shortlist, alongside a trio of SEC programs in LSU, Mississippi State, and Oklahoma.

Who is Tavion Banks?

Banks is a 6’7 guard from Kansas City, MO, who began his career at the JuCo level, where he starred at Northwest Florida State College for two seasons. He then ended up at Drake in the Missouri Valley, where he averaged 10.1 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.0 assists in 20.1 minutes per game, shooting 56.8% on two-pointers but just 2-22 (9.1%) from three.

Banks then followed coach Ben McCollum to Iowa in the Big Ten, and even with the rise in competition, his performance improved. Starting 35 of 37 games, Banks played 23.3 minutes and averaged 10.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 1.1 assists while shooting 53.7% on twos and a massively improved 44.2% (19-43) from beyond the arc, although it was a relatively small sample size of 1.2 attempts per game.

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Banks scaled up extremely well, often putting together his best performances on the road against top-tier opponents. That included a 14-point performance on 2-2 shooting from three at Iowa’s rival Iowa State, nine points on perfect 3-3 shooting from three at Purdue, and an explosive 26-point, eight-rebound, two-assist game at Indiana where he shot 8-12 from the floor, 1-2 from three, and 9-9 from the free-throw line.

The 6’7 guard was also critical in No. 9 seed Iowa’s massive upset win over No. 1 Florida in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, dropping 20 points with six rebounds on 7-10 shooting to down the Gators and send the Hawkeyes to…

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Publish date : 2026-08-17 20:11:00

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