1976–77 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1976–77 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
1976–77 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Record	16–14 (8–10 Big Ten)
Head coach	Lou Henson;
Assistant coaches	Tony Yates; Bill Molinari; Les Wothke;
MVP	Audie Matthews
Captain	Audie Matthews
Home arena	Assembly Hall
	Seasons ← 1975–76 1977–78 →

1976–77 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 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
No. 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[edit]

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.

Roster[edit]

1976–77 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Previous school	Hometown
G	10	Rick Kirby	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	Fr	Urbana High School	Urbana, Illinois
F	12	Ken Ferdinand	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	So	Urbana High School	Urbana, Illinois
G	20	Jeff Berry	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	Fr	Morgan Park High School	Chicago, Illinois
G	21	Steve Lanter	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	RS Fr	Mascoutah Community High School	Belleville, Illinois
G	23	Larry Lubin	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	So	New Trier High School	Glencoe, Illinois
F	24	Tom Gerhardt	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	210 lb (95 kg)	Jr	De La Salle High School	Chicago, Illinois
G	30	Rob Judson	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	170 lb (77 kg)	Fr	Zion-Benton High School	Zion, Illinois
F	31	Neil Bresnahan	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	195 lb (88 kg)	Fr	Fenwick High School	Oak Park, Illinois
F	32	Levi Cobb	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	205 lb (93 kg)	Fr	Morgan Park High School	Chicago, Illinois
G/F	34	Rick Leighty	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	Jr	Lawrenceville High School	Lawrenceville, Illinois
F	40	Rich Adams	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	Jr	Colerain High School	Cincinnati, Ohio
G/F	42	Tim Bushell	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	195 lb (88 kg)	Sr	Lincoln Community High School	Lincoln, Illinois
G/F	44	Audie Matthews (C)	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	Jr	Bloom High School	Chicago Heights, Illinois
G	50	Jeff Carter	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	Fr	St. Ignatius High School	Chicago, Illinois
G	52	Matt Meyer	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	165 lb (75 kg)	So	Forman High School	Manito, Illinois

Head coach

Lou Henson (New Mexico State University) (2nd year)

Assistant coach(es)

Tony Yates (University of Cincinnati) (3rd year)
Les Wothke (Greenville University) (2nd year)
Bill Molinari (Illinois Wesleyan University) (1st year)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

All-Time Illini Roster

Source^[1] ^[2]

Schedule[edit]

Source^[3]

Date time, TV	Opponent	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Non-Conference regular season
11/26/1976* no, no	@ St. Louis	W 68-65	1 - 0	Kiel Auditorium (9,148) St. Louis, MO
12/3/1976* no, no	@ Missouri Show Me Classic	L 75-76	1 - 1	Hearnes Center (5,227) Columbia, MO
12/4/1976* no, no	vs St. Louis Show-Me Classic	W 54-46	2 - 1	Hearnes Center (5,227) Columbia, MO
12/8/1976* no, no	San Jose State	W 84-70	3 - 1	Assembly Hall (6,113) Champaign, IL
12/11/1976* no, no	Nebraska	W 67-63	4 - 1	Assembly Hall (7,055) Champaign, IL
12/13/1976* no, no	Cleveland State Illini Classic	W 72-70	5 - 1	Assembly Hall (5,389) Champaign, IL
12/17/1976* no, no	Cal Poly Illini Classic	W 67-65	6 - 1	Assembly Hall (5,489) Champaign, IL
12/18/1976* no, no	Arizona State	W 80-74	7 - 1	Assembly Hall (6,938) Champaign, IL
12/27/1976* no, no	Houston Rainbow Classic	L 66-69	7 - 2	Neal S. Blaisdell Center (-) Honolulu, HI
12/29/1976* no, no	William & Mary Rainbow Classic	W 73-64	8 - 2	Neal S. Blaisdell Center (-) Honolulu, HI
12/30/1976* no, no	St. John's Rainbow Classic	L 52-56	8 - 3	Neal S. Blaisdell Center (1,849) Honolulu, HI
1/1/1977* no, no	@ Long Beach State	W 81-71	8 - 4	Gold Mine (4,030) Long Beach, CA
Big Ten regular season
1/6/1977 no, no	@ Ohio State	W 89-72	9 - 4 (1 - 0)	St. John's Arena (6,907) Columbus, OH
1/8/1977 no, no	@ Indiana Rivalry	L 60-80	9 - 5 (1 - 1)	Assembly Hall (16,497) Bloomington, IN
1/13/1977 no, no	#9 Minnesota	L 69-83	10 - 5 (2 - 1)	Assembly Hall (7,689) Champaign, IL
1/15/1977 no, no	Iowa Rivalry	L 81-84 ^ot	10 - 6 (2 - 2)	Assembly Hall (7,246) Champaign, IL
1/20/1977 no, no	@ Michigan State	L 58-67	10 - 7 (2 - 3)	Jenison Fieldhouse (3,417) East Lansing, MI
1/22/1977 no, no	@ #5 Michigan	L 61-66	10 - 8 (2 - 4)	Crisler Arena (13,609) Ann Arbor, MI
1/24/1977 no, no	Northwestern	W 71-68	11 - 8 (3 - 4)	Assembly Hall (5,810) Champaign, IL
1/29/1977 no, no	@ #18 Purdue	L 63-66	11 - 9 (3 - 5)	Mackey Arena (12,800) West Lafayette, IN
2/3/1977 no, no	Wisconsin	W 82-72	12 - 9 (4 - 5)	Assembly Hall (6,144) Champaign, IL
2/5/1977 no, no	#18 Purdue	W 71-70	13 - 9 (5 - 5)	Assembly Hall (9,700) Champaign, IL
2/10/1977 no, no	@ Northwestern	W 65-63	14 - 9 (6 - 5)	McGaw Memorial Hall (3,966) Evanston, IL
2/12/1977 no, no	@ Wisconsin	L 50-62	13 - 8 (6 - 6)	Wisconsin Field House (7,589) Madison, WI
2/17/1977 no, no	Indiana Rivalry	W 73-69	14 - 8 (7 - 6)	Assembly Hall (11,172) Champaign, IL
2/19/1977 no, no	Ohio State	L 60-64	14 - 9 (7 - 7)	Assembly Hall (8,849) Champaign, IL
2/24/1977 no, no	@ Iowa Rivalry	L 64-76	14 - 10 (7 - 8)	Iowa Field House (9,875) Iowa City, IA
2/26/1977 no, no	@ #13 Minnesota	L 70-72	15 - 10 (8 - 8)	Williams Arena (15,163) Minneapolis, MN
3/3/1977 no, no	#3 Michigan	L 72-87	15 - 11 (8 - 9)	Assembly Hall (10,524) Champaign, IL
3/5/1977 no, no	Michigan State	L 61-62	15 - 12 (8 - 10)	Assembly Hall (8,021) Champaign, IL
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time.

Player stats[edit]

Player	Games Played	Minutes Played	Field Goals	Free Throws	Rebounds	Assists	Points
Audie Matthews^[4]	30	1023	202	75	151	75	479
Rich Adams^[4]	30	846	171	45	171	62	387
Levi Cobb^[4]	30	942	126	54	192	57	306
Ken Ferdinand^[4]	28	521	109	43	108	27	261
Neil Bresnahan^[4]	28	684	80	46	138	31	206
Steve Lanter^[4]	30	966	76	39	49	103	191
Rick Leighty^[4]	26	408	45	11	72	37	101
Rob Judson	14	162	20	14	5	19	54
Larry Lubin	25	185	14	3	23	27	31
Tom Gerhardt	23	184	6	4	34	14	16
Rick Kirby	17	102	6	4	2	7	16
Jeff Berry	3	2	0	0	0	0	0
Tim Bushell	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Jeff Carter	2	2	0	0	0	0	0
Matt Meyer	2	2	0	0	0	0	0

Awards and honors[edit]

Audie Matthews
- Team Most Valuable Player ^[5]

Team players drafted into the NBA[edit]

Player	NBA Club	Round	Pick

^[6]

Rankings[edit]

References[edit]

^ Men's Basketball Roster
^ All-Time Illini Rosters Archived 2010-04-22 at the Wayback Machine
^ University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1976-77 Archived 2013-12-16 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "pg. 119 Season Stats" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 8, 2011. Retrieved April 4, 2011.
^ "List of MVPs" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2013.
^ 1977 NBA Draft Archived 2011-05-20 at the Wayback Machine

[1] Men's Basketball Roster

[2] All-Time Illini Rosters Archived 2010-04-22 at the Wayback Machine

[3] University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1976-77 Archived 2013-12-16 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com

[cstv.com_guide_5-4] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "pg. 119 Season Stats" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 8, 2011. Retrieved April 4, 2011.

[5] "List of MVPs" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2013.

[6] 1977 NBA Draft Archived 2011-05-20 at the Wayback Machine

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

v t e 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 Iowa Missouri Northwestern
Culture & lore	Whiz Kids Flyin' Illini Orange Krush Fighting Illini Sports Network Oskee Wow-Wow Illinois Loyalty Chief Illiniwek 1960s slush fund scandal
People	Head coaches NBA draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of 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 1999–2000 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 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Helms and Premo-Porretta national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics