1970–71 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1970–71 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. Not ranked
AP	No. Not ranked
1970–71 record	11-12 (5–9 Big Ten)
Head coach	Harv Schmidt
Assistant coach	Dick Campbell
Assistant coach	Jim Wright
MVP	Rick Howat
Captain	Rick Howat and Fred Miller
Home arena	Assembly Hall

1970–71 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
#10 Ohio State	13	–	1	.929	20	–	6	.769
Michigan	12	–	2	.857	19	–	7	.731
Purdue	11	–	3	.786	18	–	7	.720
Indiana	9	–	5	.643	17	–	7	.708
Illinois	5	–	9	.357	11	–	12	.478
Minnesota	5	–	9	.357	11	–	13	.458
Michigan State	4	–	10	.286	10	–	14	.417
Iowa	4	–	10	.286	9	–	15	.375
Wisconsin	4	–	10	.286	9	–	15	.375
Northwestern	3	–	11	.214	7	–	17	.292

Rankings from AP Poll

The 1970–71 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season

Head coach Harv Schmidt, in only his fourth season at the helm of the Fighting Illini men's basketball team, saw the longest losing streak of his career, 8 games. After starting the year by winning 9 of their first 12 games and 10 of their first 14, the Illini would start their losing streak at Ohio State on February 13, and continue for a month. The agonizing month would end on March 13, 1971, when the Illini would visit Indiana as the season finale. The Fighting Illini would go on to finish the season with an 11-12 record, tied for 5th place in the conference with a 5-9 record.

Fortunately for Schmidt, the Illini would add sophomore forward Nick Weatherspoon. Weatherspoon would finish his inaugural season by scoring 381 points, averaging 16.5 points per game and collected 246 rebounds. By the completion of his time at Illinois, Weatherspoon would finish as the all-time leading scorer for the U of I.

The 1970-71 team's starting lineup included Weatherspoon and Fred Miller at the forward spots, Jim Krelle and Rick Howat as guards and Greg Jackson at center.

Team

No.	Player	Hometown	High School	Class	Position
10	Rick Howat	Downers Grove, Illinois	Downers Grove North High School	Sr.	Guard
12	Nick Weatherspoon	Canton, Ohio	McKinley High School	So.	Forward
14	Fred Miller	Pekin, Illinois	Pekin High School	Sr.	Guard/Forward
21	Larry Cohen	Wilmette, Illinois	New Trier East High School	So.	Guard
25	Jim Krelle	Aurora, Illinois	Aurora West High School	Jr.	Guard
31	Greg Jackson	Chicago, Illinois	St. Philip High School	Sr.	Center
32	Sam Scaletta	Blue Island, Illinois	Eisenhower High School	Jr.	Guard
33	Alvin O'Neal	Peoria, Illinois	Spalding High School	So.	Guard/Forward
35	Jim Rucks	Waukegan, Illinois	Waukegan High School	So.	Forward
40	Tom Dezort	Edwardsville, Illinois	Edwardsville High School	Jr.	Forward
43	Bob Shapland	Champaign, Illinois	Central High School	Sr.	Guard
44	Jed Foster	Fairfield, Illinois	Fairfield High School	So.	Forward
45	Nick Conner	Columbus, Ohio	East High School	So.	Forward/Center
54	Jim DeDecker	Moline, Illinois	Alleman High School	So.	Center

Head Coach Harv Schmidt (4th year at Illinois) ^[1]

Schedule

Source^[2]

Date Time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (Attendance) City, State
12/1/1970* no, no	No. NR	vs.Butler	W 113-102	1 - 0	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
12/5/1970* no, no	No. NR	vs. Oklahoma	L 72-74	1 - 1	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
12/8/1970* no, no	No. NR	vs. Vanderbilt	W 96-79	2 - 1	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
12/12/1970* no, no	No. NR	@ Iowa State	W 78-63	3 - 1	Iowa State Armory (6,000) Ames, IA
12/14/1970* no, no	No. NR	vs. Northern Michigan	W 82-70	4 - 1	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
12/26/1970* no, no	No. NR	vs. #13 Villanova Rainbow Classic	L 76-89	4-2	Neal S. Blaisdell Center (7,500) Honolulu, HI
12/30/1970* no, no	No. NR	vs. St. Louis Rainbow Classic	W 78-60	5-2	Neal S. Blaisdell Center (1,414) Honolulu, HI
1/9/1971 no, no	No. NR	vs. Michigan State	W 89-61	6 - 2 ( 1 - 0 )	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
1/12/1971 no, no	No. NR	vs. Wisconsin	W 84-82	7 - 2 ( 2 - 0 )	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
1/16/1971 no, no	No. NR	@ Michigan State	W 69-67	8 - 2 ( 3 - 0 )	Jenison Fieldhouse (7,323) East Lansing, MI
1/29/1971* no, no	No. 18	vs. #3 Southern California	L 68-81	8 - 3	Chicago Stadium (15,000) Chicago, IL
1/30/1971* no, no	No. 18	vs. #7 Notre Dame	W 69-66 ^OT	9 - 3	Chicago Stadium (17,000) Chicago, IL
2/2/1971 no, no	No. 15	@ Iowa	L 84-92	9 - 4 ( 3 - 1 )	Iowa Field House (13,105) Iowa City, IA
2/6/1971 no, no	No. 15	vs. Minnesota	W 93-78	10 - 4 ( 4 - 1 )	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
2/13/1971 no, no	No. NR	@ Ohio State	L 72-92	10 - 5 ( 4 - 2 )	St. John Arena (13,489) Columbus, OH
2/16/1971 no, no	No. NR	vs. Purdue	L 70-73	10 - 6 ( 4 - 3 )	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
2/20/1971 no, no	No. NR	vs. Indiana	L 86-88	10 - 7 ( 4 - 4 )	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
2/23/1971 no, no	No. NR	@ Wisconsin	L 84-88	10 - 8 ( 4 - 5 )	Wisconsin Field House (5,878) Madison, WI
2/27/1971 no, no	No. NR	@ Minnesota	L 64-80	10 - 9 ( 4 - 6 )	Williams Arena (7,317) Minneapolis, MN
3/2/1971 no, no	No. NR	vs. Michigan	L 74-75	10 - 10 ( 4 - 7 )	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
3/6/1971 no, no	No. NR	@ Purdue	L 93-99	10 - 11 ( 4 - 8 )	Mackey Arena (14,123) West Lafayette, IN
3/9/1971 no, no	No. NR	vs. Northwestern	L 70-85	10 - 12 ( 4 - 9 )	Assembly Hall (5,885) Champaign, IL
3/13/1971 no, no	No. NR	@ Indiana	W 67-87	11 - 12 ( 5 - 9 )	Assembly Hall (7,286) Bloomington, IN
*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
Rick BB of the week Howat^[3]	23	190	94	67	474
Nick Weatherspoon^[4]	23	151	79	246	381
Greg Jackson^[5]	23	113	49	157	275
Fred Miller^[6]	23	79	65	109	223
Nick Conner^[7]	23	74	33	162	181
Jim DeDecker^[8]	22	37	16	40	90
Jim Krelle^[9]	17	31	12	38	74
Jed Foster^[10]	21	19	15	40	53

Awards and honors

Rick Howat
- Team Most Valuable Player
- BB of the fucking year

^[11]

Team players drafted into the NBA

Round	Pick	Player	NBA Club
9	16	Rick Howat	Milwaukee Bucks

^[12]

References

Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball

Venues	Kenney Gym (1906–1925) Huff Hall (1926–1963) State Farm Center (1963–present) Prairie Capital Convention Center (2015)

Rivalries	Indiana 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 2016–17

Helms and Premo-Porretta national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics

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