THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 28, 1996 TAG: 9603280502
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 119 lines
Massachusetts' masterful Marcus Camby is an All-American center who isn't intent upon being the center of attention.
But it's hard to avoid when you're 6-foot-11, move like a guard and are the national Player of the Year on college basketball's top-ranked team heading into this weekend's Final Four at the Meadowlands.
``He's probably the best defensive big man in the country, and he's probably the best offensive big man in the country,'' Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson said.
Camby was the outstanding player of last weekend's East Regional, in two games totaling 37 points on 52 percent shooting, 14 rebounds and six blocked shots. Camby's junior season averages are 20.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 3.8 blocked shots.
But UMass coach John Calipari said numbers have never adequately summed up Camby, whose mere presence and unselfish play make others around him better.
``He's not worried about numbers,'' Calipari said. ``He never has been. If he wanted to lead the nation in scoring this year, he could have. He could have scored 30 points a game.''
That, Camby said, is not what the team needed from him.
What the Minutemen will need from the Naismith Award winner Saturday in a national semifinal against Kentucky is his shot blocking. And his ability to score - either by posting up or facing the basket. And his ability to rebound, pass and run the floor.
``He's as good as there is,'' Louisville coach Denny Crum said after the Cardinals' 62-59 late-season loss to UMass, in which Camby registered 23 points, eight rebounds and five blocks. ``He can score, block shots, rebound, and he's a good passer. He reminds me a lot of (former Louisville center) Pervis Ellison. They both are thin players, but they're tough and they have good moves around the basket.''
Although he is a svelte 220 pounds, Camby's shot-blocking ability makes him an intimidating presence. Since the NCAA began keeping shot-blocking statistics in 1985-86, only three players have blocked 100 or more shots in each of their freshman, sophomore and junior seasons: Camby, Wake Forest's Tim Duncan and Louisiana State's Shaquille O'Neal.
If Camby blocks six or more shots this weekend, he will surpass Duncan's NCAA tournament career record of 42 blocks. Last weekend Duncan broke the record of 37 held by Georgetown's Alonzo Mourning.
``Marcus allows us to go out and take more chances on defending the perimeter because we know he's back there to help us,'' UMass forward Dana Dingle said. ``We don't have to worry about getting beat because Marcus is back there and can block shots.''
Kentucky coach Rick Pitino said after the teams met in November that Camby's shot-blocking ability intimidated the Wildcats in the Minutemen's 10-point win. In a head-to-head matchup this year of the nation's top two big men, Camby outplayed Wake's Duncan, scoring 17 points and grabbing nine rebounds while Duncan had nine points (4-of-18 shooting) and 12 rebounds.
Two other head-to-head meetings with fellow centers also stand out, however. George Washington's Alexander Koul manhandled Camby in the lone loss this season for the Minutemen (35-1), while Oklahoma State's Bryant ``Big Country'' Reeves put a big body on Camby in last year's NCAA tournament, sending the Minutemen home in a regional final. Camby fouled out with six points and four rebounds.
``That game changed a lot for me,'' said Camby, who has not fouled out since. ``I came back this year with more fire and I think it shows.''
The most enduring image of Camby this season, however, is of him lying unconscious in a hallway in Olean, N.Y.
Camby collapsed before a game with St. Bonaventure and lay unconscious for 10 haunting minutes. It happened just five days after a UMass swimmer died of cardiac dysrhythmia during a meet.
Camby was hospitalized several days and underwent a battery of tests that ruled out any brain or heart problems or involvement with drugs.
Doctors never found out why he collapsed, other than poor eating habits. He missed four games and has shown no lasting effects from the incident.
``I don't think about it unless you guys ask me about it,'' Camby said cooly last weekend. ``I try to put it in the back of my mind. I know I'm fine. I'll always be fine.''
``I think it's been on his mind at times,'' Calipari said recently. ``But when he talks to the doctors, they told him he's OK and what to do in terms of his diet.''
Camby has been on a steady diet of hoops since he was 7, when he would cut out the bottom of milk crates and fasten them up to a clothesline pole outside his apartment for a makeshift basket.
Camby grew up in Bellevue Square, the toughest housing pro-ject in Hartford, Conn. He was educated in mostly white suburban schools because his mother enrolled him in a program of voluntary school desegregation, requiring that her son awaken before dawn to be bused to the suburbs.
Camby, who grew 10 inches during his freshman year of high school, is an education major who has made UMass' athletic director's honor roll.
``I spend a couple of hours a week teaching and tutoring little kids in Amherst,'' Camby said.
He often returns to Bellevue Square to talk with children. According a story last month in the Hartford Courant, Camby accom-panied 22 Hartford youths on a field trip to Virginia Beach and Williamsburg last summer. Camby said last weekend he wants to be a principal.
The NBA will take precedent.
``If I were in it for the money, I'd have been gone last year,'' Camby said. ``I have no regrets about coming back.''
But will he finish his career at UMass, or are Camby's minutes numbered with the Minutemen?
The current trend is for the nation's best players to be long gone before their senior seasons.
``I haven't really thought about it,'' Camby said. ``I'm just trying to play this season out and weigh the pros and cons. I don't know what I'm going to do. If I come back, we'll be terrific. If I leave, this team will still be terrific.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Marcus Camby
ASSOCIATED PRESS
UMass' Marcus Camby has blocked 100 shots in each of his three
seasons. Above, he rejects Georgetown's Victor Page.
by CNB