1961–62 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

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1961–62 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
ConferenceBig Ten Conference
Record15-8 (7-7 Big Ten)
Head coach
Assistant coaches
MVPDave Downey
CaptainJerry Colangelo
Home arenaHuff Hall
Seasons
1961–62 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
Conf Overall
Team W   L   PCT W   L   PCT
No. 1 Ohio State 13 – 1   .929 26 – 2   .929
Wisconsin 10 – 4   .714 17 – 7   .708
Purdue 9 – 5   .643 17 – 7   .708
Illinois 7 – 7   .500 15 – 8   .652
Indiana 7 – 7   .500 13 – 11   .542
Iowa 7 – 7   .500 13 – 11   .542
Minnesota 6 – 8   .429 10 – 14   .417
Michigan 5 – 9   .357 7 – 17   .292
Michigan State 3 – 11   .214 8 – 14   .364
Northwestern 3 – 11   .214 8 – 15   .348
Rankings from AP Poll[1]

The 1961–62 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season

The 1961-62

University of Illinois was a home loss to Cornell. The most unusual thing about this season was the fact that the Illini played three neutral court games in Chicago. This would also be the final full season that the Fighting Illini would play their home games at Huff Hall
.

The 1961-62 team utilized several returning lettermen including the leading scorer and team "MVP"

Big Ten. They would finish with an overall record of 15 wins and 8 losses. The starting lineup included Bill Burwell at the center position, Bill Small and Jerry Colangelo at guard and Dave Downey and Bob Starnes at the forward slots.[2]

Roster

1961–62 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team
Players Coaches
Pos. # Name Height Weight Year Previous school Hometown
F
 		14 John Love 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 190 lb (86 kg) So Ottawa Township High School Ottawa, Illinois
F
 		20 Jerry Renner 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 180 lb (82 kg) Sr East High School Aurora, Illinois
G
 		21 Sam Leeper 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 165 lb (75 kg) Sr Unity High School Tolono, Illinois
G
 		22 Jay Lovelace 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 165 lb (75 kg) Jr Carbondale Community High School Carbondale, Illinois
G
 		23 Jerry Colangelo (C) 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 175 lb (79 kg) Sr Bloom High School Chicago Heights, Illinois
C 25 Bill Burwell 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 243 lb (110 kg) Jr
Boys High School
Brooklyn, New York
G
 		30 Jeff Ferguson 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 180 lb (82 kg) So Benton Consolidated High School Benton, Illinois
G
 		31 Doug Mills 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 165 lb (75 kg) Sr Galesburg High School Galesburg, Illinois
G
 		32 Bill Edwards 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 190 lb (86 kg) So Windsor High School Windsor, Illinois
F
 		35 Clyde Kramer 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 185 lb (84 kg) So Erie High School Erie, Illinois
F
 		40 Dave Downey 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 195 lb (88 kg) Jr Canton High School Canton, Illinois
G
 		41 Jerry Curless 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 165 lb (75 kg) Sr VIT High School Table Grove, Illinois
F
 		44 Bob Starnes 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 180 lb (82 kg) Jr Gage Park High School
Chicago, Illinois
G
 		53 Bill Small 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 185 lb (84 kg) Jr West Aurora High School Aurora, Illinois
C 54 Phil LaRussa 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 210 lb (95 kg) So Walnut High School Walnut, Illinois
Head coach
  • University of Illinois
    ) (15th year)
Assistant coach(es)
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (S) Suspended
  • (I) Ineligible
  • (W) Walk-on

All-Time Illini Roster

Source[3]

Schedule

Source[4]

Date
time, TV 		Rank# Opponent# Result Record Site (attendance)
city, state[5]
Non-Conference regular season
12/1/1961*
no, no 		Butler W 82-72  1-0
Champaign, IL
12/9/1961*
no, no 		at Oklahoma W 72–60  2-0
Norman, OK
12/12/1961*
no, no 		Creighton W 70-61  3-0
 Huff Hall (6,017)
Champaign, IL
12/16/1961*
1:30 pm, no 		Iowa State W 82-73  4-0
 Huff Hall (6,437)
Champaign, IL
12/18/1961*
no, no 		Xavier W 81-69  5-0
 Huff Hall (6,717)
Champaign, IL
12/23/1961*
no, no 		Cornell L 60-72  5-1
 Huff Hall (5,258)
Champaign, IL
12/28/1961*
no, no 		at 
Manhattan
 		W 61-56  6-1
Chicago, IL
12/30/1961*
no, no 		at Colgate W 88-50  7-1
 Chicago Stadium (6,000)
Chicago, IL
Big Ten regular season
1/6/1962
no, no 		Michigan W 91-71  8-1
(1-0) 		Huff Hall (6,509)
Champaign, IL
1/8/1962
no, no 		at Purdue L 89-96  8-2
(1-1)
West Lafayette, IN
1/13/1962
no, no 		at Michigan State W 66-65  9-2
(2-1)
East Lansing, MI
1/27/1962*
no, no 		at Notre Dame W 85-77  10-2
 Chicago Stadium (12,224)
Chicago, IL
1/29/1962
no, no 		Wisconsin L 81-85  10-3
(2-2) 		Huff Hall (6,740)
Champaign, IL
2/3/1962
no, no 		Indiana
Rivalry 		W 96-85  11-3
(3-2) 		Huff Hall (6,557)
Champaign, IL
2/5/1962
no, no 		Minnesota W 89-80  12-3
(4-2) 		Huff Hall (5,927)
Champaign, IL
2/10/1962
no, no 		at Iowa
Rivalry 		W 91-81  13-3
(5-2)
Iowa City, IA
2/12/1962
no, no 		Northwestern W 88-70  14-3
(6-2) 		Huff Hall (6,673)
Champaign, IL
2/17/1962
no, no 		Purdue L 88-100  14-4
(6-3) 		Huff Hall (6,912)
Champaign, IL
2/19/1962
no, no 		at Wisconsin L 101-103  14-5
(6-4)
Madison, WI
2/24/1962
no, no 		at No. 1 Ohio State L 79-102  14-6
(6-5)
Columbus, OH
3/3/1962
no, no 		Iowa
Rivalry 		L 78-88  14-7
(6-6) 		Huff Hall (6,669)
Champaign, IL
3/5/1962
no, no 		at Indiana
Rivalry 		L 92-104  14-8
(6-7)
Bloomington, IN
3/10/1962
no, no 		at Northwestern W 73–68  15-8
(7-7)
Evanston, IL
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from
Central Time
.

Player stats

Player Games Played Field Goals Free Throws Rebounds Points
Dave Downey 22 174 97 269 445
Bill Burwell 23 151 124 266 426
Bill Small 23 133 70 90 336
Jerry Colangelo 23 111 73 95 295
Bob Starnes 23 81 58 147 220
Doug Mills 15 25 9 18 59
John Love 22 18 15 86 51
Jay Lovelace 13 4 6 10 14
Jerry Curless 10 6 2 8 14
Bill Edwards 14 5 1 9 11
Jerry Renner 5 4 2 6 10
Sam Leeper 5 0 2 3 2
Jeff Ferguson 3 0 0 2 0

[6]

Awards and honors

Team players drafted into the NBA

Player NBA Club Round Pick
No Player Selected

[8]

Rankings

Main article:
1961–62 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

References

  1. ^ "1961-62 Big Ten Conference Season Summary". Sports Reference.
  2. ISBN 1-58261-356-7
  3. ^ Men's Basketball Roster
  4. ^ University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1961-62, FightingIllini.com
  5. ^ Schedule
  6. ^ "Season Stats". Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
  7. ^ "List of MVPs" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2014. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
  8. ^ 1962 NBA Draft Archived 2013-02-03 at the Wayback Machine
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