ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 16, 1996 TAG: 9602160026
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
UNBEATEN, TOP-RANKED Massachusetts has overcome every obstacle thus far this college basketball season.
When Massachusetts coach John Calipari turns on the television set these days, he's virtually assured of finding good comedy.
Calipari admittedly gets his kicks hearing some of the nation's so-called experts talk about the holes in Division I men's college basketball's only unbeaten team.
``You know, it's really funny,'' Calipari said.
``Everybody wants to say, `Well, they'll tire out ... well, they're not this ... well, they're not that ... well, they're too small ... well, they're too skinny.'
``My answer is: `Well, they just come out every day and do it.'''
Well, all's well at UMass. The 24-0 Minutemen, led by star junior center Marcus Camby, remain on line to become the first team to go unbeaten since Indiana in 1976.
Calipari, whose club's next test comes Saturday in Blacksburg against 10th-ranked Virginia Tech, admitted the Minutemen are not a dominant force, such as, say, No.2 Kentucky.
``We just find ways to win, that's all,'' Calipari said.
Just ask preseason No.1 Kentucky. UMass' run of perfection began Nov.26, when it whipped the heavily favored Wildcats 92-82 in the Preseason Great Eight at Auburn Hills, Mich.
Kentucky hasn't lost or really been tested since, leading some to believe Rick Pitino's club would handle UMass in a rematch.
``If the two teams played today, I like Kentucky by 10,'' TV analyst Dick Vitale said last week.
Calipari's reaction? He just laughs. And his team just keeps winning.
OK, maybe the Atlantic 10 isn't the toughest league in America. But it's hard to ignore the Minutemen's early-season work against what arguably was the country's most difficult non-conference schedule. Besides Kentucky, UMass' early victims included Memphis, Wake Forest, Syracuse, Georgia Tech, Maryland and Boston College, all of which either are currently ranked or have been ranked in Top 25 polls this season.
Unlike Kentucky, which in its current 20-game winning streak has had only two games decided by fewer than 12 points, UMass has faced its share of close games. But the Minutemen have yet to take the fall.
``Some people have said, `Don't you think it would be better to have a loss?''' Calipari said.
``Well, it's not like we've won every game by 25. We've been tested, and I think that makes a big difference. We've been down or tied eight times at the half. We've had three overtime games, and been in five or six other close games.''
Speaking of close, it's a word that aptly describes this team. How else could UMass have dodged all the early potholes on its road of perfection?
First, there was the loss of freshman guard Charlton Clarke, who broke his right foot in the opener against Kentucky. As a result, UMass has been forced to play its ``Puerto Rican Express'' backcourt of Edgar Padilla and Carmelo Travieso 1,602 of a possible 1,840 minutes.
On Dec.13, when UMass was 6-0, reports broke that five players had planned to sue the university over a 1994 Boston Globe story in which someone on campus leaked confidential information about grades.
On Jan.14, UMass' adversity pot boiled over when Camby inexplicably passed out and collapsed for 10 minutes before the team played at St.Bonaventure. He sat out the next four games as a precautionary measure.
Instead of feeling sorry for themselves, the Minutemen used Camby's absence as a rallying point to get better.
``While I wish Marcus never had passed out, I think it did help us,'' Calipari said. ``It was like an inspiration for the others to step up, and that's just what they did.''
Calipari, who spurned offers from other colleges and the NBA last summer, has learned this UMass team is different from the first six he coached.
``This team wants it for themselves as bad as I want it for them,'' Calipari said. ``It's special, because as a coach, you're not put in that situation very often.
``A lot of times we, as coaches, feel, `Hey, I want it more for this guy than he wants it for himself ... how can that be?' That's not the case with this team, and that's why it has been fun.''
With a player like Camby, how could a coach not have fun? The big man who can handle the ball like a point guard and block shots like Bill Russell has had NBA scouts drooling for some time.
Calipari said Camby's statistics don't do justice to his value on a basketball court. Other than his 77 blocks (4.07 per game average), the 6-foot-10 Camby's scoring (20.6) and rebounding (7.2) numbers are not the eye-popping sort.
``He is, from what you all say, the leading candidate for player of the year, which means you want to put up numbers, right?'' Calipari said. ``Well, Marcus could care less about numbers. Marcus got 10 points [Sunday against Temple] and never said a word.
``That's what sets him apart. Good players will get theirs. Good players get their 25, 34 or 22, shoot their threes, look good.
``Special players make every player on the floor look better. Marcus is special because he makes everybody better.''
When opposing teams gear up to stop Camby down low, UMass usually just swings it back outside to Travieso or Padilla, who combined for 93 3-pointers through the first 23 games.
``I think their backcourt is what makes Camby so special,'' said Nick Macarchuk, Fordham's coach.
``Because they're so good it makes the big kid better. It would be different if you just had Marcus and not the backcourt they had. When Travieso shoots the three like he did against Temple, they're almost impossible to play against.''
With virtually no backups, Travieso and Padilla have averaged 38 minutes per game.
``Everyone says they're getting tired and wearing down, but I don't see it,'' Macarchuk said.
UMass' sometimes forgotten bookend forwards, seniors Donta Bright and Dana Dingle, may be as good as any tandem in the nation.
``Donta Bright is the best finisher in the country,'' Calipari said. ``Get him 15 feet from the basket and you'll either foul him or he'll score.
``Dingle is a stopper, rebounder, a stick-back, garbage basketball man who now has added a 15-foot jumper.
``And our guards? What can you say? They've done it all year long.''
Watch UMass play and the one thing that registers first is how hard it plays.
``I don't know of anybody who plays harder than us,'' Calipari said. ``That and the fact we enjoy each other so much can take us a long way.''
The Minutemen are 14 games shy of the perfecto. If they make it to the NCAA championship game on April 1 and win, they would finish 38-0.
Calipari can't be goaded into looking so far down the road.
``Every game we've got left is a tough one,'' he said. ``It's never been our goal to go unbeaten. Our goal all along has been to win the national championship.''
of attention for UMass, but there is much more to the Minutemen than
the junior All-American. color.
LENGTH: Long : 134 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: J. ANTHONY ROBERTS. Marcus Camby (21) may be the center
by CNB