1959-60 Ohio State Buckeyes Men's Basketball Team

1959–60 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball
National Champions Big Ten Champions
National Championship, W 75–55 v. California
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	#1
1959–60 record	25–3 (13–1 Big Ten)
Head coach	Fred Taylor
Assistant coach	Jack Graf
Assistant coach	Frank Truitt
Home arena	St. John Arena

1959–60 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
#3 Ohio State	13	–	1	.929	25	–	3	.893
#7 Indiana	11	–	3	.786	20	–	4	.833
Illinois	8	–	6	.571	16	–	7	.696
Minnesota	8	–	6	.571	12	–	12	.500
Northwestern	8	–	6	.571	11	–	12	.478
Iowa	6	–	8	.429	14	–	10	.583
Purdue	6	–	8	.429	11	–	12	.478
Michigan State	5	–	9	.357	10	–	11	.476
Wisconsin	4	–	10	.286	8	–	16	.333
Michigan	1	–	13	.071	4	–	20	.167

Rankings from http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/conferences/big-ten/1960.html

The 1959–60 Ohio State men's basketball team is the only basketball team to win a national title in Ohio State history. They were coached by Hall of Fame coach Fred Taylor and had three future Hall of Famers on their roster—center Jerry Lucas, forward John Havlicek, and reserve forward Bob Knight, who entered the Hall for his storied coaching career, most notably at Indiana.

Season Summary

Coach Fred Taylor started two sophomores at the beginning of the season, Lucas and Nowell, with returnees Joe Roberts, Larry Siegfried and Dick Furry. An injury to Furry got Havlicek inserted into that first game, and he started thereafter. In this era, freshman could not play varsity college basketball. The recruiting class of Lucas, Nowell, Havlicek, Knight and Gary Gearhart were not eligible to led the Buckeyes until 1959-60. This was their first college season of play as the game is considered today. The 1959-60 team posted the best shooting, highest scoring team in college basketball that season at over 90 points per game. The key to the attack was the rebounding and outlet passing of Lucas. The other four athletes routinely overwhelmed opponents with fast break baskets. In 1960, this kind of offensive play was then the cutting edge of the game, and a big reason while all five starters were later drafted into the NBA. There were only eight NBA teams at this time, so this was not an easy feat. Lucas shot a then-record 63% from the floor that season in an era when some college starters commonly shot 35% from the floor. More than just a great rebounder, he also had a great shooting eye from as far out as 25' ( there was no three-point line then ), and also had a hook shot that was nearly automatic. While the statistic was not well-kept then, Lucas probably led this team in assists, at 5-6 per game, he was an outstanding passer as well. He came very close to leading the country in both individual scoring and rebounding as well as shooting. After the outstanding Lucas, the Bucks may have had the best backcourt in the country in Siegfried and Nowell. Siegfried was then rated very highly as an all-around guard at both ends of the court. With Havlicek looking to contribute to the great offensive team with his hustling defense, Siegfried became active this season in this area as well and was outstanding. Nowell had one-on-one playground skills that were well-developed and effective immediately that season. With three sophomores now starting, Ohio State did have two early-season losses to Utah and Kentucky, but then clicked through the rest of the schedule. A late-season loss to Indiana came after they had clinched the Big Ten. The Buckeyes steamrolled through the NCAA tournament by an average of 19.5 points a game, dusting off California 75-55 in the final behind two future NBA stars, Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek, two excellent guards in Larry Siegfried and Mel Nowell and a defensive work ethic that limited opponents to .388 shooting over the course of the season. While the offensive star power of the team is very noteworthy, it's important to say that the team was also very well-coached. After Hall Of Famer Taylor, Graf had coached at Harvard and was very strong on defense. Truitt later led as a college coach at several NCAA schools.

NCAA Basketball Tournament

Mideast
- Ohio State 98, Western Kentucky 79
- Ohio State 86, Georgia Tech 69
Final Four
- Ohio State 76, NYU 54
- Ohio State 75, California 55

^[1]

Awards and Honors

Jerry Lucas, NCAA Men's MOP Award^[2]
Jerry Lucas, All-America selection
Jerry Lucas, Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball
Jerry Lucas, First-Team All Big Ten

Team Players Drafted in the NBA

Round	Pick	Player	NBA Club
3	21	Joe Roberts	Syracuse Nationals

^[3]

References

↑ http://www.databasesports.com/ncaab/tourney.htm?yr=1960
↑ "Final Four Most Outstanding Players". cbs.sportsline.com. Retrieved 31 March 2008.
↑ http://www.databasebasketball.com/draft/draftyear.htm?lg=N&yr=1960

http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Age-Ohio-State-Basketball/dp/1560434902

Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

Venues	Ohio Expo Center Coliseum (1920–1956) St. John Arena (1956–1998) Value City Arena (1998–present) Covelli Arena (practice; 2014)

Culture & lore	Brutus Buckeye Buckeye Nuthouse WBNS WBNS-FM Ohio State IMG Sports Network

People	Head coaches Retired numbers Statistical leaders

Seasons	1897–98 1898–99 1899–00 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

Ohio State Buckeyes Men's Basketball 1959–60 NCAA Champions

3 Mel Nowell 5 John Havlicek 11 Jerry Lucas (MOP) 14 Joe Roberts 21 Larry Siegfried 24 Bob Knight Head Coach Fred Taylor Assistant Coaches Jack Graf Frank Truitt

NCAA Division I Men's Basketball champions

1939: Oregon
1940: Indiana
1941: Wisconsin
1942: Stanford
1943: Wyoming
1944: Utah
1945: Oklahoma A&M
1946: Oklahoma A&M
1947: Holy Cross
1948: Kentucky
1949: Kentucky
1950: CCNY
1951: Kentucky
1952: Kansas
1953: Indiana
1954: La Salle
1955: San Francisco
1956: San Francisco
1957: North Carolina
1958: Kentucky
1959: California
1960: Ohio State
1961: Cincinnati
1962: Cincinnati
1963: Loyola (IL)
1964: UCLA
1965: UCLA
1966: Texas Western
1967: UCLA
1968: UCLA
1969: UCLA
1970: UCLA
1971: UCLA
1972: UCLA
1973: UCLA
1974: NC State
1975: UCLA
1976: Indiana
1977: Marquette
1978: Kentucky
1979: Michigan State
1980: Louisville
1981: Indiana
1982: North Carolina
1983: NC State
1984: Georgetown
1985: Villanova
1986: Louisville
1987: Indiana
1988: Kansas
1989: Michigan
1990: UNLV
1991: Duke
1992: Duke
1993: North Carolina
1994: Arkansas
1995: UCLA
1996: Kentucky
1997: Arizona
1998: Kentucky
1999: Connecticut
2000: Michigan State
2001: Duke
2002: Maryland
2003: Syracuse
2004: Connecticut
2005: North Carolina
2006: Florida
2007: Florida
2008: Kansas
2009: North Carolina
2010: Duke
2011: Connecticut
2012: Kentucky
2013: Louisville
2014: Connecticut
2015: Duke

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