1974–75 Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team

1974–75 Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball
Big Ten Regular Season Champions
NCAA Men's Division I Tournament, Lost Mideast Final
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	#1
AP	#3
1974–75 record	31–1 (18–0 Big Ten)
Head coach	Bob Knight
Assistant coach	Dave Bliss
Assistant coach	Bob Donewald
Assistant coach	Bob Weltlich
Assistant coach	Mike Krzyzewski
Home arena	Assembly Hall

The 1974–75 Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team represented Indiana University. The Head Coach was Bob Knight. The team played its home games in the Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana, and was a member of the Big Ten Conference. The Hoosiers went the entire regular season undefeated and when combined with the following year (1975-76) won 37-consecutive Big Ten games. The 1974–75 Hoosiers swept the entire Big Ten by an average of 22.8 points per game. However, in an 83-82 win against Purdue they lost consensus All-American forward Scott May to a broken left arm. With May's injury keeping him to 7 minutes of play, the No. 1 Hoosiers lost to Kentucky 92-90 in the Mideast Regional. The Hoosiers were so dominant that four starters - Scott May, Steve Green, Kent Benson and Quinn Buckner - would make the five-man All-Big Ten team.

Regular season

On December 7, 1974, Indiana and Kentucky met in the regular season in Bloomington with a 98-74 Indiana win. Near the end of the game, Indiana coach Bob 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.^[1] 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."^[2]

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."^[3] 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."^[4] Indiana finished the regular season unbeaten (31-0).

NCAA Tournament

Following the contentious regular season game, Indiana and Kentucky met in the 1975 NCAA Mideast Regional Final in Dayton, Ohio. Coming into that game, the Hoosiers were on a 34-game winning streak, and the number one ranked team in America. Kentucky was ranked number five. 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 2 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 (on 13-of-18 shooting) and grabbing 23 rebounds, Kentucky would win by just two points, 92-90. The game made USA Today's list of the greatest NCAA tournament games of all time.^[5]

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 1974-1975 team was the best he ever coached, even better than the undefeated national champions of 1976. The win put UK in the Final Four in San Diego, where they dropped the NCAA title game in what would be John Wooden's last game.

Mideast
- Indiana 78, Texas El-Paso 53
- Indiana 81, Oregon State 71
- Kentucky 92, Indiana 90

^[6]

Roster

Name^[7]	#	Position	Height	Year	Home Town
Tom Abernathy	33	Forward	6–7	Junior	South Bend, IN
Steve Ahlfeld	24	Guard	6–0	Senior	Wabash, IN
Doug Allen	25	Forward	6–6	Senior	Champaign, IL
Kent Benson	54	Center	6–11	Sophomore	New Castle, IN
Quinn Buckner	21	Guard	6–3	Junior	Phoenix, IL
Jim Crews	45	Guard	6–5	Junior	Normal, IL
Steve Green	34	Forward	6–7	Senior	Sellersburg, IN
Mark Haymore	32	Forward/Center	6–8	Freshman	Shaker, OH
John Kamstra	30	Guard	6–1	Senior	Frankfort, IN
John Laskowski	31	Guard/Forward	6–5	Senior	South Bend, IN
Scott May	42	Forward	6–7	Junior	Sandusky, OH
Don Noort	43	Forward	6–7	Junior	Worth, IL
Wayne Radford	22	Guard/Forward	6–3	Freshman	Indianapolis, IN
Bob Wilkerson	20	Guard/Forward	6–7	Junior	Anderson, IN
Jim Wisman	23	Guard	6–2	Freshman	Quincy, IL

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

^[8]

References

↑ "Recapping the rivalry". Retrieved 22 March 2012.
↑ Atlanta Constitution Journal. 28 February 1982. CS1 maint: Untitled periodical (link)
↑ Laudeman, Tev (8 December 1974). Louisville Courier Journal. CS1 maint: Untitled periodical (link)
↑ Delsohn, Steve (2006). Bob Knight: The Unauthorized Biography. Simon & Schuster. p. 96.
↑ Mike Douchant - Greatest 63 games in NCAA Tournament history. The Sports Xchange, published in USA Today, March 25, 2002
↑ http://www.databasesports.com/ncaab/tourney.htm?yr=1975
↑ Hiner, Jason (2004). Indiana University Basketball Encyclopedia. Sports Publishing LLC. ISBN 1-58261-655-8.
↑ http://www.databasebasketball.com/draft/draftyear.htm?yr=1975&lg=N

Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball

Venues	Old Assembly Hall (1900–1917) Men's Gymnasium (1917–1928) The Fieldhouse (1928–1960) New Fieldhouse (1960–1971) Assembly Hall (1971–present)

Rivalries	Kentucky Purdue

Culture & lore	History Traditions A Season on the Brink (film) "Indiana, Our Indiana" 2011 Kentucky upset

People	Head coaches

Seasons	1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 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

NCAA national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics