By Will Despart
The Sporting Tribune
The John R. Wooden Award will celebrate it’s 50th anniversary this season. Leading up to the award ceremony on April 10, 2026, The Sporting Tribune in partnership with the Wooden Award and the Los Angeles Athletic Club will highlight past winners of the Wooden Award and the Legends of Coaching Award.
Before coach John Calipari was college basketball’s signature prognosticator of professional talent, he emerged as one of the hottest names in the sport at UMass in the late 90s in large part of the very first NBA star he was ever associated with.
That star, of course, was 1996 Wooden Award winner Marcus Camby. As a junior, Camby led UMass to an unheralded 31-2 record as the mid-major program improbably held the top spot in the national polls for much of the season. Although his junior year was his most successful, the 6’11 center also led UMass on a deep run as a sophomore.
Camby averaged 13.9 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.4 blocks per game during his second collegiate season, leading the Minutemen to the 1995 Elite 8 the year before his Wooden Award campaign. UMass opened that season with a 24-point win over the No. 1-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks, as Camby registered an 11-point, 12-rebound double-double in that contest.
In large part because of the hype train created in 1995, Camby was already the forefront of the award conversation in 1996. UMass opened the year with a win over the No. 1-ranked team for the second straight season, beating Kentucky by 10 points. Camby was the star of the show for the Minutemen that time around, scoring a game-high 32 points to down the Wildcats.
Camby averaged 20.5 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 3.9 blocks per game that year en route to consensus national player of the year honors, leading UMass to a 31-2 overall record. The most impressive part of UMass’ 1995-96 season was arguably the team’s 11-0 non-conference record, which included wins over six ranked opponents and two teams ranked top three.
Unfortunately, Camby and the Minutemen’s rematch with Kentucky in the 1996 Final Four didn’t go as well as their statement win to open the season. Camby again led all scorers with 25 points in that game, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a more balanced effort from Rick Pitino’s Wildcats.
Camby’s efforts made him a top prospect in the 1996 NBA Draft, where he was drafted No. 2 overall by the Toronto Raptors after the Philadelphia 76ers selected Georgetown’s Allen Iverson with the top overall pick. Camby earned Defensive Player of the Year honors with the Denver Nuggets in 2007 and was a member of the New York Knicks’ run to the Finals in 1999.