1974–75 Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team

The 1974–75 Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team represented Indiana University, led by fourth-year head coach Bobby Knight. The team played its home games on campus in Bloomington at Assembly Hall, and was a member of the Big Ten Conference.

1974–75 Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball
Big Ten champions
NCAA Tournament, Elite Eight
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 1
AP	No. 3
1974–75 record	31–1 (18–0 Big Ten)
Head coach	Bobby Knight (4th season)
Assistant coaches	Dave Bliss Bob Donewald Bob Weltlich Mike Krzyzewski (1st season)
Captain	Steve Green Quinn Buckner
Home arena	Assembly Hall

1974–75 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 3 Indiana	18	–	0		1.000			31	–	1		.969
No. 19 Michigan	12	–	6		.667			19	–	8		.704
Minnesota	11	–	7		.611			18	–	8		.692
Purdue	11	–	7		.611			17	–	11		.607
Michigan State	10	–	8		.556			17	–	9		.654
Ohio State	8	–	10		.444			14	–	14		.500
Iowa	7	–	11		.389			10	–	16		.385
Wisconsin	5	–	13		.278			8	–	18		.308
Illinois	4	–	14		.222			8	–	18		.308
Northwestern	4	–	14		.222			6	–	20		.231
Rankings from AP Poll

The Hoosiers finished the regular season with a 29–0 record, and won the Big Ten Conference by six games at 18–0.[1] They began the season third in the polls and were top-ranked since January 7.[2][3] When combined with the following year, Indiana won 37 consecutive Big Ten games. The Hoosiers won their conference games by an average of 22.8 points. However, in an 83–82 win against Purdue on February 22, they lost consensus All-American forward Scott May to a broken left arm. The Hoosiers were so dominant that four starters – Scott May, Steve Green, Kent Benson, and Quinn Buckner – were named to the five-man All-Big Ten team following the regular season. With May's injury keeping him to seven minutes of play, the No. 1 Hoosiers lost to Kentucky 92–90 in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament and finished the season at 31–1.[4][5][6]

Roster

No.	Name	Position	Ht.	Year	Hometown
20	Bobby Wilkerson	G/F	6–7	Jr.	Anderson, Indiana
21	Quinn Buckner	G	6–3	Jr.	Phoenix, Illinois
22	Wayne Radford	G/F	6–3	Fr.	Indianapolis, Indiana
24	Steve Ahlfeld	G	6–1	Sr.	Wabash, Indiana
25	Doug Allen	F	6–6	Sr.	Champaign, Illinois
30	John Kamstra	G	6–1	Sr.	Frankfort, Indiana
31	John Laskowski	G/F	6–5	Sr.	South Bend, Indiana
32	Mark Haymore	F/C	6–8	Fr.	Shaker Heights, Ohio
33	Tom Abernethy	F	6–7	Jr.	South Bend, Indiana
34	Steve Green	F	6–7	Sr.	Sellersburg, Indiana
40	Jim Wisman	G	6–2	Fr.	Quincy, Illinois
42	Scott May	F	6–7	Jr.	Sandusky, Ohio
43	Don Noort	C	6–8	Jr.	Worth, Illinois
45	Jim Crews	G	6–5	Jr.	Normal, Illinois
54	Kent Benson	C	6–11	So.	New Castle, Indiana

Regular season game against Kentucky

On December 7, 1974, Indiana and Kentucky met in the regular season in Bloomington with a 98–74 Indiana win.[7] Near the end of the game, Indiana coach Bobby Knight went to the Kentucky bench where the official was standing to complain about a call. Before he left, Knight hit Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall in the back of the head.[8] UK's assistant coach Lynn Nance, a former FBI agent who was about 6 feet 5 inches, had to be restrained by Hall from hitting Knight. Hall later said, "It publicly humiliated me."[9]

Knight said the slap to the head was something he has done, "affectionately" to his own players for years. "But maybe someone would not like that", he said. "If Joe didn't like it, I offer an apology. I don't apologize for the intent." ... "Hall and I have been friends for a long time", Knight said. "If he wants to dissolve the friendship, that's up to him."[10] Knight blamed the furor on Hall, noting in his inimitable style, "If it was meant to be malicious, I'd have blasted him into the seats."[11]

NCAA tournament

Following the one-sided regular season game in early December,[7] Indiana and Kentucky met again in the 1975 Elite Eight in Dayton, Ohio, the Mideast regional final. Entering that game on March 22, the top-ranked Hoosiers had a 34-game winning streak and Kentucky (24–4) was ranked fifth. However, Indiana had lost star player Scott May to a broken arm in the regular season finale against Purdue. May scored 25 points in the regular season IU-UK meeting, but he managed only two points in seven minutes in the tournament game, which he played with a cast on his left arm. IU surged out to an early seven-point lead before UK rallied to tie it at 44 by halftime. Despite Indiana's Kent Benson scoring 33 points (13-of-18) and grabbing 23 rebounds, Kentucky won by two points, 92–90.[4][5][6] The game made USA Today's list of the greatest NCAA tournament games of all time.[12] The win put Kentucky in the Final Four in San Diego, where they dropped the NCAA title game to UCLA in John Wooden's final game as head coach.

The loss for Indiana prevented what could have been back-to-back undefeated seasons and national championships as the Hoosiers went on to take the national title in 1976. Bob Knight would later say that this 1974–75 team was the best he ever coached, even better than the undefeated national champions of 1976.

Schedule and results

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site city, state
Non-conference regular season
11/30/1974*	No. 3	Tennessee Tech	W 113–60	1–0	Assembly Hall  Bloomington, Indiana
12/4/1974*	No. 3	at No. 7 Kansas	W 74–70 ^OT	2–0	Allen Fieldhouse  Lawrence, Kansas
12/7/1974*	No. 3	No. 15 Kentucky Indiana–Kentucky rivalry	W 98–74	3–0	Assembly Hall  Bloomington, Indiana
12/11/1974*	No. 3	at No. 11 Notre Dame	W 94–84	4–0	Joyce Center  Notre Dame, Indiana
12/14/1974*	No. 3	vs. Texas A&M	W 90–55	5–0	Market Square Arena  Indianapolis
12/16/1974*	No. 3	Toledo	W 92–70	6–0	Assembly Hall  Bloomington, Indiana
12/20/1974*	No. 2	Creighton Indiana Classic	W 71–53	7–0	Assembly Hall  Bloomington, Indiana
12/21/1974*	No. 2	Nebraska Indiana Classic	W 97–60	8–0	Assembly Hall  Bloomington, Indiana
12/26/1974*	No. 2	vs. Florida Rainbow Classic Quarterfinals	W 98–84	9–0	Neal S. Blaisdell Center  Honolulu, HI
12/27/1974*	No. 2	vs. Ohio State Rainbow Classic Semifinals	W 102–71	10–0	Neal S. Blaisdell Center  Honolulu, HI
12/30/1974*	No. 2	vs. Hawaii Rainbow Classic Championship	W 69–52	11–0	Neal S. Blaisdell Center  Honolulu, HI
Big Ten regular season
1/4/1975	No. 2	at Michigan State	W 107–55	12–0 (1–0)	Jenison Fieldhouse  East Lansing, Michigan
1/6/1975	No. 2	at No. 17 Michigan	W 90–76	13–0 (2–0)	Crisler Arena  Ann Arbor, Michigan
1/11/1975	No. 1	Iowa	W 102–49	14–0 (3–0)	Assembly Hall  Bloomington, Indiana
1/13/1975	No. 1	Minnesota	W 79–59	15–0 (4–0)	Assembly Hall  Bloomington, Indiana
1/18/1975	No. 1	at Northwestern	W 82–56	16–0 (5–0)	Welsh-Ryan Arena  Evanston, Illinois
1/20/1975	No. 1	at Wisconsin	W 89–69	17–0 (6–0)	Wisconsin Field House  Madison, Wisconsin
1/25/1975	No. 1	No. 20 Purdue Rivalry	W 104–71	18–0 (7–0)	Assembly Hall  Bloomington, Indiana
1/27/1975	No. 1	Illinois Rivalry	W 73–57	19–0 (8–0)	Assembly Hall  Bloomington, Indiana
2/1/1975	No. 1	at Ohio State	W 72–66	20–0 (9–0)	St. John Arena  Columbus, Ohio
2/3/1975	No. 1	Michigan	W 74–48	21–0 (10–0)	Assembly Hall  Bloomington, Indiana
2/8/1975	No. 1	at Iowa	W 79–56	22–0 (11–0)	Iowa Field House  Iowa City, Iowa
2/10/1975	No. 1	at Minnesota	W 69–54	23–0 (12–0)	Williams Arena  Minneapolis
2/15/1975	No. 1	Northwestern	W 82–58	24–0 (13–0)	Assembly Hall  Bloomington, Indiana
2/17/1975	No. 1	Wisconsin	W 93–58	25–0 (14–0)	Assembly Hall  Bloomington, Indiana
2/22/1975	No. 1	at Purdue Rivalry	W 83–82	26–0 (15–0)	Mackey Arena  West Lafayette, Indiana
2/24/1975	No. 1	at Illinois Rivalry	W 112–89	27–0 (16–0)	Assembly Hall  Champaign, Illinois
3/1/1975	No. 1	Ohio State	W 86–78	28–0 (17–0)	Assembly Hall  Bloomington, Indiana
3/8/1975	No. 1	Michigan State	W 94–79	29–0 (18–0)	Assembly Hall  Bloomington, Indiana
NCAA Tournament
3/15/1975*	No. 1	vs. UTEP Quarterfinals	W 78–52	30–0	Memorial Coliseum  Lexington, Kentucky
3/20/1975*	No. 1	vs. Oregon State Sweet Sixteen	W 81–71	31–0	University of Daytona Arena  Dayton, Ohio
3/22/1975*	No. 1	vs. No. 5 Kentucky Elite Eight	L 90–92	31–1	University of Dayton Arena  Dayton, Ohio
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

Rankings

Main article: 1974–75 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

Team players drafted into the NBA

Year	Round	Pick	Player	NBA Club
1975	2	30	Steve Green	Chicago Bulls
1975	2	32	John Laskowski	Chicago Bulls
1976	1	2	Scott May	Chicago Bulls
1976	1	7	Quinn Buckner	Milwaukee Bucks
1976	1	11	Bob Wilkerson	Seattle SuperSonics
1976	3	43	Tom Abernethy	Los Angeles Lakers
1977	1	1	Kent Benson	Milwaukee Bucks
1978	2	27	Wayne Radford	Indiana Pacers

[13]

References

1. "Indiana Basketball Men's Database". IndyStar. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
2. Damer, Roy (January 8, 1975). "Improved Indiana now No. 1". Chicago Tribune. p. 5, sec. 4.
3. "Top ranking is 'pressure'". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. January 8, 1975. p. 17.
4. McDermott, Barry (March 31, 1975). "It will be a horse race". Sports Illustrated. p. 22.
5. Damer, Roy (March 23, 1975). "Kentucky topples Indiana by 92–90". Chicago Tribune. p. 1, sec. 3.
6. "Kentucky topples Indiana". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. March 23, 1975. p. 1, sports.
7. "Hoosiers blast Kentucky". Chicago Tribune. Associated Press. December 8, 1974. p. 3, sec. 3.
8. "Recapping the rivalry". Retrieved 22 March 2012.
9. "none". Atlanta Constitution Journal. 28 February 1982.
10. Laudeman, Tev (8 December 1974). "none". Louisville Courier Journal.
11. Delsohn, Steve (2006). Bob Knight: The Unauthorized Biography. Simon & Schuster. pp. 96.
12. Mike Douchant – Greatest 63 games in NCAA Tournament history. The Sports Xchange, published in USA Today, March 25, 2002
13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-05-23. Retrieved 2013-10-09.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)