The 1945–46 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.
Regular season The modern era of college basketball unofficially began with the 1945–46 season and the University of Illinois was quick to offer a team that was rebuilding its post-war image to that of a contender. Future hall of fame coaches Johnny Orr and Vic Bubas left the team to join in with the war effort as did Walt Kersulis, a top 5 scorer from the previous season and Consensus First-Team All-American and team captain Walt Kirk. The addition of freshman Bob Doster and Dwight Humphrey to a lineup that included team Jack Burmaster, Robert Rowe and Walter Mroz became formidable opponents to every team they played including a no. 1 ranked DePaul. On December 29, 1945, the Fighting Illini took on George Mikan's Blue Demons, who had lost just eight games in three years, and defeated them by a score of 56–37. In the game Burmaster and Doster each scored 14 points with Mroz adding 11 in the second half. The victory proved that, even without team captain Kirk, who had gone to serve in the armed services, the young team was ready to take on all comers. The 1945 Blue Demons went on to win the 1945 National Invitation Tournament. Additionally, the 1945–46 season would be the finale for the University of Chicago as part of the Big Ten. Illinois would defeat the Maroons two times during the year, 70–28 and 85–24. Due to the departure of Chicago, the Big Ten would become the Big Nine until Michigan State joined the conference in 1950.
Mills used 31 players during the course of the season and had an overall record of 14 wins and 7 losses with a conference mark of 7 and 5, finishing in a fifth place tie in the Big Ten. The team finished with an 11–2 record at home and a road record of 3–5. Future All-American Dwight "Dike" Eddleman would appear in two games during the course of the season, as well as future North Carolina A&T Aggies, hall-of-fame men's basketball coach, Cal Irvin, would appear in one game.
David "Matt" Bullock 1946 saw the end of a 34-year career for Illini athletic trainer Matt Bullock. From 1913 to 1947 David "Matt" Bullock saw to it that football and basketball stars like Red Grange, George Halas, Buddy Young, Ray Woods, Chuck Carney, Lou Boudreau, Andy Phillip and other Fighting Illini stayed healthy. During his long career at the University of Illinois, Bullock cared for more than 40,000 athletes.
Roster
Schedule
!colspan=12 style="background:#DF4E38; color:white;"| Non-Conference regular season
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!colspan=9 style="background:#DF4E38; color:#FFFFFF;"|Big Ten regular season
SourceUniversity of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1943–44 pg.81 , FightingIllini.com
Player stats Player Games played Field goals Free throws PointsBob Doster 2010759273Jack Burmaster 20154173Wallie Mroz 175320126Robert Rowe 20261668Bob Menke17251767Dwight Humphrey20261620Jimmy Seyler16231763Fred Green416941Ray McClure 1617438Jack Smiley413834Hal Craig 1214634George Leddy1951626Leo Gedvilas179119Van Anderson79119Robert Olson 75717William Edwards84412Dean Meador6306Dwight Eddleman 2306Bob Dannehl2215Cal Irvin1204William Eddleman3204Jack Pierce 1204Tony Esposito1204Jake Staab 3022Harold Strange 1102Al Leavitt3102Paul Eckert1011Robert Jones 3011Joe Rodriguez5011
Awards and honors Jack Burmaster Sporting News Honorable Mention All-American (1946) Bob Doster Sporting News Honorable Mention All-American (1946) Team Most Valuable Player
References