Jerome Lambert

Who was Jerome Lambert?

Joseph Jerome Lambert was an American expatriate basketball player who is best known for leading NCAA Division I in rebounding in 1993–94 while playing for Baylor. A 6 ft 8 in, 215 pound power forward, Lambert accomplished the feat as a junior in his first season of Division I basketball. He had previously played for Westark Community College before enrolling at Baylor.

During Lambert's recruitment to Baylor, then-assistant coach Gary Thomas had committed a major recruiting violation to acquire him. Thomas had faxed a term paper to Westark assistant basketball coach Troy Drummond on April 5, 1993, which was a slight re-write of an article that had previously appeared in a women's magazine. Lambert then handed the faxed paper in to an English class to pass it off as his own. He ultimately chose to play at Baylor, with Drummond "coincidentally" becoming a new assistant coach at that school, and news of this violation did not come out until after the 1993–94 season, the season in which Lambert's 14.8 rebounds per game led the NCAA.