Former Brown Hoop Star Nails a 60 ft Buzzer Beater - Why Don’t We Get Players Like That
Friday, March 03, 2023
Last Saturday, Arizona State, a bubble team for this year’s NCAA tournament, found themselves down 88-86 with 2.9 seconds left on the clock against arch-rival and 7th-ranked Arizona. No one in the sold-out crowd of 14,655 at Arizona’s home court McKale Memorial Center expected what would happen next.
Arizona players casually dropped back to defend a 3-pt shot as the Arizona State Sun Devils, out of time outs, quickly got the ball to shooting guard Desmond Cambridge. Cambridge dribbled over to the sidelines and as the buzzer sounded, he launched a 60-ft Hail Mary heave toward the basket at the far end of the court. No backboard, no rim. Nothing but net. Game over. The home crowd and the Arizona Wildcat players stood stunned. Arizona State won 89-88 and kept their NCCA hopes alive.
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The moment for Desmond Cambridge was every kid’s dream, and it was a long way from the Pizzitola Sports Center and its cozy crowds of 1,500 people where Cambridge played for two years for the Brown Bears in 2017-18 and 2018-19. The 6-4 ft Cambridge was a rare phenom recruit for Brown coach Mike Martin. And the Nashville native didn’t disappoint in his rookie season.
Despite Brown’s overall 11-16 record and 4-10 record in the Ivy League in 2017-18, the explosive Cambridge was an offensive powerhouse for Brown. His 468 points were a freshman scoring record for the Bears, and his 17.3 pts. per game led the Bears and enabled Cambridge to be named Ivy Rookie of the Year.
In 2018-19 Cambridge led the Bears with 15.9 pts per game and the Bears finished with a surprising 20-11 record enabling Coach Martin to be named Ivy Coach of the Year. Brown just missed the Ivy tournament that year with a 7-7 record but played two post-season games in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI), beating UAB and losing to Loyola Marymount.
Things soured between Brown and Cambridge, however, at the end of the regular season. He announced that he was transferring to the University of Nevada and he didn’t even suit up for the CBI postseason games. Cambridge, despite leading the team in scoring, lost his touch in Ivy games, with a field goal shooting percentage of just 26%.
Cambridge red-shirted the 2019-20 season at Nevada. Despite averaging 16 pts per game for the next two years at Nevada, Cambridge is now playing for his third team with the Sun Devils and their coach Bobby Hurley, brother of Danny Hurley, former URI and now UCONN coach. College basketball is in full gear in its transfer portal merry ground stage with new guns for hire popping up every year. Bobby Hurley welcomed Cambridge with open arms. And from Cambridge’s point of view, a PAC-12 team like Arizona State offers him a bigger stage for a potential NBA nibble.
As for this year’s Brown basketball team, Coach Martin has the Bears playing with a 14-12 record this Saturday at 7PM at the Pizzitola Sports Center against Yale, the Ivy leader. A win would put the Bears in the Ivy “final four” with Yale, Penn, and Princeton with a shot at the Ivy title and an automatic NCAA bid. With several key players injured for the year, this is a gritty Bears team, and they hope to avenge an earlier 81-78 loss to Yale to continue their season.
Bob McMahon is the former Director of Parks in the City of Providence and a lifelong fan of PC Friar fan.
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