1967–68 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team
1967–68 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball | |
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Conference | Big Ten Conference |
Record | 11–13 (6–8 Big Ten) |
Head coach |
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Assistant coach | Dick Campbell (1st season) |
MVP | Dave Scholz |
Captain | Ben Louis |
Home arena | Assembly Hall |
Seasons |
| Conf | Overall | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Team | W | L | PCT | W | L | PCT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ohio State | 10 | – | 4 | .714 | 21 | – | 8 | .724 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Iowa | 10 | – | 4 | .714 | 16 | – | 9 | .640 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Purdue | 9 | – | 5 | .643 | 15 | – | 9 | .625 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Northwestern | 8 | – | 6 | .571 | 13 | – | 10 | .565 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wisconsin | 7 | – | 7 | .500 | 13 | – | 11 | .542 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Michigan State | 6 | – | 8 | .429 | 12 | – | 12 | .500 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Illinois | 6 | – | 8 | .429 | 11 | – | 13 | .458 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Michigan | 6 | – | 8 | .429 | 11 | – | 13 | .458 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indiana | 4 | – | 10 | .286 | 10 | – | 14 | .417 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Minnesota | 4 | – | 10 | .286 | 7 | – | 17 | .292 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rankings from AP Poll |
The 1967–68 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.
Regular season
Harv Schmidt, the 1957 Illini MVP and team captain, returned to his alma mater in 1967 after serving as an assistant at New Mexico for three years. Schmidt succeeded legendary coach Harry Combes after his dismissal related to a "slush-fund" scandal that devastated both the basketball and football programs for many years into the future. Schmidt, originally from Kankakee, was the slender 6 foot 6 inch star Illini forward who came highly recommended as both a coach and recruiter. Unfortunately, he had never been a head coach before, but he was considered the best the under the circumstances. Within three years of his arrival, he had brought Illinois back to among the elite programs in the Big Ten. The beginning of his tenure marked what possibly was the high-water mark in fan enthusiasm. Illinois led the nation in attendance in 1970, averaging 16,128 per home contest, with students routinely camped out for tickets outside the state-of-the-art Assembly Hall.
Even though Schmidt lacked coaching experience, he believed in the importance of an aggressive, overplaying defense with the intent of frustrating opponents, generating turnovers and creating easy baskets. He was a stickler to detail and used scouting techniques to learn ways of shutting down opponents offenses. Schmidt was always teaching, as well as coaching his teams, in order to compete favorably against any competition.
Due to the scandal that plagued the Illini, Schmidt's first team was primarily made up of walk-ons. Expectations of the 1967–68 team were low, however, they began to surprise even the experts when, in just their second game of the season, the Illini took on hall of fame player Elvin Hayes and the nationally ranked Houston Cougars at the Assembly Hall. During the matchup, Randy Crews, a 6-foot 5 inch high school All-American guard from Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School, became a defensive stopper in just his second varsity game by taking on the 6 foot 9 inch Hayes. The Illini were forced to use a slow-down style to keep the game close and stayed with the Cougars the whole game, losing by a final score of 54-46.
During the remainder of the season, the Illini defeated such teams as Georgia Tech, Texas El Paso, Notre Dame, Michigan State, Iowa and Michigan. Unfortunately, the Ilini would lose 7 of their last 9 games of the Big Ten season to finish with a 6-8 conference record and an 11-13 mark overall, good for a second straight 7th-place finish in the Big Ten.
Positive signs for the Illini included a freshman team that included future varsity players Greg Jackson, Fred Miller, Rick Howat and Bob Windmiller. As sophomores, they would combine with returnees Dave Scholz, Randy Crews, future New York Knicks draft pick Mike Price, Alabama transfer Jodie Harrison, Dennis Pace and walk-on Les Busboom to form the best group Schmidt would ever coach. Scholz would finish this season by being named 1st team All-American by the Helms Foundation and to the Converse honorable mention All-American team.
The 1967-68 team's starting lineup included Crews and Benny Louis at the forward spots, Price and Harrison as guards and Scholz at center.
Roster
1967–68 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Roster |
Schedule
Source[1]
Date time, TV | Rank# | Opponent# | Result | Record | Site (attendance) city, state | ||||||
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Non-Conference regular season | |||||||||||
12/2/1967* no, no | at Butler | W 75-57 | 1-0 | Hinkle Fieldhouse (5,875) Indianapolis | |||||||
12/9/1967* no, no | Houston | L 46-54 | 1-1 | Assembly Hall (7,605) Champaign, Illinois | |||||||
12/14/1967* no, no | BYU | W 63-55 | 2-1 | Assembly Hall (6,842) Champaign, Illinois | |||||||
12/15/1967* no, no | at Tennessee Volunteer Classic | L 42-66 | 2-2 | Stokely Athletic Center (8,500) Knoxville, Tennessee | |||||||
12/16/1967* no, no | vs. Army Volunteer Classic | L 57-65 | 2-3 | Stokely Athletic Center (9,650) Knoxville, Tennessee | |||||||
12/22/1967* no, no | at Stanford | L 72-74 | 2-4 | Maples Pavilion (1,800) Stanford, California | |||||||
12/23/1967* no, no | at California | L 72-89 | 2-5 | Haas Pavilion (3,400) Berkeley, California | |||||||
12/28/1967* no, no | vs. Georgia Tech | W 65-54 | 3-5 | Chicago Stadium (5,212) Chicago | |||||||
12/30/1967* no, no | vs. UTEP | W 68-50 | 4-5 | Chicago Stadium (5,108) Chicago | |||||||
Big Ten regular season | |||||||||||
1/6/1968 no, no | Michigan State | W 66-56 | 5-5 (1-0) | Assembly Hall (7,932) Champaign, Illinois | |||||||
1/9/1968 no, no | Indiana Rivalry | L 60-61 ot | 5-6 (1-1) | Assembly Hall (6,396) Champaign, Il | |||||||
1/13/1968 no, no | at Minnesota | W 61-60 | 6-6 (2-1) | Williams Arena (6,676) Minneapolis | |||||||
1/27/1968* no, no | vs. Notre Dame | W 68-67 | 7-6 | Chicago Stadium (13,472) Chicago | |||||||
2/3/1968 no, no | Iowa Rivalry | W 66-63 | 8-6 (3-1) | Assembly Hall (8,553) Champaign, Illinois | |||||||
2/6/1968 no, no | at Wisconsin | W 68-60 | 9-6 (4-1) | Wisconsin Field House (10,094) Madison, Wisconsin | |||||||
2/10/1968 no, no | at Northwestern Rivalry | L 71-78 | 9-7 (4-2) | McGaw Memorial Hall (8,349) Evanston, Illinois | |||||||
2/13/1968 no, no | Michigan | L 65-67 | 9-8 (4-3) | Assembly Hall (8,850) Champaign, Illinois | |||||||
2/17/1968 no, no | Purdue | L 68-75 | 9-9 (4-4) | Assembly Hall (11,941) Champaign, Illinois | |||||||
2/20/1968 no, no | at Michigan | W 72-64 | 10-9 (5-4) | Crisler Arena (6,500) Ann Arbor, Michigan | |||||||
2/24/1968 no, no | Northwestern Rivalry | W 62-61 | 11-9 (6-4) | Assembly Hall (12,857) Champaign, Illinois | |||||||
2/26/1968 no, no | at Ohio State | L 75-95 | 11-10 (6-5) | St. John Arena (12,591) Columbus, Ohio | |||||||
3/2/1968 no, no | at Iowa Rivalry | L 56-61 | 11-11 (6-6) | Iowa Field House (12,900) Iowa City, Iowa | |||||||
3/4/1968 no, no | Ohio State | L 64-67 | 11-12 (6-7) | Assembly Hall (9,227) Champaign, Illinois | |||||||
3/9/1968 no, no | at Michigan State | L 59-62 | 11-13 (6-8) | Jenison Fieldhouse (5,112) East Lansing, Michigan | |||||||
*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 | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dave Scholz[2] | 24 | 223 | 83 | 230 | 529 |
Jodie Harrison[3] | 24 | 88 | 61 | 100 | 237 |
Randy Crews[4] | 23 | 88 | 60 | 155 | 236 |
Mike Price[5] | 24 | 71 | 62 | 123 | 204 |
Denny Pace[6] | 19 | 53 | 22 | 56 | 128 |
Benny Louis[7] | 24 | 37 | 19 | 50 | 93 |
Les Busboom[8] | 24 | 33 | 20 | 92 | 86 |
Paul Nitz | 9 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 20 |
Ron Armbrust | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
Dan Kuemmerle | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
Jim Skarda | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Rich Crusius | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Bill Jones | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Steven Kohn | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Awards and honors
- Dave Scholz
- Team Most Valuable Player [9]
- 1st team All-American (Helms)
- Honorable Mention All-American (Converse)
Team players drafted into the NBA
Player | NBA Club | Round | Pick |
---|---|---|---|
Ron Dunlap* | Chicago Bulls | 2 | 5 |
[10]
*Dunlap was forced to skip his last two years of basketball due to the "Slush-Fund" scandal in 1966.
Rankings
References
- ^ University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1967-68 Archived 2014-01-10 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com
- ^ "Season Stats". Archived from the original on January 10, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
- ^ "Season Stats". Archived from the original on January 10, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
- ^ "Season Stats". Archived from the original on January 10, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
- ^ "Season Stats". Archived from the original on January 10, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
- ^ "Season Stats". Archived from the original on January 10, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
- ^ "Season Stats". Archived from the original on January 10, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
- ^ "Season Stats". Archived from the original on January 10, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
- ^ "List of MVPs" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2014. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
- ^ 1968 NBA Draft Archived 2013-12-31 at the Wayback Machine