Billy Keller

Billy Keller
Retired
Guard
Personal information
Date of birth	August 30, 1947 (1947-08-30) (age 64)
Place of birth	Indianapolis, Indiana
Nationality	American
Listed height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Listed weight	180 lb (82 kg)
Career information
College	Purdue University
NBA Draft	1969 / ABA 1st Round, 8th overall, Indiana Pacers
Pro career	1969–1976
League	ABA

William Curry "Billy" Keller (born August 30, 1947 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American former professional basketball player.

1 High school career
- 1.1 George Washington (IN)
  - 1.1.1 1961-1965
2 College career
- 2.1 Purdue
  - 2.1.1 1965-1969
3 Professional career
- 3.1 Indiana Pacers
  - 3.1.1 1969-1976
4 Coaching career
- 4.1 Purdue (assistant)
5 External links

High school career

George Washington (IN)

1961-1965

Billy Keller, the 5'10" guard, spent his entire basketball career in the state of Indiana. He attended George Washington Community High School, located in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was named Indiana's Mr. Basketball his Senior year.

College career

Purdue

1965-1969

Keller attended Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he played under head coach George King. Along-side three-time All-American Rick Mount and fellow Senior and co-captain Herm Gilliam, he led the Boilermakers to a Big Ten Conference Title and to the school's first NCAA Tournament appearance, making it to the NCAA Finals game in 1969. In 75 games, "Mr. Hustle" averaged 14.1 points game throughout his career and tallied a total of 1,056 points. He received the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award his Senior year, which is given to the nation's best player under 6 feet (1.8 m). After his Senior season at Purdue, he participated in the Kentucky-Indiana All-Star Game, where he first played with a three point line. Billy went 6 for 7 beyond the arc and discovered his specialty as a three-point shooter in the next level (The NCAA didn't have a three point line until the mid 80's as the ABA did in 1969).

Professional career

Indiana Pacers

1969-1976

Billy was the 2nd pick in the 7th round in the 1969 NBA Draft to the Milwaukee Bucks, but only played for the ABA's Indiana Pacers. Along with the likes of George McGinnis and college teammate Rick Mount, he helped lead the Pacers to three ABA Championships in '70, '72 and '73. Keller would become one of the most successful shooters in ABA history, making 506 three-point field goals during his seven-year career (second in league history behind only Louie Dampier's 794) while leading the league in free throw percentage two times in 1973 and 1976. He set an ABA Playoffs record going 30-30 from the free throw line in the 1974-1975 season. He finished his 7 year ABA career averaging 11.8 points a game, with a .456 field goal percentage and scoring a total of 6,588 points.

Coaching career

Purdue (assistant)

Four years after his career in the ABA, Bill served as an assistant coach at his alma mater in 1980 under second year head coach, Lee Rose. He helped lead Purdue to an overall record of 23-10, including an NCAA Final Four appearance.

In 1992, Keller was elected to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. He currently runs a series of basketball camps in his home state.

External links

Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award winners

Male winners	1969: Keller 1970: Rinka 1971: C. Johnson 1972: Martin 1973: Sherwin 1974: M. Robinson 1975: Towe 1976: Alagia 1977: Jonas 1978: Schieb 1979: Byrd 1980: Sweeney 1981: Adolph 1982: Moore 1983: McCallum 1984: Stokes 1985: B. Jennings 1986: Les 1987: Bogues 1988: J. Johnson 1989: Hardaway 1990: Harvey 1991: K. Jennings 1992: Bennett 1993: Crawford 1994: G. Brown 1995: Edney 1996: Benton 1997: Knight 1998: Boykins 1999: Rogers 2000: Penn 2001: Phillips 2002: Logan 2003: Gardner 2004: Nelson 2005: N. Robinson 2006: D. Brown 2007: Kelley 2008: Green 2009: Collison 2010: Collins 2011: Pullen

Female winners	1984: Mulkey 1985: Stack 1986: Ethridge 1987: Windham 1988: McConnell 1989: Backstrom 1990: Dabrowski 1991: S. Evans 1992: Kosiorek 1993: D. Evans 1994: Levesque 1995: Dodrill 1996: Rizzotti 1997: Howard 1998: Arnold 1999: Hammon 2000: Darling 2001: Ivey 2002: Lambert 2003: Lawson 2004: Valek 2005: White 2006: Duffy 2007: Harding 2008: Anderson 2009: Montgomery 2010: Gray-Lawson 2011: Vandersloot

Associated Press Indiana All-Century high school basketball team

Steve Alford Damon Bailey Kent Benson Larry Bird Hallie Bryant Mike Conley Bill Garrett Terry Dischinger Eric Gordon Billy Keller Clyde Lovellette George McGinnis Rick Mount Greg Oden Bobby Plump Zach Randolph Jimmy Rayl Oscar Robertson Glenn Robinson Scott Skiles Homer Stonebraker Deshaun Thomas Clay Trainum Dick Van Arsdale Tom Van Arsdale John Wooden Fuzzy Vandivier

source: [1]

Indiana Pacers 1969–70 ABA Champions

11 Bill Keller 12 John Barnhill 14 Freddie Lewis 15 Dick Grubar 15 Arvesta Kelly 23 Jerry McKee 24 Bob Netolicky 32 Jay Miller 33 Ollie Darden 34 Mel Daniels 35 Roger Brown (Playoffs MVP) 42 Bobby Joe Edmonds 43 Art Becker 44 Tom Thacker Head Coach Bobby Leonard

Indiana Pacers 1971–72 ABA Champions

10 Rick Mount 11 Bill Keller 14 Freddie Lewis (Playoffs MVP) 15 John Barnhill 15 Arvesta Kelly 15 Mike Price 20 Darnell Hillman 23 Gus Johnson 24 Bob Netolicky 30 George McGinnis 33 Larry Cannon 34 Mel Daniels 35 Roger Brown Head Coach Bobby Leonard

Indiana Pacers 1972–73 ABA Champions

10 Don Buse 11 Bill Keller 13 Donnie Freeman 14 Freddie Lewis 20 Darnell Hillman 22 Bob Arnzen 23 Gus Johnson 24 Bill Newton 30 George McGinnis (Playoffs MVP) 34 Mel Daniels 35 Roger Brown Head Coach Bobby Leonard

Persondata
Name	Keller, Billy
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 30, 1947
Place of birth	Indianapolis, Indiana
Date of death
Place of death