UMass man

Sporting News, The, March 18, 1996 by Michael Gee

Marcus Camby doesn't have much room to grow. But he has.

We're not talking about inches and pounds. He's the same 6-11 he was as a senior at Hartford (Conn.) Public High, although he has gained some weight since arriving at Massachusetts in the fall of 1993.

We're talking about emotional growth, the kind needed to become the best basketball player in the nation. Many argued he was one of the top players in the land last season as a sophomore and could have cashed in by declaring for the NBA draft. But he stayed in school so his game could mature, and the result is a blossoming into adulthood.

Camby's wizened outlook will come in handy as his team begins the three-week pass-fail quiz of the NCAA Tournament. If Camby plays six consecutive games at his best -- and up to the level that earned him The Sporting News Player of the Year Award -- then the No. 2 ranked Minutemen have as good a chance as any team to win it all, including No. I Kentucky. But if Camby slips to less than his best -- as has been the case on occasion this season, especially down the stretch -- then UMass' chance of winning it all is minimal. The Minutemen, who finished the regular season 28-1, still are a quality team when Camby isn't a superstar. But there's little chance they'll advance past the Sweet 16 without Camby carrying the team.

That sounds like an inordinate amount of pressure to place on one man in a team game, which it is. But no matter what happens, the tournament only will be the second most difficult and unfair test of Camby's season.

If you remember, Camby has had to cope with mortality, which is something few 21-year-olds face. So, heck, a failed hoop exam is nothing to get worked up about. Not for someone with the matured outlook of Camby.

Sunday, January 14, UMass vs. St. Bonaventure.

The game was supposed to be an innocuous affair that would be yet another "W" on the transcript of the UMass season. Just another trip to Olean, N.Y., to kick the Bonnies, butt. This game, however, would take on a special meaning for Camby and UMass, which had sprinted out R, a 13-0 start and No. l ranking. But the game became memorable for all the wrong reasons. After pregame warmups, Camby collapsed and lay unconscious for 10 minutes.

"I never fell I was in trouble," says Camby, who was taken to Olean General Hospital and held overnight for tests with Calipari waiting vigil. "When I came to, coach was there and I asked him if I could go back in the game. I felt fine. But they kept me in the hospital, and they took tests I don't think they knew they had."

At the hospital, Calipari said he was overjoyed that doctors had told him Camby would live.

"The whole thing was really blown out of proportion," Camby says.

That was easy for him to say with a detachedness that would have made Walter Cronkite proud. After all, images of Hank Gathers, death almost six years ago, when the Loyola Marymount star suffered a fatal heart attack during a West Coast Conference Tournament game, had leaped into everyone's mind. Camby's detachment, however, served him in good stead in the aftermath of his collapse. What he saw as a puzzling health problem, others concluded was the begin of a soap opera. But he didn't let it bother him.

Well before Camby emerged from a four-day stay in the UMass Medical Center, press and fan queries about substance abuse had begun, despite a negative drug test. After Len Bias and the medical muddle surrounding the death of Reggie Lewis, this was a sad inevitability.

"I know this is because people said that case (Lewis, death) was drug-related," Camby told the Boston Herald before he returned to action January 27 against St. Bonaventure. "But I know my own is not, so I don't pay it any mind."

Camby might not have been frightened by his collapse, but his teammates, coach and those associated with Massachusetts were.

Five days before Camby's ordeal, UMass swimmer Greg Menton died of an undetected heart defect during a meet vs. Dartmouth.

The cause of Camby's collapse is unknown. The battery of tests drove Camby batty and essentially concluded that he was a positive-negative. The problem wasn't his heart, and it wasn't neurological.

Camby felt fine. If doctors can't tell you why you shouldn't be fine, maybe you are. Ever since, Camby has treated his health as a non-issue.

"I'm sure he thinks about it at times," Calipari says. The coach admits to worrying only once since Camby's return, when he heard on February 10 of the sudden death of Dayton center Chris Daniels. That was an inescapable comparison, because UMass had played Dayton on January 6.

"I learned it (Daniels, problem) was arrhythmia, which is different from Marcus," Calipari says.

Perhaps Camby's blase attitude about the Olean Episode is justified. Certainly there was no indication that his game deteriorated during the two-week layoff he incurred as a precautionary measure. The Minutemen perked along going 4-0 and retaining the nation's No. 1 ranking during his layoff. On his return against St. Bonaventure, Camby blocked nine shots in 23 minutes. He looked like a force again.