The history of Amherst: Using multimedia to examine the town's past and present
UMass basketball in 90s: glory and scandal
In 1996, the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team came two wins shy of winning the national championship.
But months after the Final Four loss to the University of Kentucky at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., it was revealed that star player Marcus Camby had received bribes from agents. The NCAA came down hard, erasing UMass' season. With previous moves by both Camby and head coach John Calipari to the NBA, UMass basketball never recovered. The team lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament the next two years and, following their 1998 exit, has not returned since.
The events of a decade and a half ago surface from time to time. In 2008, Calipari's Memphis Tigers were forced to vacate their Final Four run following revelations of academic fraud. The stories circulated again three years later when Calipari returned to the Final Four in 2011 with the Kentucky Wildcats and this April, when he won his first national championship.
And the 1996 season has seen some recent attention on the UMass campus as well. In the wake of the school's recent move to the Football Bowl Subdivision, members of the faculty senate included it in discussions regarding the professionalism of college athletics. It is a change that faculty senators – including architecture professor Max Page – vehemently oppose.
But months after the Final Four loss to the University of Kentucky at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., it was revealed that star player Marcus Camby had received bribes from agents. The NCAA came down hard, erasing UMass' season. With previous moves by both Camby and head coach John Calipari to the NBA, UMass basketball never recovered. The team lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament the next two years and, following their 1998 exit, has not returned since.
The events of a decade and a half ago surface from time to time. In 2008, Calipari's Memphis Tigers were forced to vacate their Final Four run following revelations of academic fraud. The stories circulated again three years later when Calipari returned to the Final Four in 2011 with the Kentucky Wildcats and this April, when he won his first national championship.
And the 1996 season has seen some recent attention on the UMass campus as well. In the wake of the school's recent move to the Football Bowl Subdivision, members of the faculty senate included it in discussions regarding the professionalism of college athletics. It is a change that faculty senators – including architecture professor Max Page – vehemently oppose.