1971–72 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1971–72 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
Gator Bowl Tournament, Champions
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	#Not ranked
AP	#Not ranked
1971–72 record	14–10 (5–9 Big Ten)
Head coach	Harv Schmidt
Assistant coach	Dick Campbell
Assistant coach	Jim Wright
MVP	Nick Weatherspoon
Captain	Jim Krelle
Home arena	Assembly Hall

1971–72 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
#11 Minnesota	11	–	3		.786			17	–	6		.739
#19 Ohio State	10	–	4		.714			18	–	6		.750
#17 Indiana	9	–	5		.643			17	–	8		.680
Michigan	9	–	5		.643			14	–	10		.583
Michigan State	6	–	8		.429			13	–	11		.542
Wisconsin	6	–	8		.429			13	–	11		.542
Purdue	6	–	8		.429			12	–	12		.500
Illinois	5	–	9		.357			14	–	10		.583
Iowa	5	–	9		.357			11	–	13		.458
Northwestern	3	–	11		.214			5	–	18		.217
Rankings from AP Poll

The 1971–72 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season

The 1971-72 Fighting Illini men's basketball season, lead by head coach Harv Schmidt, experienced the a tale of two years, 1971 and 1972. The Fighting Illini opened the season December 1, 1971 with a win over Butler and proceeded to win 7 of their next 8 games, finishing 1971 with an 8-1 record. That streak would continue into January 1972 for one more game, the opening game of the Big Ten season. After beating Northwestern the Fighting Illini would go on to drop 9 of their next 14 games, finishing the season with a 14-10 record, tied for 8th place in the conference.

The brightest spot of the season would shine upon junior forward Nick Weatherspoon. Weatherspoon would return from a terrific sophomore campaign where he scored 381 points, averaging 16.5 points per game and collected 246 rebounds. During this season, 1971–72, he would score 500 total points, averaging 20.8 points and pull down 262 rebounds.

The 1971-72 team's starting lineup included Weatherspoon and Nick Conner at the forward spots, Jim Krelle and Garvin Roberson as guards and Bill Morris at center.

Team

No.	Player	Hometown	High School	Class	Position
10	Garvin Roberson	Elkhart, Indiana	Elkhart Central High School	So.	Guard
12	Nick Weatherspoon	Canton, Ohio	McKinley High School	Jr.	Forward
14	C.J. Schroeder	Davenport, Iowa	Davenport West High School	So.	Guard
21	Larry Cohen	Wilmette, Illinois	New Trier East High School	Jr.	Guard
25	Jim Krelle	Aurora, Illinois	Aurora West High School	Sr.	Guard
30	Mike Wente	Effingham, Illinois	St. Anthony High School	So.	Forward
34	Greg Wilson	Sebring, Ohio	McKinley High School	So.	Guard
35	Bill Morris	St. Louis, Missouri	Beaumont High School	So.	Center
40	John McBride	Orland Park, Illinois	Carl Sandburg High School	Jr.	Guard/Forward
42	Jim Rucks	Waukegan, Illinois	Waukegan High School	Jr.	Forward
43	Kim Jolley	Indianola, Illinois	Jamaica High School	So.	Forward
44	Jed Foster	Fairfield, Illinois	Fairfield High School	Jr.	Forward
45	Nick Conner	Columbus, Ohio	East High School	Jr.	Forward/Center
54	Jim DeDecker	Moline, Illinois	Alleman High School	Jr.	Center

• Head Coach Harv Schmidt (5th year at Illinois) ^[1]

Schedule

Source^[2]

Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Site (Attendance)
12/1/1971*	vs.Butler	W 73-71	1 - 0	Assembly Hall (12,959)
12/4/1971*	@ #20 Oklahoma	W 70-65	2 - 0	McCasland Field House (8,326)
12/7/1971*	vs. South Dakota	W 96-56	3 - 0	Assembly Hall (12,206)
12/10/1971*	@ Tulane	W 79-68	4 - 0	Devlin Fieldhouse (3,250)
12/11/1971*	@ Loyola (New Orleans)	W 94-74	5 - 0	Devlin Fieldhouse (1,345)
12/16/1971*	vs. Georgia	W 84-78	6 - 0	Assembly Hall (12,447)
12/23/1971*	@ Vanderbilt	L 92-95	6 - 1	Memorial Gymnasium (14,000)
12/28/1971*	vs. North Carolina State (Gator Bowl Tournament)	W 74-72	7 - 1	Jacksonville Coliseum (6,506)
12/29/1971*	vs. Florida (Gator Bowl Tournament)	W 76-75	8 - 1	Jacksonville Coliseum (8,248)
1/8/1972	@ Northwestern	W 67-63	9 - 1 ( 1 - 0 )	Welsh-Ryan Arena (5,885)
1/11/1972	vs. Michigan	L 76-75	9 - 2 ( 1 - 1 )	Assembly Hall (14,836)
1/15/1972	vs. Purdue	L 74-85	9 - 3 ( 1 - 2 )	Assembly Hall (16,017)
1/28/1972*	vs. Notre Dame	W 81-59	10 - 3	Chicago Stadium (11,255)
2/5/1972	vs. Northwestern	W 68-59	11 - 3 ( 2 - 2 )	Assembly Hall (13,628)
2/8/1972	@ Michigan State	L 79-89	11 - 4 ( 2 - 3 )	Jenison Fieldhouse (6,132)
2/12/1972	@ Michigan	L 83-105	11 - 5 ( 2 - 4 )	Crisler Center (12,562)
2/15/1972	@ Iowa	L 84-87	11 - 6 ( 2 - 5 )	Iowa Field House (12,559)
2/17/1973	vs. #8 Ohio State	W 64-62	12 - 6 ( 3 - 5 )	Assembly Hall (15,236)
2/22/1972	vs. Indiana	L 71-90	12 - 7 ( 3 - 6 )	Assembly Hall (14,083)
2/26/1972	vs. Wisconsin	W 91-86	13 - 7 ( 4 - 6 )	Assembly Hall (14,006)
2/29/1972	@ #14 Ohio State	L 70-103	13 - 8 ( 4 - 7 )	St. John Arena (13,489)
3/4/1972	@ Minnesota	L 62-91	13 - 9 ( 4 - 8 )	Williams Arena (14,666)
3/7/1972	vs. Iowa	W 91-84	14 - 9 ( 5 - 8 )	Assembly Hall (11,554)
3/11/1972	@ Wisconsin	L 84-97	14 - 10 ( 5 - 9 )	Wisconsin Field House (7,242)
*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
Nick Weatherspoon[3]	24	200	100	262	500
Bill Morris[3]	21	113	93	197	319
Jim Krelle[3]	23	104	70	78	278
Nick Conner[3]	24	101	51	204	253
Larry Cohen[3]	21	42	39	28	123
Garvin Roberson[3]	24	39	42	51	120
Jed Foster[3]	19	38	42	67	118
C.J. Schroeder[3]	21	23	30	33	76

Awards and honors

• Nick Weatherspoon
  • Team Most Valuable Player ^[4]

Team players drafted into the NBA

• No Players Drafted^[5]

References

Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball Venues Kenney Gym (1906–1925) Huff Hall (1926–1963) State Farm Center (1963–present) Rivalries 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 Helms and NCAA national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics