Historic Season

Credit: Dawn Anderson
It’s likely that 10, 15, or even 25 years from now, references to 2008-‘09 will still be commonplace in the record books for MIT men’s basketball.
Individually and as a team, the Engineers rewrote 26 records this season. Senior guard and cocaptain Jimmy Bartolotta (above) set new marks for career points (2,279) and career steals (184), and cocaptain Bradley Gampel ‘09 racked up the most assists in a season (207) and steals in a season (80). The team’s 21 wins also tied an Institute record.
And for the first time in the basketball program’s 108-year history, MIT received a berth in the NCAA Division III tournament, courtesy of its first-ever NEWMAC conference championship. One ESPN columnist described MIT as “the best Cinderella story of March Madness this year.”
A stunning 73-68 upset of nationally ranked Rhode Island College in the first-round game added more luster to an already historic season, but unfortunately, it would be MIT’s final win. Despite a hard-fought battle in their second game, the Engineers fell to Farmingdale State, 67-61, to end the season.
Bartolotta–who double-majored in management science and physics–was named an Academic All-American and the D3Hoops National Player of the Year. He also won the coveted Jostens Trophy, which honors the most outstanding men’s and women’s Division III basketball players of the year.
Keep Reading
Most Popular
This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI
The tool, called Nightshade, messes up training data in ways that could cause serious damage to image-generating AI models.
Rogue superintelligence and merging with machines: Inside the mind of OpenAI’s chief scientist
An exclusive conversation with Ilya Sutskever on his fears for the future of AI and why they’ve made him change the focus of his life’s work.
The Biggest Questions: What is death?
New neuroscience is challenging our understanding of the dying process—bringing opportunities for the living.
How to fix the internet
If we want online discourse to improve, we need to move beyond the big platforms.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.