1975–76 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1975–76 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. Not ranked
AP	No. Not ranked
1975–76 record	14–13 (7–11 Big Ten)
Head coach	Lou Henson
Assistant coach	Tony Yates
Assistant coach	Mark Coomes
Assistant coach	Les Wothke
MVP	Nate Williams
Captain	Appointed Each Game
Home arena	Assembly Hall

1975–76 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
#1 Indiana	18	–	0	1.000	32	–	0	1.000
#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

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

Regular season

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. Henson moved to the University of Illinois to replace Gene Bartow, after Bartow left Illinois to replace John Wooden at UCLA. Henson would lead the Fighting Illini to the 1989 Final Four. In 21 years at Illinois, Henson garnered 423 wins and 224 losses (.654 winning percentage), and with a record of 214 wins and 164 losses (.567) in Big Ten Conference games. The 214 wins in Big Ten games were the third highest total ever at the time of his retirement.

This marked the first time since 1919 that a Big Ten basketball team would finish the season undefeated. This also marked the second time a Big Ten team would finish with 30 or more wins.

Team

No.	Player	Hometown	High School	Class	Position
10	Nate Williams	Chicago, Illinois	Crane High School	Sr.	Guard
12	Ken Ferdinand	Urbana, Illinois	Urbana High School	Fr.	Forward
20	Dennis Graff	Gibson City, Illinois	Gibson City High School	Sr.	Guard
23	Larry Lubin	Glencoe, Illinois	New Trier High School	Fr.	Guard
24	Tom Gerhardt	Chicago, Illinois	De La Salle High School	So.	Forward
33	Otho Tucker	Paris, Illinois	Paris High School	Sr.	Guard
34	Rick Leighty	Lawrenceville, Illinois	Lawrenceville High School	So.	Forward
40	Rich Adams	Cincinnati, Ohio	Colerain High School	So.	Forward
42	Tim Bushell	Lincoln, Illinois	Lincoln Community High School	Jr.	Forward
44	Audie Matthews	Chicago Heights, Illinois	Bloom High School	So.	Forward
53	Bill Rucks	Waukegan, Illinois	Waukegan High School	Sr.	Forward
54	Mike Washington	Chicago Heights, Illinois	Morgan Park High School	Sr.	Forward

Head Coach Lou Henson (1st year at Illinois) ^[1]

Schedule

Source^[2]

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

Player	Games Played	Field Goals	Free Throws	Rebounds	Assists	Points
Rich Adams^[3]	27	181	67	158	41	429
Audi Matthews^[4]	27	129	46	144	50	304
Mike Washington^[5]	27	105	40	142	78	250
Nate Williams^[6]	18	102	39	63	44	243
Otho Tucker^[7]	26	83	68	135	84	234
Ken Ferdinand^[8]	26	72	17	83	11	161
Rick Leighty^[9]	27	50	10	70	53	110

Awards and honors

Nate Williams
- Team Most Valuable Player ^[10]

Team players drafted into the NBA

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

^[11]

References

Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball

Venues	Kenney Gym (1906–1925) Huff Hall (1926–1963) State Farm Center (1963–present) Prairie Capital Convention Center (2015)

Rivalries	Indiana Missouri

Culture & lore	Whiz Kids Flyin' Illini Orange Krush Fighting Illini Sports Network Oskee Wow-Wow Illinois Loyalty Chief Illiniwek

People	Head coaches NBA draftees Consensus All-Americans

Seasons	1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17

Helms and Premo-Porretta national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics

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