1950–51 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1950–51 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball

Big Ten conference champions
NCAA Men's Division I Tournament, Final Four
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	#4
AP	#5
1950–51 record	22–5 (13-1 Big Ten)
Head coach	Harry Combes
Assistant coach	Howie Braun
Assistant coach	Cliff Fulton
MVP	Don Sunderlage
Captain	Don Sunderlage
Home arena	Huff Hall

1950–51 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
#5 Illinois	13	–	1	.929	22	–	5	.815
#7 Indiana	12	–	2	.857	19	–	3	.864
Iowa	9	–	5	.643	15	–	7	.682
Minnesota	7	–	7	.500	13	–	9	.591
Northwestern	7	–	7	.500	12	–	10	.545
Wisconsin	7	–	7	.500	10	–	12	.455
Michigan State	5	–	9	.357	10	–	11	.476
Purdue	4	–	10	.286	8	–	14	.364
Michigan	3	–	11	.214	7	–	15	.318
Ohio State	3	–	11	.214	6	–	16	.273

Rankings from AP Poll

The 1950–51 Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season

A 13 win conference season marked only the second time since 1942 that the Fighting Illini men's basketball team had completed that feat. The only time they finished with a better conference record was 1943, where they completed the season with a perfect 12-0 record. Head coach Harry Combes had guided his team to a Big Ten championship, a third-place finish in the 1951 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and a final AP ranking of No. 5 in the nation. This was Combes 2nd Big Ten Championship as well as his 2nd third-place finish in the NCAA tournament within his first 4 years as head coach. The 1950-51 team compiled an overall record of 22 wins and 5 losses with a conference record of 13 wins and 1 loss. The season featured a rematch with Kentucky, which had downed the Illini in the national semifinals in 1949. Illinois beat Columbia, 79-71, and North Carolina State, 84-70, to get to the national semifinals and a rematch with the Wildcats. In a heart-breaking loss, Kentucky nipped Illinois, 76-74, on a shot by Wildcat sub Shelby Linville with 12 seconds remaining in the game. The Illini collected third place nationally by beating Oklahoma A&M, 61-46, in Minneapolis. The starting lineup included captain Donald Sunderlage and Theodore Beach as forwards, Rodney Fletcher and Irving Bemoras at guard and Robert Peterson and Mack Follmer rotating at the center position.^[1]

Roster

No.	Player	Position	Height	Weight	Class	Hometown	High School
8	Theodore Beach	Forward	6-1	165	Senior	Marion, Illinois	Marion High School
11	Donald Sunderlage (captain)	Forward	6-1	180	Senior	Elgin, Illinois	Elgin High School
19	James Bredar	Guard	5–11	167	Sophomore	Salem, Illinois	Salem High School
22	Johnny Kerr	Center	6–9	205	Sophomore	Chicago, Illinois	Tilden High School
24	Ed Makovsky	Forward	6–5	194	Freshman	Cicero, Illinois	Morton High School
25	Robert Peterson	Center	6–8	235	Sophomore	Wayne, Illinois	Elgin High School
26	Irving Bemoras	Guard	6–3 1/2	185	Sophomore	Chicago, Illinois	Marshall High School
27	Mack Follmer	Center	6–4	200	Junior	Forrest, Illinois	Forrest High School
29	Max Baumgardner	Forward	6-3	175	Sophomore	Sterling, Illinois	Sterling High School
33	Clive Follmer	Forward	6-4	195	Sophomore	Forrest, Illinois	Forrest High School
34	Seymour Gantman	Guard	5–7	165	Junior	Chicago, Illinois	Marshall High School
35	Ren Alde	Guard	6–2	180	Junior	Pana, Illinois	Pana Senior High School
37	Rod Fletcher	Guard	6–4	194	Junior	Champaign, Illinois	Champaign Central High School
38	Herb Gerecke	Guard	6–1	180	Junior	Pekin, Illinois	Pekin High School
41	Max Hooper	Forward	6–5	200	Sophomore	Mt. Vernon, Illinois	Mt. Vernon High School
47	Dick Christiansen	Forward	6–3 1/2	180	Junior	Winnetka, Illinois	New Trier High School
48	James Schuldt	Guard	6–0	193	Sophomore	Dundee, Illinois	Dundee Community High School
	John Marks	Reserve				Edwardsville, Illinois	Edwardsville High School
	Richard Ems	Reserve
	James Hoffman	Reserve
	George Shapland	Reserve
	Andy Toth	Reserve

Head Coach: Harry Combes (4th year at Illinois)^[2]

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Score	Result	Location	Attendance
December 4, 1950	Marquette	66–47	Win	Champaign, IL	6,532
December 8, 1950	Oregon State	74–51	Win	Champaign, IL	6,400
December 9, 1950	Toledo	54–68	Loss	Toledo, OH	6,300
December 16, 1950	DePaul	69–68	Win	Chicago, IL	12,000
December 20, 1950	Washington State	71–48	Win	Champaign, IL	2,575
December 22, 1950	Pennsylvania	75–65	Win	Champaign, IL	2,411
December 28, 1950	DePaul	65–68	Loss	Champaign, IL	5,942
December 29, 1950	Butler	88–52	Win	Champaign, IL	2,921
January 1, 1951	Wisconsin	71–69 (OT)	Win	Madison, WI	12,500
January 6, 1951	Minnesota	70–62	Win	Champaign, IL	6,905
January 8, 1951	Iowa	72–69	Win	Iowa City, IA	13,732
January 13, 1951	Michigan	68–47	Win	Champaign, IL	6,905
January 15, 1951	Indiana (ranked No. 6)	53–64	Loss	Bloomington, IN	10,283
January 20, 1951	Iowa	69–53	Win	Champaign, IL	6,905
February 5, 1951	Purdue	85–76	Win	West Lafayette, IN	10,000
February 10, 1951	Wisconsin	63–52	Win	Champaign, IL	6,905
February 12, 1951	Ohio State	79–59	Win	Champaign, IL	6,905
February 17, 1951	Purdue	70–65	Win	Champaign, IL	6,905
February 19, 1951	Indiana (ranked No. 6)	71–65	Win	Champaign, IL	6,905
February 24, 1951	Ohio State	89–69	Win	Columbus, OH	4,220
March 3, 1951	Northwestern	80–76	Win	Evanston, IL	18,000
March 5, 1951	Michigan State	49–43	Win	East Lansing, MI	6,234

Bold Italic connotes conference game

NCAA Tournament Warmup, at Manhattan, KS

Date	Opponent	Score	Result	Location	Attendance
March 14, 1951	Kansas State	72–91	Loss	Manhattan, KS	14,000

NCAA Eastern Playoffs, New York

Date	Opponent	Score	Result	Location	Attendance
March 20, 1951	Columbia (ranked No. 3)	79–71	Win	New York, NY	17,107
March 22, 1951	North Carolina State (ranked No. 8)	84–70	Win	New York, NY	17,000
March 24, 1951	Kentucky (ranked No. 1)	74–76	Loss	New York, NY	17,000

NCAA Finals, Minneapolis

Date	Opponent	Score	Result	Location	Attendance
March 27, 1951	Oklahoma A&M (ranked No. 14)	61–46	Win	Minneapolis, MN	15,438

NCAA basketball tournament

East
- Illinois 79, Columbia 71
- Illinois 84, North Carolina State 70
Final Four
- Kentucky 76, Illinois 74
Third Place Game
- Illinois 61, Oklahoma State 46

^[3]

Player stats

Player	Games Played	Field Goals	Free Throws	Points
Don Sunderlage	27	150	171	471
Ted Beach	27	124	47	295
Rod Fletcher	27	115	60	290
Clive Follmer	27	88	64	240
Bob Peterson	27	85	67	237
Irv Bemoras	27	83	49	215
Max Baumgardner	23	29	11	69
Jim Bredar	20	15	4	34
Mack Follmer	16	9	3	21
Herb Gerecke	11	5	5	15
Dick Christiansen	8	6	3	15
John Marks	8	4	0	8
Jim Schuldt	11	1	4	6
Seymour Gantman	5	0	3	3
Richard Ems	1	1	0	2

^[4]

Awards and honors

Don Sunderlage
- Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball award (1951)
- Helms 2nd team All-American (1951)
- Sporting News 2nd team All-American (1951)
- United Press International 3rd team All-American (1951)
- Converse 3rd team All-American (1951)
- Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American (1951)
- Team Most Valuable Player^[5]
Ted Beach
- Converse Honorable Mention All-American (1951)
Rod Fletcher
- Converse Honorable Mention All-American (1951)

Team players drafted into the NBA

Round	Pick	Player	NBA Club
1	9	Don Sunderlage	Philadelphia Warriors
7	73	Ted Beach	Indianapolis Olympians

^[6]

References

↑ Fighting Illini Basketball: A Hardwood History By News-Gazette, Sports Publishing LLC ISBN 1-58261-356-7
↑ All-Time Illini Rosters
↑ http://www.databasesports.com/ncaab/tourney.htm?yr=1951
↑ Season Stats
↑ List of MVPs
↑ 1951 NBA Draft

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

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

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