College Career
Lasme was recruited to the University of Massachusetts (UMass) to play with the UMass Minutemen by head coach Steve Lappas. Coming in as a freshman, Lasme was a wiry 6' 8", 190 pound mystery, but proved his defensive value by finishing the season as the Atlantic 10's second-leading shot blocker, while limited to just a 13.3 minutes per game average. As a sophomore, he started all 28 games for the Minutemen, and again finished as the league's second-leading shot blocker.
Lasme continued his progression during his junior year. He started 27 of the team's 28 games (Senior Day being the exception), scored in double figures 15 times, and finished the year with a 10.5 average. Lasme was two blocks short of a triple-double against St. Peter's on December 27, 2005, with 21 points, 14 rebounds and 8 blocks. By the end of the season, Lasme blocked a total of 108 shots, an average of 3.9 per game, good for third-highest in the nation. The A-10 honored Lasme with their Defensive Player of the Year award.
His senior year at UMass was filled with personal accomplishments, records, and team success. He was named an AP Honorable Mention All-American, the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. He ranked first in the league in blocks and rebounding, and second in field goal percentage. He scored more than 20 points on four occasions, grabbed 10 or more rebounds on 17 occasions, and 10 or more blocks on four occasions. During the season, Lasme averaged 13.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 5.1 blocks per game, and led the Minutemen into the NIT, the team's first post-season play since the 1999–2000 season.
In the 2006–07 season, Lasme tied an NCAA record with four triple-doubles in a single season, joining Jason Kidd (1994 at Cal) and Michael Anderson (1986 at Drexel). While Kidd and Anderson accomplished the feat by achieving double figures in scoring, rebounds, and assists, Lasme's triple-doubles are in scoring, rebounds and blocks. His four triple-doubles were:
- vs. St. Francis on November 22 (19 pts, 10 reb, 11 blocks);
- vs. George Washington on January 10 (23 pts, 15 reb, 11 blocks);
- vs. Rhode Island on February 8 (18 pts, 12 reb, 11 blocks) and
- vs. La Salle on February 28 (17 pts, 10 reb, 10 blocks).
Also in 2006–07, Lasme set new UMass records for career blocked shots (399), single season blocked shots (168), and blocks per game (11), passing Marcus Camby on all three lists.
Read more about this topic: Stephane Lasme
Famous quotes containing the words college and/or career:
“If any proof were needed of the progress of the cause for which I have worked, it is here tonight. The presence on the stage of these college women, and in the audience of all those college girls who will some day be the nation’s greatest strength, will tell their own story to the world.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)