1975–76 Western Michigan Broncos men's basketball team

1975–76 Western Michigan Broncos men's basketball
Mid-American Conference Champions
NCAA Tournament, Sweet Sixteen
Conference	Mid-American Conference
Ranking
Coaches	#19
AP	#10
1975–76 record	25–3 (15–1 MAC)
Head coach	Eldon Miller
Assistant coach	Dick Shilts
Assistant coach	Rich Walker
Home arena	University Arena

	Conf				Overall
1975–76 Mid-American Conference men's basketball standings
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
#10 Western Michigan	15	–	1	.938	25	–	3	.893
Miami	14	–	2	.875	18	–	8	.692
Toledo	13	–	3	.813	18	–	7	.720
Central Michigan	8	–	8	.500	12	–	14	.462
Bowling Green	8	–	8	.500	12	–	15	.444
Kent State	7	–	9	.438	12	–	14	.462
Ohio	7	–	9	.438	11	–	15	.423
Ball State	5	–	11	.313	11	–	14	.440
Northern Illinois	2	–	14	.125	5	–	21	.192
Eastern Michigan	1	–	15	.063	7	–	20	.259

Rankings from AP Poll

The 1975–76 Western Michigan Broncos men's basketball team was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball team that played in the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The Broncos, 25–3 overall and 15–1 in the conference, won the MAC championship and reached the Sweet Sixteen of the 1976 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. They finished the season ranked No. 10 in the AP Poll and No. 19 in the UPI Poll.^[1]

Season

The Broncos were featured in a Sports Illustrated article in the February 9, 1976 issue.^[2] After starting the season 16–0, the Broncos entered the AP Poll as the No. 17-ranked team.^[3] In the MAC showdown against Miami in Kalamazoo, a WMU record 10,519 fans attended the game.^[2]

NCAA Tournament

In the NCAA Tournament, Western Michigan defeated Virginia Tech 77–67 in overtime. They lost to No. 2-ranked Marquette in the Sweet Sixteen by 5 points, 62–57.^[4]

Roster

The following players were on the 1975–76 team:^[5]

Dave Carnegie
Rod Curry
Tom Cutter
Dale DeBruin
Paul Griffin
Jimmie Harvey
Jim Kurzen
Marty Murray
Bob Pyykkonen
Herman Randle
Mark Rayner
Mike Reardon
Dave Roland
S. L. Sales
Marc Throop
Jeff Tyson

The team was coached by Eldon Miller, along with assistant coaches Dick Shilts and Rich Walker.^[6]

Schedule

The Broncos finished the season 25–3 and first place in the MAC with a 15–1 record.^[7]

Date	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (Attendance)
December 1, 1975*		Grand Valley State	W 107–73	1–0	Read Fieldhouse
December 3, 1975*		Wisconsin–Parkside	W 77–74	2–0	Read Fieldhouse
December 6, 1975*		at Green Bay	W 51–50	3–0	Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena
December 10, 1975*		at Northern Iowa	W 91–61	4–0
December 13, 1975*		Michigan State	W 78–68	5–0	Read Fieldhouse
December 15, 1975*		Detroit	W 81–71	6–0	Read Fieldhouse
December 20, 1975*		Wisconsin–Oshkosh	W 115–83	7–0	Read Fieldhouse
January 3, 1976		at Bowling Green	W 67–57	8–0 (1–0)	Anderson Arena
January 7, 1976		at Eastern Michigan	W 78–58	9–0 (2–0)	Bowen Field House
January 10, 1976		Toledo	W 78–73	10–0 (3–0)	Read Fieldhouse
January 14, 1976*		Loyola (IL)	W 79–77	11–0	Read Fieldhouse
January 17, 1976		at Northern Illinois	W 78–65	12–0 (4–0)	Chick Evans Field House
January 21, 1976		Kent State	W 75–53	13–0 (5–0)	Read Fieldhouse
January 24, 1976		at Ball State	W 62–57	14–0 (6–0)	Irving Gymnasium
January 28, 1976		Miami	W 82–68	15–0 (7–0)	Read Fieldhouse (10,519^[1])
January 31, 1976		Ohio	W 75–59	16–0 (8–0)	Read Fieldhouse
February 4, 1976*	#17	at Loyola (IL)	W 80–73	17–0	Alumni Gym
February 7, 1976	#17	at Central Michigan	W 76–73	18–0 (9–0)	Daniel P. Rose Center
February 11, 1976	#15	Eastern Michigan	W 85–73	19–0 (10–0)	Read Fieldhouse
February 14, 1976	#15	at Toledo	L 88–80	19–1 (10–1)	Field House
February 21, 1976	#17	Northern Illinois	W 91–74	20–1 (11–1)	Read Fieldhouse
February 25, 1976	#16	at Kent State	W 73–63	21–1 (12–1)	Memorial Gym
February 28, 1976	#16	Ball State	W 93–67	22–1 (13–1)	Read Fieldhouse
March 1, 1976*	#16	at #8 Notre Dame	L 95–86 ^OT	22–2	Athletic and Convocation Center
March 3, 1976	#14	at Miami	W 73–58	23–2 (14–1)	Millett Hall
March 6, 1976	#14	Bowling Green	W 71–58	24–2 (15–1)	Read Fieldhouse
March 13, 1976*	#16	vs. Virginia Tech (NCAA Tournament Round of 32)	W 77–67 ^OT	25–2	Athletic and Convocation Center
March 18, 1976*	#10	vs. #2 Marquette (NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen)	L 62–57	25–3	LSU Assembly Center (14,150^[4])
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. ( ) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

Statistics

The following table lists the individual player statistics for the season.^[8]

Player	GP	GS	Pts	Avg	FG	FGA	Pct	FT	FTA	Pct	Reb	Avg	PF	FO	A
Jeff Tyson	28	28	501	17.9	212	425	.499	77	109	.706	132	4.7	83	3	63
Tom Cutter	28	28	362	12.9	140	217	.645	82	108	.759	298	10.6	84	2	57
Jimmie Harvey	28	28	356	12.7	163	323	.505	30	44	.682	100	3.6	73	1	42
Paul Griffin	28	28	303	10.8	115	192	.599	73	100	.730	277	9.9	82	5	84
Marty Murray	28	0	248	8.9	85	218	.390	78	108	.722	41	1.5	64	2	50
Jim Kurzen	28	28	198	7.1	79	170	.465	40	51	.784	44	1.6	53	0	72
Dave Carnegie	24	0	63	2.6	27	50	.540	9	17	.529	61	2.5	29	0	2
Dale DeBruin	19	0	48	2.5	17	33	.515	14	27	.519	40	2.1	25	0	7
S. L. Sales	18	0	42	2.3	18	40	.450	6	15	.400	19	1.1	15	0	0
Mike Reardon	21	0	40	1.9	17	36	.472	6	11	.545	9	0.4	8	0	0
Herman Randle	21	0	38	1.8	15	50	.300	8	14	.571	9	0.4	7	0	0
Marc Throop	12	0	10	0.8	2	8	.250	6	13	.462	15	1.3	9	0	0
Bob Pyykkonen	5	0	4	0.8	2	6	.333	0	1	.000	3	0.6	1	0	0
Dave Roland	6	0	3	0.5	0	5	.000	3	7	.429	1	0.2	1	0	1
Rod Curry	5	0	2	0.4	1	6	.167	0	0	–	5	1.0	1	0	0
Mark Rayner	1	0	0	0.0	0	0	–	0	0	–	2	2.0	1	0	0
WMU totals	28		2218	79.2	893	1779	.502	432	625	.691	1176	42.0	536	14	392
Opp. totals	28		1898	67.8	776	1817	.427	346	484	.715	–	–	581	–	330

References

↑ 1.0 1.1 "2013–14 WMU Men's Basketball Record Book" (PDF). Western Michigan University. p. 54. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
↑ 2.0 2.1 Hannon, Kent (February 9, 1976). "Who's Who In Kalamazoo. Western Michigan (16–0) is a new big shot, but just in its hometown". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
↑ "Western Michigan 1976 AP Men's Basketball Rankings". College Poll Archive. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
↑ 4.0 4.1 "Official Basketball Box Score – Marquette vs Western Michigan – 3/18/76" (PDF). Western Michigan University. March 18, 1976. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
↑ "Statistics Summary for 1975–76". Western Michigan University. July 2, 2009. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
↑ "NCAA Tournament Team". Western Michigan University. October 23, 2010. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
↑ "2013–14 WMU Men's Basketball Record Book" (PDF). Western Michigan University. pp. 85–86. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
↑ "1975–76 Men's Basketball Stats". Western Michigan University. July 2, 2009. Retrieved January 24, 2014.

External links

Western Michigan University men's basketball media guide

Western Michigan Broncos men's basketball

Venues	East Hall gymnasium (1913–1938) Oakland Gymnasium (1938–1957) Read Fieldhouse (1957–1992) Lawson Arena (1992–1994) University Arena (1994–present)

Rivalries	In-state MAC schools

Culture and lore	Buster Bronco The Zoo

People	Head coaches NBA players

Seasons	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