1975–76 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1975–76 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
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 coaches	Tony Yates; ; ;
MVP	Nate Williams
Captain	Appointed Each Game
Home arena	Assembly Hall
	Seasons ← 1974–75 1976–77 →

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.

Roster[]

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

Lou Henson (New Mexico State University) (1st year)

Assistant coach(es)

Tony Yates (University of Cincinnati) (2nd year)
(Greenville University) (1st year)

Legend

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

Injured
Current redshirt

All-Time Illini Roster

Source^[1] ^[2]

Schedule[]

Source^[3]

Date time, TV	Opponent	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Non-Conference regular season
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 Rivalry	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 Rivalry	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 )	McGaw Memorial Hall (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 Rivalry	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 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[]

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

Nate Williams
- Team Most Valuable Player ^[11]

Team players drafted into the NBA[]

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

^[12]

Rankings[]

References[]

^ Men's Basketball Roster
^ All-Time Illini Rosters Archived 2010-04-22 at the Wayback Machine
^ University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1975-76 Archived 2013-12-16 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com
^ Season Stats pg. 118
^ Season Stats pg. 118
^ Season Stats pg. 118
^ Season Stats pg. 118
^ Season Stats pg. 118
^ Season Stats pg. 118
^ Season Stats pg. 118
^ List of MVPs
^ 1976 NBA Draft Archived 2012-02-09 at the Wayback Machine

[1] Men's Basketball Roster

[2] All-Time Illini Rosters Archived 2010-04-22 at the Wayback Machine

[3] University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1975-76 Archived 2013-12-16 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com

[4] Season Stats pg. 118

[5] Season Stats pg. 118

[6] Season Stats pg. 118

[7] Season Stats pg. 118

[8] Season Stats pg. 118

[9] Season Stats pg. 118

[10] Season Stats pg. 118

[11] List of MVPs

[12] 1976 NBA Draft Archived 2012-02-09 at the Wayback Machine

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

hide v t 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 Iowa Missouri Northwestern
Culture & lore	Whiz Kids Flyin' Illini Orange Krush Fighting Illini Sports Network Oskee Wow-Wow Illinois Loyalty Chief Illiniwek 1960s slush fund scandal
People	Head coaches NBA draftees Statistical leaders
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 1999–2000 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 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22
Helms and Premo-Porretta national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics


v t	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