Sophomore center Brook Lopez is academically ineligible and will miss Stanford basketball's first nine games, coach Trent Johnson announced Friday.

Lopez will practice with the team, but cannot play until Santa Clara visits on Dec. 19, assuming he regains his eligiblity after fall quarter.

Stanford rising sophomores need to have completed 36 units with a 1.8 GPA to be eligible by NCAA standards.

"I have failed to live up to my academic requirements and take full responsibility for what has happened," Lopez said in a press release. "I regret letting down my team, the university and everyone who supports me. I promise to work hard to improve my academic standing and look forward to being back on the floor to help my team."

Lopez is Stanford's best offensive player, and one of the most talented athletes to ever play for the team. The No. 2 center recruit in the nation, Lopez was a projected top-ten NBA draft pick before announcing his intention to return to the Farm last March.

He was named to last year's All-Pac-10 Freshman team and All-Pac-10 Honorable Mention team, averaging 13 points and six rebounds in 26 games and 18 starts.

Stanford will be heavily favored in nearly all its first nine games -- Harvard, Northwestern State, UC-Santa Barbara, at Northwestern, at Siena, Yale, Colorado State, Sacramento State and at Colorado -- so Lopez's loss may not have that much of an effect this fall.

But the Cardinal, a likely preseason top-15 team before today's news, need its biggest threat in top condition come winter. The Pac-10 looks stronger than ever before, and with virtually everyone returning from last year's NCAA team, the Stanford community is expecting a big season from Brook Lopez and the Cardinal.

This is not a first for Stanford men's basketball. Guard Tim Morris was ruled academically ineligible for the 2005 winter quarter after struggling in the human biology core. Morris, then a redshirt freshman, switched his major to English before transferring to the University of Washington after the 2005-06 season.