Bronx, N.Y. – In 1990-1991, junior guard Jean Prioleau hit three game-winning three-pointers, including one in the Patriot League Championship game. So maybe it was another Prioleau game-winner that propelled the 1990-1991 men's basketball team to a win over the 1970-1971 squad in the #BestoftheRams competition.
 
The voting was tight as the two teams were separated by less than ten votes.
 
In that magical 1990-1991 season under head coach Nick Macarchuk, the Rams went 25-8, 11-1 in the Patriot League, and defeated Holy Cross on a Prioleau buzzer-beater in overtime, 84-81, in the Patriot League title game.
 

Unfortunately the Patriot League did not have an automatic NCAA bid in 1991 so the Rams had to venture to Loretto, Pennsylvania, for an NCAA Play-In game with Saint Francis. Fordham fell to the Red Flash but received a bid to the NIT where the Rams knocked off South Florida on the road in the first round before falling to UMass in the Rose Hill Gym.
 
Prioleau's first game-winner came in a November win over Seton Hall in the Rose Hill Gym in a game televised on SportsChannel with Fordham alum Mike Breen on the call. His second came in a Patriot League win at Lehigh in February.
 
Damon Lopez, who would graduate as Fordham's all-time leader in field goal percentage and blocked shots, was named the Patriot League Player of the Year as well as the championship tournament MVP. Prioleau was also honored by the league, being named second team all-conference.
 
Lopez, Prioleau, and Fred Herzog would go on to be elected to the Fordham Athletics Hall of Fame.
 
The 1970-1971 squad also had an impressive resume, going 26-3 on the year, a school record for wins in a season, finishing the season ranked seventh in the final Associated Press Top 20 poll.
 
Coming off a 10-15 season, expectations weren't particularly high for the 1970-1971 team. But new head coach Richard "Digger" Phelps had his own expectations and led the team to the most successful season in Fordham men's basketball history.
 
The season started on a down note as the Rams lost Paul Griswald to a season-ending injury in the first week of practice, leaving the Rams without a big man at center. Phelps adjusted, using three players who were about 6'5" at center: Tom Sullivan, Bart Woytowicz and George Zambetti. He also decided to play a lineup of three guards, a unique concept at the time.
 
A few games in to the season the Rams were playing Holy Cross and assistant coach Frank McLaughlin proposed an idea to Phelps, start four guards. So that night the Rams ran four guards and Charlie Yelverton out on the court and ran over the Crusaders, 102-78, Fordham's third 100-point game of the year.
 
The Rams won the first 12 games of the year before falling to Temple by a point, 67-66.
 

The next game saw the Rams travel up to Amherst, Massachusetts, to face the University of Massachusetts, led by a guard by the name of Julius Erving, who would go on to be better known as Dr. J.
 
"We had everyone take turns guarding Julius Erving," said Phelps. "But Sullivan, Zambetti, and Woytowicz all fouled out so I put Yelverton on him and he shut Erving down for the last three minutes as we pulled out a big win at The Cage. But that's the kind of team we had. They believed in each other and were unselfish and focused."
 
That team would go on to the NCAA Championships, defeating Furman, 105-74, in the first round before being paired up with Villanova in the regional semifinals for the right to advance to the national finals in Houston. Yelverton had another outstanding game for the Rams, scoring 32 points, but the Wildcats were able to get Fordham in foul trouble and pulled out an 85-75 win. Villanova would go on to lose in the 1971 championship game to UCLA.
 
Following the season Yelverton was named All-American and recipient of the Haggerty Award, presented annually to the college Player of the Year by the Met Basketball Writers Association.
 
Yelverton would be elected to the Fordham Athletics Hall of Fame in 1979 where he was later joined by six of his 1970-1971 teammates.