Lloyd withdraws from Syracuse amid investigation

Former Dunbar basketball standout Michael Lloyd has withdrawn from Syracuse University amid an NCAA investigation into credits he obtained while at a junior college.

Thursday, Lloyd informed Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim he would not return to Syracuse for his senior season, but was instead leaving “to pursue opportunities in professional basketball.”

Lloyd, a 1992 high school All-American and Baltimore Sun Player of the Year, cannot play in the NBA this season because he missed the deadline to declare himself eligible for the June draft, an NBA spokeswoman said. Lloyd can apply for the 1996 NBA draft.

In the meantime, he can play professionally overseas or in the Continental Basketball Association, or another smaller pro league. He would not lose his NCAA eligibility unless he signs with an agent. Lloyd could not be reached for comment.

Lloyd’s troubles with the NCAA stem from his two years at San Jacinto (Texas) Junior College, when he and a teammate took a correspondence class from a school in Florida.

The NCAA is investigating athletes who took such courses from the Southeastern College of the Assemblies of God, whose mail-in exams produced similar test results from college basket- ball players across the country.

Lloyd and Stacy Robinson, another San Jacinto player, missed the same six questions on a 62-question multiple-choice exam, and chose the same incorrect answer in all six instances, according to Sports Illustrated.

As many as 60 junior colleges accepted Southeastern credits from their athletes, and investigators have found 55 NCAA schools that eventually accepted those athletes.

Lloyd was enrolled at San Jacinto because he was academically ineligible to play at an NCAA school after leaving Dunbar.

Lloyd didn’t meet Proposition 48 standards — a 2.0 grade-point average and at least 700 on the Scholastic Assessment Test — so he could not play at Arkansas, the school he signed with out of high school.

After two years at San Jacinto, where he averaged more than 30 points per game and was a junior-college All-American, Lloyd became eligible to play at an NCAA school and started at Syracuse in the fall of 1994.

He averaged 12.5 points per game with the Orangemen, and his 5.1 assists per game were fifth in the Big East. Lloyd spent his junior-college and high school career as a prolific scorer at shooting guard, but Boeheim used Lloyd at the point.

“Michael did an outstanding job for us last season,” Boeheim said in a statement released by the university yesterday. “He came into the program as the top scorer in junior college and accepted his role as a point guard. I am sorry he will not be returning.”

Robert Hill, Syracuse’s vice president for public relations, said 00 the school will continue to review the matters of Lloyd’s compliance with enrollment standards before his arrival at the school.

Lloyd was one of the most heavily recruited players in the country out of high school, and his 1991-92 Dunbar team went 29-0 and won the mythical high school national championship.

Donta Bright (Massachusetts), Keith Booth (Maryland), Diego “Cyrus” Jones (West Virginia) and Paul Banks (Texas-Arlington) were the other starters on that Dunbar squad.