The 1974–75 Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball team represented Indiana University, led by fourth-year head coach Bobby Knight. The team played its home games on campus in Bloomington at Assembly Hall, and was a member of the Big Ten Conference.
The Hoosiers finished the regular season with a 29–0 record, and won the Big Ten Conference by six games at They began the season third in the polls and were top-ranked since January 7. When combined with the following year, Indiana won 37 consecutive Big Ten games. The Hoosiers won their conference games by an average of 22.8 points. However, in an 83–82 win against Purdue on February 22, they lost consensus All-American forward Scott May to a broken left arm. The Hoosiers were so dominant that four starters – Scott May, Steve Green, Kent Benson, and Quinn Buckner – were named to the five-man All-Big Ten team following the regular season. With May's injury keeping him to seven minutes of play, the No. 1 Hoosiers lost to Kentucky in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament and finished the season at Larry Bird arrived in Bloomington in the summer of 1974, but returned home just 24 days later after feeling overwhelmed by the large campus and big-city transition from his small hometown of French Lick, Indiana.
Roster No.NamePositionHt.YearHometown20Bobby WilkersonG/F6–7Jr.Anderson, Indiana21Quinn BucknerG6–3Jr.Phoenix, Illinois22Wayne RadfordG/F6–3Fr.Indianapolis, Indiana24Steve AhlfeldG6–1Sr.Wabash, Indiana25Doug AllenF6–6Sr.Champaign, Illinois30John KamstraG6–1Sr.Frankfort, Indiana31John LaskowskiG/F6–5Sr.South Bend, Indiana32Mark HaymoreF/C6–8Fr.Shaker Heights, Ohio33Tom AbernethyF6–7Jr.South Bend, Indiana34Steve GreenF6–7Sr.Sellersburg, Indiana40Jim WismanG6–2Fr.Quincy, Illinois42Scott MayF6–7Jr.Sandusky, Ohio43Don NoortC6–8Jr.Worth, Illinois45Jim CrewsG6–5Jr.Normal, Illinois54Kent BensonC6–11So.New Castle, Indiana
Regular season game against Kentucky 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 Bobby 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. 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."
NCAA tournament Following the one-sided regular season game in early December, Indiana and Kentucky met again in the 1975 Elite Eight in Dayton, Ohio, the Mideast regional final. Entering that game on March 22, the top-ranked Hoosiers had a 34-game winning streak and Kentucky (24–4) was ranked fifth. Kentucky won by two points, 92–90. The game made USA Todays list of the greatest NCAA tournament games of all time.Mike Douchant – Greatest 63 games in NCAA Tournament history. The Sports Xchange, published in USA Today, March 25, 2002 The win put Kentucky in the Final Four in San Diego, where they dropped the NCAA title game to UCLA in John Wooden's final game as head coach.
Schedule and results
!colspan=8 style=| Non-conference regular season
!colspan=8 style=| Big Ten regular season
!colspan=8 style=| NCAA Tournament
Rankings
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
References