1976–77 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1976–77 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball

Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	#Not ranked
AP	#Not ranked
1976–77 record	16–14 (8–10 Big Ten)
Head coach	Lou Henson
Assistant coach	Tony Yates
Assistant coach	Bill Molinari
Assistant coach	Les Wothke
MVP	Audie Matthews
Captain	Audie Matthews
Home arena	Assembly Hall

	Conf				Overall
1976–77 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
#1 Michigan	16	–	2	.889	26	–	4	.867
Purdue	14	–	4	.778	20	–	8	.714
Iowa	12	–	6	.667	20	–	7	.741
Indiana	11	–	7	.611	16	–	11	.593
Michigan State	9	–	9	.500	12	–	15	.444
Illinois	8	–	10	.444	16	–	14	.533
Wisconsin	7	–	11	.389	11	–	16	.407
Northwestern	7	–	11	.389	9	–	18	.333
Ohio State	6	–	12	.333	11	–	16	.407
#13 Minnesota*	0	–	18	.000	0	–	27	.000

Rankings from AP Poll *Minnesota forfeited all games due to NCAA sanctions. Disputed record (15-3, 24-3)

The 1976–77 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season

The 1976-77 team would include Lou Henson's first group of recruited athletes. Levi Cobb, Neil Bresnahan, and Steve Lanter contributed to a quick start on the season and a 7-1 record. The team's only loss was by 1 point at the hands of Missouri in the Show Me Classic played in Columbia, MO. Before the Big Ten season commenced the Illini had staked themselves to an 8-4 record, yet the fans support still did not yet believe in Henson's squad.

A mere 6,938 fans attended a mid-December Saturday afternoon game versus Arizona State. Even with fewer fans coming out, the team set a series of offensive records in the Big Ten opener against Ohio State. The records included converting on 19 of their first 21 shots and shooting 69.4 percent for the game.

During the course of the season the Illini would lose twice to the Golden Gophers, however, before the NCAA Tournament it was determined that Minnesota had committed violations that resulted in sanctions against them, including the forfeiture of all of their games. This gave the Illini two additional wins and a final record of 16-14, with an 8-10 conference mark.

The team's starting lineup included Rick Leighty, Ken Ferdinand and Levi Cobb as forwards, Audie Matthews and Steve Lanter at the guard positions, and Rich Adams playing center.

Team

No.	Player	Hometown	High School	Class	Position
10	Rick Kirby	Urbana, Illinois	Urbana High School	Fr.	Guard
12	Ken Ferdinand	Urbana, Illinois	Urbana High School	So.	Forward
20	Jeff Berry	Chicago, Illinois	Morgan Park High School	Fr.	Guard
21	Steve Lanter	Belleville, Illinois	Mascoutah Community High School	Fr.	Guard
23	Larry Lubin	Glencoe, Illinois	New Trier High School	So.	Guard
24	Tom Gerhardt	Chicago, Illinois	De La Salle High School	Jr.	Forward
30	Rob Judson	Zion, Illinois	Zion-Benton High School	Fr.	Guard
31	Neil Bresnahan	Oak Park, Illinois	Fenwick High School	Fr.	Forward
32	Levi Cobb	Chicago, Illinois	Morgan Park High School	Fr.	Forward
34	Rick Leighty	Lawrenceville, Illinois	Lawrenceville High School	Fr.	Forward
40	Rich Adams	Cincinnati, Ohio	Colerain High School	Jr.	Forward
42	Tim Bushell	Lincoln, Illinois	Lincoln Community High School	Fr.	Forward
43	Audie Matthews (capt.)	Chicago Heights, Illinois	Bloom High School	Jr.	Forward

Head Coach Lou Henson (2nd year at Illinois) ^[1]

Schedule

Source^[2]

Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Site (Attendance)
11/26/1976*	@ St. Louis	W 68-65	1 - 0	Kiel Auditorium (9,148)
12/3/1976*	@ Missouri (Show Me Classic)	L 75-76	1 - 1	Hearnes Center (5,227)
12/4/1976*	vs St. Louis (Show-Me Classic)	W 54-46	2 - 1	{{{site_stadium}}} (5,227)
12/8/1976*	vs. San Jose State	W 84-70	3 - 1	Assembly Hall (6,113)
12/11/1976*	vs. Nebraska	W 67-63	4 - 1	Assembly Hall (7,055)
12/13/1976*	vs. Cleveland State (Illini Classic)	W 72-70	5 - 1	Assembly Hall (5,389)
12/17/1976*	vs. Cal Poly (Illini Classic)	W 67-65	6 - 1	Assembly Hall (5,489)
12/18/1976*	vs. Arizona State	W 80-74	7 - 1	Assembly Hall (6,938)
12/27/1976*	vs. Houston (Rainbow Classic)	L 66-69	7 - 2	Neal S. Blaisdell Center (-)
12/29/1976*	vs. William & Mary (Rainbow Classic)	W 73-64	8 - 2	Neal S. Blaisdell Center (-)
12/30/1976*	vs. St. John's (Rainbow Classic)	L 52-56	8 - 3	Neal S. Blaisdell Center (1,849)
1/1/1977*	@ Long Beach State	L 81-71	8 - 4	Gold Mine (4,030)
1/6/1977	@ Ohio State	W 89-72	9 - 4 ( 1 - 0 )	St. John's Arena (6,907)
1/8/1977	@ Indiana	L 60-80	9 - 5 ( 1 - 1 )	Assembly Hall (16,497)
1/13/1977	vs. #9 Minnesota	W 69-83	10 - 5 ( 2 - 1 )	Assembly Hall (7,689)
1/15/1977	vs. Iowa	L 81-84 ^ot	10 - 6 ( 2 - 2 )	Assembly Hall (7,246)
1/20/1977	@ Michigan State	L 58-67	10 - 7 ( 2 - 3 )	Jenison Fieldhouse (3,417)
1/22/1977	@ #5 Michigan	L 61-66	10 - 8 ( 2 - 4 )	Crisler Arena (13,609)
1/24/1977	vs. Northwestern	W 71-68	11 - 8 ( 3 - 4 )	Assembly Hall (5,810)
1/29/1977	@ #18 Purdue	L 63-66	11 - 9 ( 3 - 5 )	Mackey Arena (12,800)
2/3/1977	vs. Wisconsin	W 82-72	12 - 9 ( 4 - 5 )	Assembly Hall (6,144)
2/5/1977	vs. #18 Purdue	W 71-70	13 - 9 ( 5 - 5 )	Assembly Hall (9,700)
2/10/1977	@ Northwestern	W 65-63	14 - 9 ( 6 - 5 )	Welsh-Ryan Arena (3,966)
2/12/1977	@ Wisconsin	L 50-62	13 - 8 ( 6 - 6 )	Wisconsin Field House (7,589)
2/17/1977	vs. Indiana	W 73-69	14 - 8 ( 7 - 6 )	Assembly Hall (11,172)
2/19/1977	vs. Ohio State	L 60-64	14 - 9 ( 7 - 7 )	Assembly Hall (8,849)
2/24/1977	@ Iowa	L 64-76	14 - 10 ( 7 - 8 )	Iowa Field House (9,875)
2/26/1977	@ #13 Minnesota	W 70-72	15 - 10 ( 8 - 8 )	Williams Arena (15,163)
3/3/1977	vs. #3 Michigan	L 72-87	15 - 11 ( 8 - 9 )	Assembly Hall (10,524)
3/5/1977	vs. Michigan State	L 61-62	15 - 12 ( 8 - 10 )	Assembly Hall (8,021)
*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
Audie Matthews^[3]	30	202	75	151	75	479
Rich Adams^[4]	30	171	45	171	62	387
Larry Miller^[5]	30	126	58	192	57	326
Ken Ferdinand^[6]	29	109	43	108	27	261
Neil Bresnahan^[7]	28	80	46	138	31	206
Steve Lanter^[8]	30	76	39	49	103	191
Rick Leighty^[9]	26	45	11	72	37	101

Awards and honors

Audie Matthews
- Team Most Valuable Player ^[10]

Team players drafted into the NBA

Round	Pick	Player	NBA Club

^[11]

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