Wednesday, February 26, 2014

College Basketball: The '73-74 Season

[EDIT 6/22/2015: Making apostrophes show up right in all kinds of encoding]
[EDIT 2/4/2023 9:35 a.m.: One player's name was different in college]
[EDIT 11/30/2023 2:18 p.m.: Adding "basketball" label]

Posting this one just a little before March.

North Carolina State wins the NCAA tournament. En route to a 76-64 win against Marquette in the championship game, they defeat the UCLA powerhouse 80-77 in double overtime. NC State's record for the season is 30-1.

The Bruins' loss to the Wolfpack is one of four that season; the first, against Notre Dame Jan. 28, brings their 88-game winning streak to an end. The Fighting Irish, playing at home, overcome an 11-point deficit in the last 3:30 to win 71-70.

Bill Walton wins three of the four outstanding player awards he had swept in '72 and '73 (namely: UPI, U.S. Basketball Writers' Association, and the Naismith Award). At the end of his time at UCLA, his total is 1370 rebounds. He has 398 in '73-74 and averages 19.3 points per game, but those marks aren't as high as the ones for his sophomore and junior years.

Instead of giving Walton the outstanding player award for a third time, the AP chooses David Thompson of NC State. Thompson averages 26.0 points per game this year with 245 rebounds (7.9 per game). He is also the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, with 51.4 FG%, 78.6 FT%, 17 rebounds, and 49 points in two games.

The consensus All-America team is as follows: Walton, Thompson, Keith (later Jamaal) Wilkes of UCLA, John Shumate of Notre Dame, Marvin Barnes of Providence.

Who is the Coach of the Year? The UPI says Digger Phelps of Notre Dame, the USBWA and the AP say Norm Sloan of NC State, and the National Association of Basketball Coaches says Al McGuire of Marquette. In '75, all of those awards will go to Bobby Knight.

Larry Fogle of Canisius leads the NCAA with 33.4 PPG. Or, by another set of standards, it's William Averitt of Pepperdine with 33.9.

Barnes has 597 rebounds in 32 games, the top NCAA mark for that category. He had 571 in 30 games the year before, but finished second on the leaderboard.

The per-game rebound leader, for the second time in a row, is Kermit Washington of American. His average was 19.8 last season and an even 20.0 this season.

Lute Olson, future Iowa and Arizona coach, coaches this year at Long Beach State after a year at Long Beach City College. He takes over for Jerry Tarkanian, who will begin the first of many years at UNLV next season.

Speaking of Long Beach State, their home winning streak ends at 75 sometime in '74. Their 94-84 loss to San Francisco ends a run that began in 1968. Another home-court winning streak begins this calendar year: UNLV's 72 times defending their home.

Purdue wins the NIT with a 97-81 win over Utah in the final. The Utes' Mike Sojourner is the tournament MVP.

Morgan State wins the Division II title.

Alcorn State, a future NCAA Division I school, loses the NAIA final to West Georgia.

This is the first year freshmen are eligible for varsity teams.

Immaculata University wins the AIAW title for the third year in a row in the third edition of this women's tournament.

OUTSIDE THE COLLEGE GAME

Moses Malone leads Petersburg High to a second consecutive state championship in Virginia high school basketball. His 896 points in 25 games (for an average of 35.8) is a single-season total-points record that will stand for 19 years and still a record for a 12th-grader forty years later. His career scoring average is 27.2, which remains one of the best in state history.

The Soviet Union wins the FIBA championship in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Yugoslavia finishes second in this tournament, which is the last time a round-robin decides the champion instead of a single final game.

NC State's '74 team on ESPN.com
[8/13/2015: Site about UCLA's streak coming to an end expired.]
NCAA Tournament Review from CBSSports.com
Consensus All-Americans of the '70s from Sports-Reference.com
Who is Lute Olson? Find out on About.com
VHSL Records including Moses Malone's (PDF)
Official home of the '74 FIBA tournament

COMING IN MARCH: THE '74 BASEBALL SEASON

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