Former teammates and coaches, including John Calipari, share their memories of Marcus Camby's UMass career.
From left: Derek Kellogg, Marcus Camby and John Calipari at Camby's UMass Hall of Fame induction in 2010.
I wasn’t here for the Marcus Camby era.
In fact, I don’t even remember it, probably because I wasn’t even three years old when Camby first made contact with the University of Massachusetts.
So instead of trying to paint the picture myself, when you can get that from people like our Ron Chimelis, the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s Matt Vautour and former Boston Globe reporter and now ESPNBoston contributor Marty Dobrow, I decided to let the people who were there talk about Marcus Camby in their own words, with very minimal context provided.
The following are direct quotes from former coaches, teammates and other related personnel from the Marcus Camby era at UMass. What’s italicized is there only to move the timeline along.
The Marcus Camby-UMass relationship began in the spring of 1992 with a phone call from Jackie Bethea to UMass assistant Bill Bayno.
Bill Bayno (UMass assistant coach 1988-1995): The way it happened, Jackie Bethea, who was like a surrogate mom to him, very close with him, ran the Boys (and Girls) Club in Hartford, and I did not know her when she first called me, but she called me up, I want to say it was in the spring before his senior year.
We were having success at the time, so we were kind of the buzz in New England, and she had been following us — we were only 45 minutes away — and she said, I have a seven-footer who can play. I thought to myself, “Yeah, sure you do,” I started laughing — not to her — I just sighed and was like, “Yeah, OK.”
But it was only up in Hartford, so I said, “You know what, I’m going to come watch him.” So in the next recruiting period, I went up to watch him play, and was blown away. How could no one know about this kid?
So I went back and said, “John, there’s a kid, I’m telling you he’s going to be the first pick in the draft in a couple years. He’s got that type of potential.” And I took John to see him play, and one of the things that stood out in the first game John saw him play was that he dove on the floor and he took charges during the game. Not to mention he was blocking shots, and his natural skill at seven feet tall.
So from there, we started to recruit him hard. We were really the first school in there, and it was coming up to the summer recruiting period, and he wanted to get into one of the All-American camps. I was close with Sonny Vaccaro, who ran the Adidas camp, and John and I talked, and we were a little bit afraid that if we sent him there, the rest of the country would discover him, and even though we were helping the kid out, we’d end up hurting ourselves and potentially lose him.
There was a big, big risk, but it was something that was hard not to do for him
John Calipari (UMass coach 1988-1996): So now we fly out to California, and this was the camp that everybody went to, all the coaches, and I sit down in the stands and start watching this kid play. He had no conditioning, no stamina, he couldn’t sustain any effort, but I look at Bill Bayno and say, “You’ve got to be … did you watch this kid? Why would you send him here so everybody sees him now?”
Connecticut was right, you know, ten yards from us, watching and talking to each other, and I said, “Now, do you understand what just happened?” And from that point, it became, now everybody knew how good he was.”
BAYNO: The first day, obviously I was there, and I used to work for (then-Seton Hall coach) P.J. Carlesimo, and P.J. was watching, and we were sitting there, and Marcus was playing in the game and Marcus was like dominating.
P.J. looks at me and goes, “Holy s@#!, who is that kid?” And I said, that’s my kid, leave him alone. He goes, “What’s his name?” And I said, “Marcus Camby.” P.J. looked at me and he goes, “Marcus Aurelius.” P.J. is a big history buff, and I said, “Why Aurelius?” And he goes “That’s Marcus Caesar. Marcus the Great.”
That night, I called Marcus and talked to him and said, “I have a new nickname for you,” and he loved it.
In the end, we were the first ones there. We ended up building a great bond and a trust, and he saw that, felt good about it, and stayed loyal to us.
Marcus Camby and John Calipari share an embrace at a press conference in April, 1995.
Camby eventually signed with the Minutemen and joined a UMass team that had gone 24-7 in 1992-93 (the year prior to his arrival), and lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to Virginia.
Lou Roe (UMass forward 1991-1995): We knew that we needed one or two more pieces to really make this team effective and if it was going to make a national run. That was always Calipari’s projections. We always talked about being the best, and someday being the champion. Now that we had ourselves in this position, there were some other key things that we needed. We definitely needed a center, because Harper Williams was the center at the time, and I played the four, so it was really difficult for us when we played big teams.
That next year they started talking about this kid they were going to bring in that was going to come in and change the program. That guy was Marcus Camby. I didn’t know who Marcus was. I had never seen him play in high school, I never heard anything about him through Hoop Scoop or anything like that. It was a surprise for me. I was waiting for the guy to come in and show what he could do.
Derek Kellogg (UMass guard 1991-1995): He was kind of a little bit shy and humble. Kind of a skinny kid that was really becoming more comfortable being seven foot and the national media attention that he started getting. Really a laid back guy, cooler than cool, but really a good guy to be around. Just to watch him kind of move around campus at seven foot and have the media exposure he was getting and see how he interacted with people in the town and on campus, I think it wasn’t stated enough the type of kid that he was.”
ROE: It was weird because I was looking at him, and he was really, really skinny. I was like, “Wow, this guy is skinny.” Maybe not as Skinny as (current UMass forward Raphiael Putney), but he was close. His shot was awkward, and he was raw, pretty much raw when he came in. He wasn’t a polished player yet. Such a fast learner, though. You could tell that guy one thing, or Calipari would tell him one thing, and he figured it out real fast. He started to develop that year really, really quick. He was easy to talk to. He wasn’t one of those guys with the ego.
CALIPARI: He couldn’t sustain any kind of effort. The mental toughness that you needed to push through was a challenge for him, and then the physical — he wasn’t really physically strong. The weight training and all that stuff was an absolute bear.
I’m telling you, I played him every minute he could stay on the court. The way we played, you raised your fist when you needed a sub. He would raise his first, and I would look away like I didn’t see him. Then, he’d run by me and raise his fist, and I would call timeout. Basically, we didn’t have strategic timeouts those first two years. Every timeout was to give Marcus more time so we could keep him on the floor.
ROE: We were in practice, and I guess we were playing five on five. The first five, I guess, against the second five. We were playing — up and down, up and down. I remember him getting the ball on the fast break one time. It was the first time I’d seen him really say OK, “I have this body, Ihave this ability, I have no fear, and this is what I’m going to do.” I mean, this guy got the ball in transition, and he took off from well beyond the free throw line, and just put that ball away up there, and flushed it through like a maniac.
Man, I had never seen that before. In those days, you didn’t see very many of those type body guys hanging around. I knew right then in that moment when he did something like that that we had something special.
Marcus Camby, pictured here in 1996.
Camby averaged 10.2 points and 6.4 rebounds in 21.9 minutes per game his freshman year, as the Minutemen again fell in the second round to an ACC foe — this time a Maryland team they had beaten in the regular season.
Camby’s sophomore year, he averaged 13.9 points and 6.2 rebounds in 22.6 minutes per game.
ROE: I guess he put on some pounds — it’s hard to tell with Marcus because he’s tall and he has a lot of body to fill out. He did make a commitment to take care of his body to get it stronger, and that’s what he did. It complemented his game. He had much more balance and explosion, and he was able to become a better shot blocker.
The team made a run all the way to the Elite Eight, where it ran into an Oklahoma State team led by Bryant “Big Country” Reeves. The Cowboys eliminated the Minutemen.
Dana Dingle (UMass forward 1992-1996):
I think that’s when he understood, from playing in that game against Big Country, that if he was really trying to get to the next level, he really needed to work on his game and his body.
We said we were coming back (to the Elite Eight) next year. Everybody probably didn’t look at it that way, but we looked at each other and we felt we should have won it that year, but I think there were less expectations the following year because Lou and Mike (Williams) and all those were gone, but we knew what we had and what we were capable of. We looked at one another and said, “You know what, we’re coming back next year.” Everybody worked on their game and worked hard to do what we needed to do.
He made that leap in the offseason to the next year, which everybody got to see.
We started preseason, and he came in with new confidence. He wasn’t looking for shortcuts. He was getting there early, working on his game and encouraging guys, like “Let’s go.” And he believed it. Saying it straight up and being confident and looking stronger, and just seeing it in his eyes, you could tell he understood now.
The Minutemen began the 1995-96 season with a game against Kentucky at the Palace of Auburn Hills outside Detroit, the first game for newly anointed radio play-by-play man, Marc Vandermeer.
Marc Vandermeer (UMass play-by-play 1995-1999): There we are, doing the UMass-Kentucky game, and I don’t know, maybe four or five minutes go by in the game, and (color analyst and former UMass coach Jack Leaman) says in his thick Boston accent, ‘”Everything’s fine, they’re playing great, and Camby’s the best player on the floor.” Just the way he said it with his thick Boston accent, it was just a magical moment.
UMass beat Kentucky in that opening game, and got off to a 26-0 start before losing to George Washington on Feb. 24, 1996.
VANDERMEER: They were the biggest thing in New England. It was weird. There was something about that team. The Bruins were terrible, the Celtics were terrible at that time. I mean, they were awful. And the Globe, every day of the regular season, UMass was on the cover of the sports page. It was ridiculous.
You could not get a ticket. When I got there, I had all these clients that I sold a lot of the advertising to. It was almost impossible to get tickets. It was so difficult. You would have to buy them on the secondary market — scalpers, whatever, there was no ticket exchange. To get all my clients tickets was extremely difficult. The building was packed no matter what — if it was Dayton, if it was St. Bonaventure, it didn’t matter. It was packed every night. It was an incredible time.
The team eventually made the school’s first (and only) Final Four appearance, losing to the same Kentucky team it had defeated in the season opener, which went on to win the 1996 National Championship.
CALIPARI: We didn’t win the National Title. We went to the Final Four, we were No. 1 in the country, Kentucky was No. 2, and we played in the semifinals. That should have been the final game. Again, he made us an unselfish team, and a team that did their jobs. Guys took on roles because our best player did, and it was easy to get the other guys to.
Camby, though, became a sensation, averaging 20.5 points, 8.2 rebounds and 3.9 blocks per game that year.
ROE: Marcus, he just changes the game for you. Not even just in scoring. If he just does shot blocking, making people miss, and rebounding, that just changes the game just doing that. He doesn’t even have to touch the ball. On the nights that you can get him to score, and he drops in 10-15 points in addition to 12-13 rebounds and 5-6 blocked shots, I mean, what do you have there? That’s one of the reasons why he was the second pick in the NBA draft. I guess I’m not the only the one that saw that.
VANDERMEER: I’ll never forget, every time the team got into trouble, they would throw it to Marcus. It wasn’t always like low post stuff, They’d throw it to him high post and let him make a pass. It wasn’t just scoring. It was about him making good decisions with the basketball. I guess the way he grew in his high school career, he was kind of a guard in a big man’s body. He just had a different mentality as a big man.
The thing about him was that they’d go to him a couple times, he’d score a couple of baskets, get fouled, hit a free throw or two, they’d sit him down for a few minutes, bring him back, hit another hoop or two — like all of the great ones, he made it look easy. You looked up at the end of the night and he had 25 points. It just seemed seamless to him. It was matter-of-fact. It just seemed easy for him to play the game at the college level. Everything just came naturally. And the team just flowed around him.
I get to watch Andre Johnson every game (Vandermeer is now the Houston Texans play-by-play announcer), and he reminds me of Camby in that it looks easy for him. It looks like he is just jogging to the secondary and collecting passes, and putting up 1,500 yards. Camby was the same way — just like, eh, no problem. Not that he’s not trying, it just looked like half speed for him was just too good for everyone else.
Marcus Camby and Isaiah Thomas after Thomas drafted Camby with the No. 2 pick of the 1996 NBA Draft.
Camby declared for the NBA draft after the season, and was selected No. 2 behind Allen Iverson, who’s Georgetown team the Minutemen had demolished in the Elite Eight a few months before.
CALIPARI: I think we helped him. We walked him through that conditioning, the mental toughness, the sustaining effort, the physical toughness — all that he needed, we helped him through. It took three years. Nowadays I get these kids for eight months and I’m trying to teach them the same thing.
During Camby’s rookie season, it came to light that Camby had taken gifts from potential agents that included cash, jewelry and clothing during his collegiate career. The exact value of the gifts is disputed, but they are thoroughly covered in this September, 1997 Sports Illustrated story by Phil Taylor.
What is not disputed is that Camby accepted some gifts, and in May, 1997, the NCAA ordered UMass to vacate its final four appearance, and return the $151,617 it had received as its share of the tournament purse.
CALIPARI: We were disappointed. But when you look at exactly what it was, I wish it hadn’t happened, but here’s a kid that goes and says, “You know what, I screwed up, no one else was involved, they didn’t know what I was doing
It wasn’t an enticement to go to school or cars. He lived in the dorm, never had a car, and always wore a sweatsuit. That was him. Here he was, he did everything right — he did that, but he paid all of the money back to the University that they lost from the NCAA, I think it was $150,000 that they took from them. He even handled that above class.
BAYNO: The whole issue with the agents, people try to beat him up over it, and he obviously made mistakes, but the reality of is that he’s a young kid, he had a lot of friends from Hartford that were trying to take advantage of his success, and Marcus was kind of introverted, really shy, and he kind of just took a back seat and let it happen. I think it was something any young kid would have had trouble dealing with.
Bob Marcum (UMass Athletic Director 1993-2002): I think it’s very unfair, whether it’s UMass, or whether it’s other schools, to take games away from players. I think it’s just an easy penalty to issue. I don’t think it should be done. I think they need to come up with something else, which they probably won’t. When you get down to it, Donta Bright didn’t have anything to do with it. Dana Dingle didn’t have anything to do with it. Carmelo (Travieso) or Edgar Padilla didn’t have anything to do with it. But yet they suffered the penalty. I think they’re really wrong to take games away from kids. They shouldn’t do it.
Let’s face it. The games were played. I don’t care what they say. I think the banners should all be left up there, and I think the NCAA is just looking for an easy penalty, and they’ve found it in taking games away from people.
Between Calipari’s departure for the NBA after the 1995-96 season, and the violations that left a stain on the program, a distance grew between UMass and the entire Camby-Calipari era — one that existed in earnest until Kellogg was hired as head coach prior to the 2008 season.
In 2010, Camby was elected to the UMass Athletics Hall of Fame, the first sign that time had healed some of the wounds that were felt as a result of the violations.
At the opener of the 2012-13 season, UMass announced it would be retiring Camby’s jersey on Jan. 19, 2013 alongside those of Trigger Burke, Lou Roe, Al Skinner and Julius Erving.
John McCutcheon (UMass athletic director 2003-present): It was unanimous support. It was just “When do we do it?” as opposed to “Do we do it?”
Tony Barbee (UMass player 1989-1993, assistant coach 1995-1998): I’m excited for Marcus. It’s well deserved and long overdue. One of the best players that’s ever played at UMass, and as a friend, and someone that I was around during my first years back coaching at UMass, it’s exciting to see a fellow alum and a friend of mine be honored in that way. I’m excited for Marcus and his family.
BAYNO: He’s a great father, has got a beautiful family, and it’s really truly a success story. He’s taken care of his mother, he’s taken care of his sisters, and he’s a special kid, he really is.
To this day, I call him Aurelius when I text him. It’s a great example of why a lot of us coach and the relationships you develop with kids. It’s been a lifelong relationship. To this day, he still calls me “White Dad.” That was his nickname for me once he got into school.
KELLOGG: It deserves to be up there when you look at the type of players that are up there. To be up there with Trigger, Lou, Al Skinner and the Doc — to put Camby up there, it’s a good tribute.
The crazy thing is, when people talk about UMass basketball, even to this day, they still go back to the Cal era, where Camby was really the focal point of taking a program from being an NCAA tournament team to a national contender.
Al Skinner (one of four other Minutemen to have jersey retired, player 1971-1974): He helped elevate UMass to a level that they had not achieved before. He’s proven his ability in the fact that his pro career has been as long as it has been. There have been two great players at UMass. Marcus has been one and Julius has been the other. I think his play after college has indicated how special he was.
I’m very happy for him. I think it’s an indication of what he was able to accomplish at the University of Massachusetts. I think it’s one that he’s going to be very happy with and proud of, and again, a lot of people have respect for what he’s accomplished at UMass.
CALIPARI: The greatest thing I can tell everybody about him is that anytime anything goes on in my life that happens that’s big, he’ll get in touch with me. He’ll either text me, call me, and never, when I’m in his company, I’ve gone to games and been there to see him and different times, never does a time go by that we’re together or texting back and forth that he doesn’t say, “I love you, coach.”
Think about that. This is a grown man, now. He still says it to this day. And I tell him anytime I can how much I appreciate what he’s done for my family, because the opportunities that I had directly came from him making a decision to play for us.
ROE: I have a lot of respect for people who come from those kind of backgrounds that are able to go out and say, “Hey, OK, this is what I’m going to do,” even if there’s limited resources, and they don’t make excuses. That’s the kind of character that you’re dealing with with Marcus. To even see, to be a part of seeing him being retired at UMass and to be a part of that history forever, and knowing that I was a part of that, to be able to see the development, the feeling and sensation, you can’t describe it.