1995–96 UMass Minutemen basketball team

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Ranking
Coaches	No. 2
AP	No. 1

The 1995–96 UMass Minutemen basketball team represented the University of Massachusetts Amherst during the 1995–96 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Minutemen, led by eighth year head coach John Calipari, played their home games at William D. Mullins Memorial Center and were members of the Atlantic 10 Conference. They finished the season 35–2, 15–1 in A-10 play to finish in first place. The Minutemen won the A-10 Conference Tournament by beating Temple in the finals. They were awarded a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Minutemen advanced to the Final Four, losing to eventual National Champion, Kentucky.

On May 8, 1997, the NCAA Executive Committee voted to negate the Minutemen's 1996 NCAA Tournament record, for Marcus Camby's acceptance of agents' improper gifts.^[1] The 35–2 record was reduced to 31–1, and the UMass slot in the Final Four is officially marked as "vacated." The Final Four trophy, banner and 45% of tournament revenue were returned to the NCAA. Camby reimbursed the school for the $151,617 in lost revenue.

Roster

1995–96 UMass Minutemen men's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown
F	3	Dana Dingle	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	220 lb (100 kg)	Sr	Bronx, NY
F	4	Donta Bright	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	223 lb (101 kg)	Sr	Baltimore, MD
G	5	Charlton Clarke	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	210 lb (95 kg)	Fr	Bronx, NY
G	11	Giddiel Padilla	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	187 lb (85 kg)	Sr	Toa Alta, PR
G	12	Édgar Padilla	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	Jr	Toa Alta, PR
C	21	Marcus Camby	6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)	220 lb (100 kg)	Jr	Hartford, CT
G	24	Carmelo Travieso	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	Jr	Boston, MA
F	34	Tyrone Weeks	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	260 lb (118 kg)	Jr	Philadelphia, PA
F/C	40	Ted Cottrell	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	Sr	Annapolis, MD
F	44	Rigoberto Núñez	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	195 lb (88 kg)	Sr	Lawrence, MA
F	50	Inus Norville	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	225 lb (102 kg)	So	Fayetteville, NC

Head coach

John Calipari (Clarion)

Assistant coach(es)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Schedule

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Regular Season
11/28/1995*	No. 5	vs. No. 1 Kentucky Great 8	W 92-82	1–0	The Palace of Auburn Hills (15,454) Auburn Hills, Michigan
12/2/1995*	No. 5	vs. No. 19 Maryland Franklin National Bank Classic	W 50-47	2–0	Capital Centre (16,302) Landover, Maryland
12/03/1995*	No. 5	vs. Florida Franklin National Bank Classic	W 80-58	3–0	Capital Centre (16,358) Landover, Maryland
12/6/1995*	No. 3	No. 10 Wake Forest	W 60–46	4–0	Mullins Center (9,493) Amherst, Massachusetts
12/09/1995*	No. 3	vs. Boston College Commonwealth Classic	W 65-57	5-0	Fleet Center (9,493) Boston, Massachusetts
12/12/1995*	No. 3	UNC Wilmington	W 77-51	6-0	Mullins Center (9,493) Amherst, MA
12/22/1995*	No. 2	vs. No. 21 Georgia Tech Jimmy V Classic	W 75-67	7-0	Brendan Byrne Arena (13,452) East Rutherford, New Jersey
12/28/1995*	No. 1	vs. NC State Rainbow Classic	W 78-67	8-0	(8,871) Honolulu, Hawaii
12/29/1995*	No. 1	vs. USC Rainbow Classic	W 78-63	9-0	(7,856) Honolulu, Hawaii
12/30/1995*	No. 1	vs. No. 13 Syracuse Rainbow Classic	W 65-47	10-0	{{{site_stadium}}} (8,530) Honolulu, Hawaii
1/04/1996*	No. 1	vs. No. 3 Memphis Atlantic-10 / Conference USA Challenge	W 64-61	11-0	Worcester Centrum (13,557) Worcester, Massachusetts
1/06/1996	No. 1	Dayton	W 78-58	12-0 (1-0)	Mullins Center (9,493) Amherst, MA
01/10/1996	No. 1	at Saint Joseph's	W 94-89 ^OT	13-0 (2-0)	Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse (3,200) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
01/14/1996	No. 1	at St. Bonaventure	W 65-52	14-0 (3-0)	Reilly Center (6,000) Olean, New York
01/17/1996	No. 1	Rhode Island	W 77-71	15-0 (4-0)	Mullins Center (9,493) Amherst, Massachusetts
01/20/1996	No. 1	at Duquesne	W 93-89	16-0 (5-0)	(6,119) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
01/23/1996*	No. 1	at Pittsburgh	W 79-71 ^OT	17-0	Fleet Center (6,798) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
01/27/1996	No. 1	at St. Bonaventure	W 72-47	18-0 (6-0)	Mullins Center (9,493) Amherst, Massachusetts
01/30/1996	No. 1	at Fordham	W 80-50	19-0 (7–0)	Mullins Center (9,493) Amherst, Massachusetts
02/01/1996	No. 1	at Temple	W 59-35	20-0 (8-0)	McGonigle Hall (3,900) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
02/04/1996	No. 1	at Xavier	W 78-74 ^OT	21-0 (9-0)	Cincinnati Gardens (10,118) Cincinnati, Ohio
02/06/1996	No. 1	at Fordham	W 73-47	22-0 (10-0)	Madison Square Garden (9,695) New York, New York
02/11/1996	No. 1	Temple	W 84-55	23-0 (11-0)	Mullins Center (9,493) Amherst, Massachusetts
2/15/1996	No. 1	La Salle	W 70-53	24-0 (12–0)	Mullins Center (9,493) Amherst, Massachusetts
02/17/1996	No. 1	at Virginia Tech	W 74-68	25-0 (13-0)	Cassell Coliseum (10,052) Blacksburg, Virginia
02/20/1996	No. 1	at Rhode Island	W 74-69	26-0 (16-0)	Providence Civic Center (13,106) Providence, Rhode Island
02/24/1996	No. 1	George Washington	L 76-86	26-1 (16-1)	Mullins Center (9,493) Amherst, MA
02/28/1996	No. 2	at Saint Joseph's	W 68-66 ^OT	27-1 (17-1)	Mullins Center (9,493) Amherst, MA
03/02/1996*	No. 2	at No. 21 Louisville	W 62-59	28-1	Freedom Hall (20,076) Louisville, Kentucky
Atlantic 10 Tournament
03/07/1996	No. 2	vs. St. Bonaventure Quarterfinals	W 69-56	29-1	Philadelphia Civic Center (N/A) Philadelphia, PA
03/08/1996	No. 2	vs. George Washington Semifinals	W 74-65	30-1	Philadelphia Civic Center (N/A) Philadelphia, PA
03/09/1996	No. 2	vs. Temple Finals	W 75-61	31-1	Philadelphia Civic Center (8,727) Philadelphia, PA
NCAA Tournament
03/14/1996*	(1 E) No. 1	vs. (16 E) Central Florida East Region First Round	W 92-70	32-1*	Providence Civic Center (11,931) Providence, Rhode Island
03/16/1996*	(1 E) No. 1	vs. (9) Stanford East Region Second Round	W 79-74	33-1*	Providence Civic Center (11,931) Providence, Rhode Island
03/21/1996*	(1 E) No. 1	vs. (12 E) Arkansas East Regional Semifinal	W 79-63	34-1*	Georgia Dome (34,614) Atlanta, Georgia
03/23/1996*	(1 E) No. 1	vs. (2 E) No. 4 Georgetown East Regional Final	W 86-62	35-1*	Georgia Dome (32,328) Atlanta, Georgia
03/30/1996*	(1 E) No. 1	vs. (1 MW) No. 2 Kentucky National Semifinal	L 74-81	35-2*	Brendan Byrne Arena (19,229) East Rutherford, NJ
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. MW=Midwest Region. All times are in Eastern Time.

On May 8, 1997, the NCAA Executive Committee voted to negate the Minutemen's 1996 NCAA Tournament record, for Marcus Camby's acceptance of agents' improper gifts. The 35-2 record was reduced to 31-1, and the UMass slot in the Final Four is officially marked as "vacated."

References

^ "Marcus Camby lookback: The NCAA rewrites UMass history, erases Final Four appearance". masslive.com. Retrieved 2016-03-21.

[1] "Marcus Camby lookback: The NCAA rewrites UMass history, erases Final Four appearance". masslive.com. Retrieved 2016-03-21.

[1]

v t e UMass Minutemen basketball
Venues	Drill Hall (1899–1931) Curry Hicks Cage (1931–1993) William D. Mullins Memorial Center (1993–present)
Rivalries	Boston College UConn
Culture & lore	Sam the Minuteman "Fight Mass"
People	Head coaches Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1899–1900 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
NCAA Final Four appearances in italics