MinuteMADE2

From National Spotlight to the Normal Life
A Profile of the UMass Basketball team that took them to the Final Four
By: Ricky Lisojo

Thirteen years ago, the men’s basketball team at UMass went to the Final Four in the NCAA basketball tournament. They will always be remembered as the college students that went 35-2 in the regular season and nearly knocked off Kentucky in the school’s first trip to the Final Four.

The team followed a 1994-95 team that people thought would be UMass’s first chance to winning a championship. That team was the first New England team ever to claim a No. 1 spot in the AP poll. The spring after that season, the team lost three seniors, including the famous Lou Roe, the second leading scorer and top rebounder in school history.

The next year, the 1995-96 team shocked the world, when they took UMass on their backs to the Final Four. They had the best record among Division 1 teams, 35-2, 10 weeks at the No. 1 spot in the AP poll, a fifth consecutive A-10 regular season championship, a fifth consecutive A-10 tournament title, a second National Coach of the Year honors for John Calipari, and a National Player of the Year award for center Marcus Camby.



“We knew we didn’t have a lot of talent, but because we were so close, like a family almost, we were able to blend so well on the court”, Edgar Padilla said. Those college students, that led the team, are now fathers, men, and coaches now that live adult lives, with real jobs. Although they are living the life of adults now, the memory of that year will never be forgotten. Here’s a look into where those kids are now.

Edgar Padilla and Carmelo Travieso were the two guards of that superb season that handled the load in the backcourt. Padilla was the starting point guard for the team and Travieso was the starting shooting guard. They both traveled together from Puerto Rico to UMass and never left each other’s side once. They both averaged more than 35 minutes per game together at UMass and were able to spark an interest for basketball in the Caribbean Islands. They both now live in Puerto Rico and play basketball professionally for the Superior League, in Puerto Rico. Edgar Padilla plays for the Arecibo team and Carmelo Travieso plays for the Santurce team. Besides basketball, Padilla makes a living selling real estate, and Travieso works at a financial consulting firm in Puerto Rico.

“When you get there you don’t really understand what it means until years down the line. I would have never imagined that 10 years later it’s still considered something great”, Padilla said.

Dana Dingle was able to go to UMass and leave in the history books of the school. Nobody in school history has played more than the 137 games that Dingle played at UMass, and to compliment that record, Dingle is still the programs No. 10 all-time rebounder and the No. 30 all-time scorer. After college, Dingle played overseas in four different continents, before he decided to retire from the game of basketball. After playing overseas he began working on Wall Street for a while before moving to Long Island, where he worked for a hedge fund. Dingle also coaches an AAU traveling basketball team named, The Long Island Lightening. So although he retired from the game, he was not able to stay away from it too long.

“I’m usually not one for all the attention, but it was pretty fun to walk around campus and everyone wanting to say hi to you or just give a high five”, Dingle said on the topic of attention.

Giddel Padilla was the older brother of Edgar Padilla and never really attained the attention that his younger brother received during his UMass career. He averaged less than a point a game in his career at UMass but was known for his great performance, in filling in for Travieso when he got into foul trouble, in the Final Four game against Kentucky. Giddel now works in Puerto Rico, like his younger brother, for a Sports Agency that he started. His younger brother Edgar and Carmelo Travieso both work for him in his agency as a part-time job.

Donta Bright was a senior, the year that UMass went to the Final Four and backed up the talented Marcus Camby. He was the first ever McDonald’s All-American ever to sign with UMass. His greatest achievement during his UMass career was making forty free throws in a row throughout the season without missing. After college Bright’s playing career continued in Europe, South America, and minor leagues. He stopped playing in 2002 and returned home to Baltimore, Maryland where he now lives.

Charlton Clarke was supposed to be the starting point guard of that Final Four team that year, but a season opening foot injury landed Padilla the spot. After that year Clarke was able to become a dominant starter, and left the school as a member of the 1,000 point club. Now, Clarke is a proud manager of a car dealership in the Bronx. He no long plays the game seriously but you can still catch him playing pick-up games in New York. The UMass magazine quoted Clarke saying, “The running one-hander still works; that floater still works. The jump shot works. The legs don’t hold up as well as they used to, but it’s fun to get out there and compete.”

Marcus Camby was one of the main leaders of that 1995-96 team, as a junior, showed enough talent for the next level. That year he averaged 20.5 points per game, 3.2 rebounds per game, and 3.9 blocks per game. The first signs of how he was capable of playing, was his commanding performance in the season’s opening game against the No. 1 team in the nation, the University of Kentucky. After his amazing year, Camby left UMass a year early to turn professional. He was drafted No. 2 in the NBA draft by the Toronto Raptors, and now he is currently playing for the Los Angeles Clippers. In the NBA, he has averaged, throughout his career, 10.7 points per game, 8.6 rebounds per game, 2.3 steals per game, and 2.6 blocks per game. Throughout his time in the NBA, he has done several charity events, including a recent tour of Africa with a charity group called, Basketball without Borders.

From 1988-96, Coach John Calipari, led the UMass Minutemen program to several conference titles and NCAA tournament appearances. His overall record at UMass was 193-71, with a conference record of 91-41. He was also named Coach of Year in 1992, 1993, and 1996. He was also responsible for accelerating the process of the construction of the Mullins Center, UMass’s basketball and hockey facility. After his career at UMass, he went on the coach the New Jersey Nets, in the NBA. He coached in the NBA until the year 2000, and then moved back to coaching in the college level. He coach at the University of Memphis until the year 2009. Currently, he is now coaching at the University of Kentucky, which is ironic considering Kentucky is the team UMass lost to in 1996 in the Final Four.

When I asked Carmelo Travieso, what he thought about Coach Calipari, he had this to say, “Coach Calipari was the best coach I have ever had. He taught me everything I know today and made my four years of college the best four years of my life. I looked at him like my second father, and went to him for everything.”

There were six other players on that 1996 Final Four team, that although they did not get many minutes throughout their career, they still contributed to the team in their own special ways. This team was a team for the history books and will always be remembered by the UMass community. They took the University of Massachusetts and put the school in a place where it had never been before, the national spotlight. For that, the 1995-96 UMass Men’s Basketball Team will always be appreciated and respected.