COLLEGE BASKETBALL DAILY REPORT : Camby Is Top All-American

Marcus Camby came within one vote of being a unanimous selection to the Associated Press All-America team, and the Big East became the first conference to have three players selected to the first team.

Camby is, however, the first player from Massachusetts to be selected to the first team.

He was joined on the first team by Ray Allen of Connecticut, Allen Iverson of Georgetown and Villanova’s Kerry Kittles--all from the Big East--and Wake Forest center Tim Duncan.

All but one voter on the 66-member national media panel had Camby on the first team. He received 328 points in the 5-3-1 voting, edging Allen, the junior swingman who had 324.

Camby averaged 20.7 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.8 blocks this season as the Minutemen went 31-1 and held the No. 1 ranking for 10 weeks, longer than any other team.

“Special players make everyone around them better,” Massachusetts Coach John Calipari said. “Marcus Camby is a special player.”

Keith Van Horn of Utah led the second team with 189 points and was joined by Tony Delk of Kentucky, Danny Fortson of Cincinnati, Jacque Vaughn of Kansas and John Wallace of Syracuse.

The third team featured two freshmen--Stephon Marbury of Georgia Tech and Shareef Abdur-Rahim of California--Lorenzen Wright of Memphis, Brian Evans of Indiana and Jason Sasser of Texas Tech.

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UCLA forward Charles O’Bannon joined Camby, Allen and 14 others as candidates for the Los Angeles Athletic Club’s John R. Wooden Award.

Two freshman--Abdur Rahim and Marbury--became the first to be nominated for the award, which will be voted on by a panel of 984 sportswriters and sportscasters and presented on April 4 at the L.A. Athletic Club.

Among the other candidates are Iverson, Duncan, Kittles, Van Horn and Stanford’s Brevin Knight.