1975–76 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

The 1975–76 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

1975–76 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
ConferenceBig Ten Conference
Record14–13 (7–11 Big Ten)
Head coach
Assistant coaches
MVPNate Williams
CaptainSelected Each Game
Home arenaAssembly Hall
Seasons
1975–76 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   PCT W   L   PCT
No. 1 Indiana 18 0   1.000 32 0   1.000
No. 9 Michigan 14 4   .778 25 7   .781
Purdue 11 7   .611 16 11   .593
Michigan State 10 8   .556 14 13   .519
Iowa 9 9   .500 19 10   .655
Minnesota 8 10   .444 16 10   .615
Illinois 7 11   .389 14 13   .519
Northwestern 7 11   .389 12 15   .444
Wisconsin 4 14   .222 10 16   .385
Ohio State 2 16   .111 6 20   .231
Rankings from AP Poll

Regular season

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During the 1975-76 season, Illinois finished seventh in the Big Ten going went 14-13 overall. Lou Henson took over the team as head coach, replacing Gene Bartow after Bartow left Illinois to replace John Wooden at UCLA.

Roster

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1975–76 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team
Players Coaches
Pos. # Name Height Weight Year Previous school Hometown
G 10 Nate Williams 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 185 lb (84 kg) Sr Crane High School Chicago, Illinois
F 12 Ken Ferdinand 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 200 lb (91 kg) Fr Urbana High School Urbana, Illinois
G 20 Dennis Graff 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 170 lb (77 kg) Sr Gibson City High School Gibson City, Illinois
G 23 Larry Lubin 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 175 lb (79 kg) Fr New Trier High School Glencoe, Illinois
F 24 Tom Gerhardt 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 210 lb (95 kg) So De La Salle High School Chicago, Illinois
G 33 Otho Tucker 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 200 lb (91 kg) RS Sr Paris High School Paris, Illinois
G/F 34 Rick Leighty 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 180 lb (82 kg) So Lawrenceville High School Lawrenceville, Illinois
F 40 Rich Adams 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 200 lb (91 kg) So Colerain High School Cincinnati, Ohio
G/F 42 Tim Bushell 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 195 lb (88 kg) Jr Lincoln Community High School Lincoln, Illinois
G/F 44 Audie Matthews 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 180 lb (82 kg) So Bloom High School Chicago Heights, Illinois
C 53 Bill Rucks 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 250 lb (113 kg) Sr Waukegan High School Waukegan, Illinois
C 54 Mike Washington 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 195 lb (88 kg) So Morgan Park High School Chicago, Illinois
Head coach
Assistant coach(es)

Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (S) Suspended
  • (I) Ineligible
  • (W) Walk-on

Roster

Schedule

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Source[1]

Date
time, TV
Opponent Result Record Site (attendance)
city, state
Non-Conference regular season
11/28/1975*
no, no
at Nebraska W 60-58  1 - 0
Nebraska Coliseum (6,235)
Lincoln, NE
12/1/1975*
no, no
Kent State W 73-54  2 - 0
Assembly Hall (5,007)
Champaign, IL
12/4/1975*
no, no
Missouri-Rolla W 67-65  3 - 0
Assembly Hall (5,050)
Champaign, IL
12/6/1975*
no, no
New Mexico W 67-66 OT 4 - 0
Assembly Hall (5,684)
Champaign, IL
12/8/1976*
no, no
North Dakota State W 90-73  5 - 0
Assembly Hall (3,016)
Champaign, IL
12/11/1975*
no, no
at Furman L 73-75  5 - 1
Greenville, South Carolina (2,579)
Greenville, SC
12/13/1975*
no, no
at Southern California L 58-62  5 - 2
Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (4,458)
Los Angeles, CA
12/20/1975*
no, no
Arizona W 66-60  6 - 2
Assembly Hall (6,115)
Champaign, IL
12/22/1975*
no, no
Rice W 106-64  7 - 2
Assembly Hall (6,192)
Champaign, IL
Big Ten regular season
1/3/1976
no, no
at Iowa
Rivalry
L 60-84  7 - 3
(0 - 1)
Iowa Field House (13,171)
Iowa City, IA
1/8/1976
no, no
at No. 17 Minnesota L 68-77  7 - 4
(0 - 2)
Williams Arena (10,062)
Minneapolis, MN
1/10/1976
no, no
Northwestern
Rivalry
W 74-69  8 - 4
(1 - 2)
Assembly Hall (5,547)
Champaign, IL
1/12/1976
no, no
Wisconsin W 71-61  9 - 4
(2 - 2)
Assembly Hall (6,968)
Champaign, IL
1/17/1976
no, no
No. 1 Indiana
Rivalry
L 55-83  9 - 5
(2 - 3)
Assembly Hall (16,128)
Champaign, IL
1/19/1976
no, no
at Ohio State L 63-64  9 - 6
(2 - 4)
St. John Arena (5,715)
Columbus, OH
1/24/1976
no, no
Michigan State L 63-74  9 - 7
(2 - 5)
Assembly Hall (6,975)
Champaign, IL
1/26/1976
no, no
No. 17 Michigan W 76-75  10 - 7
(3 - 5)
Assembly Hall (5,863)
Champaign, IL
1/31/1976
no, no
Purdue W 71-63  11 - 7
(4 - 5)
Assembly Hall (8,467)
Champaign, IL
2/2/1976
no, no
Minnesota L 62-72  11 - 8
(4 - 6)
Assembly Hall (7,317)
Champaign, IL
2/7/1976
no, no
at Northwestern
Rivalry
W 61-55  12 - 8
(5 - 6)
McGaw Memorial Hall (4,228)
Evanston, IL
2/9/1976
no, no
at Wisconsin W 70-59  13 - 8
(6 - 6)
Wisconsin Field House (3,883)
Madison, WI
2/14/1976
no, no
at No. 1 Indiana
Rivalry
L 48-58  13 - 9
(6 - 7)
Assembly Hall (17,759)
Bloomington, IN
2/16/1976
no, no
Ohio State W 91-73  14 - 9
(7 - 7)
Assembly Hall (8,087)
Champaign, IL
2/21/1976
no, no
at Michigan State L 59-69  14 - 10
(7 - 8)
Jenison Fieldhouse (4,227)
East Lansing, MI
2/23/1976
no, no
at No. 15 Michigan L 75-90  14 - 11
(7 - 9)
Crisler Center (8,121)
Ann Arbor, MI
2/28/1976
no, no
at Purdue L 62-81  14 - 12
(7 - 10)
Mackey Arena (13,729)
West Lafayette, IN
3/6/1976
no, no
Iowa
Rivalry
L 70-82  14 - 13
(7 - 11)
Assembly Hall (10,028)
Champaign, IL
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.
All times are in Central Time.

Player stats

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Player Games Played Field Goals Free Throws Rebounds Assists Points
Rich Adams[2] 27 181 67 158 41 429
Audi Matthews[3] 27 129 46 144 50 304
Mike Washington[4] 27 105 40 142 78 250
Nate Williams[5] 18 102 39 63 44 243
Otho Tucker[6] 26 83 68 135 84 234
Ken Ferdinand[7] 26 72 17 83 11 161
Rick Leighty[8] 27 50 10 70 53 110
Larry Lubin 26 22 16 19 46 60
Tom Gearhardt 22 15 8 34 12 38
Dennis Graff 15 4 16 4 6 24
Tim Bushell 8 2 2 3 2 6

Awards and honors

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  • Nate Williams
    • Team Most Valuable Player [9]

Team players drafted into the NBA

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Player NBA Club Round Pick
Nate Williams Chicago Bulls 5 69
Otho Tucker Boston Celtics 10 169

[10]

Rankings

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References

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  1. ^ University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1975-76 Archived 2013-12-16 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com
  2. ^ "Season Stats pg. 118" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 8, 2011. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  3. ^ "Season Stats pg. 118" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 8, 2011. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  4. ^ "Season Stats pg. 118" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 8, 2011. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  5. ^ "Season Stats pg. 118" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 8, 2011. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  6. ^ "Season Stats pg. 118" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 8, 2011. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  7. ^ "Season Stats pg. 118" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 8, 2011. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  8. ^ "Season Stats pg. 118" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 8, 2011. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  9. ^ "List of MVPs" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2014. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  10. ^ 1976 NBA Draft Archived 2012-02-09 at the Wayback Machine