1964–65 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1964–65 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
1964–65 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
Kentucky Invitational Tournament, Champion
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 16
Record	18-6 (10-4 Big Ten)
Head coach	Harry Combes (18th season);
Assistant coaches	Howie Braun (28th season); Jim Wright (7th season);
MVP	Skip Thoren
Captain	Skip Thoren
Home arena	Assembly Hall
	Seasons ← 1963–64 1965–66 →

1964–65 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 1 Michigan	13	–	1	.929	24	–	4	.857
No. 7 Minnesota	11	–	3	.786	19	–	5	.792
Illinois	10	–	4	.714	18	–	6	.750
Indiana	9	–	5	.643	19	–	5	.792
Iowa	8	–	6	.571	14	–	10	.583
Ohio State	6	–	3	.667	12	–	12	.500
Purdue	5	–	9	.357	12	–	12	.500
Wisconsin	4	–	10	.286	9	–	13	.409
Northwestern	3	–	11	.214	7	–	17	.292
Michigan State	1	–	13	.071	5	–	18	.217

Rankings from AP Poll

The 1964–65 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season

Head coach Harry Combes Fighting Illini basketball team returned to their winning ways for the 1964-65 season. Even though they were not ranked in the pre-season top 20 of college basketball teams, they peaked at #6 during the course of the season in the Associated Press and finished the season ranked #16 in the coaches poll. During the course of the season, the Illini would play in two mid-season tournaments and participate 24 regular season games, the most since 1908 when they played in 26. The tournaments the Illini would participate in would be the ECAC Quaker City Tournament in Philadelphia and a return trip to the Kentucky Invitational Tournament in Lexington, Kentucky. The highlight of the season would happen in the season opener when the Illini would defeat the previous season's national champion UCLA Bruins by a score of 110-83. The 1965 Bruins would finish with a 28-2 record and their second national championship.

The 1964-65 team utilized several returning lettermen including the leading scorer, team "MVP" and captain, Skip Thoren. It also saw the return of team seniors Tal Brody, Bogie Redmon, Bill McKeown as well as Juniors Don Freeman, Jim Vopicka and Larry Hinton to their lineup. It also included sophomores Jim Dawson, Bob Johansen and future Dallas Cowboy, Preston Pearson. The Illini finished the season with a conference record of 10 wins and 4 losses, finishing in 3rd place in the Big Ten. They would finish with an overall record of 18 wins and 6 losses. The starting lineup included Skip Thoren at the center position, Tal Brody and Jim Dawson at guard and Don Freeman and Bogie Redmon at the forward slots.^[1]

Roster

1964–65 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Previous school	Hometown
G	11	Larry Miller	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)	161 lb (73 kg)	Sr	Connellsville High School	Connellsville, Pennsylvania
G	12	Tal Brody	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	173 lb (78 kg)	Sr	Central High School	Trenton, New Jersey
F	14	Jerry Mettille	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	179 lb (81 kg)	So	Morris Community High School	Morris, Illinois
G	15	Donnie Freeman	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	179 lb (81 kg)	Jr	Madison High School	Madison, Illinois
F	21	Bob Johansen	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	So	Geneva High School	Geneva, Illinois
G	22	Jim Vopicka	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	Jr	Morton West High School	Brookfield, Illinois
G	23	Ron Beeks	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	Sr	Princeton High School	Princeton, New Jersey
G	24	Jim Dawson	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	172 lb (78 kg)	So	York High School	Elmhurst, Illinois
G	25	Preston Pearson	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	195 lb (88 kg)	So	Freeport High School	Freeport, Illinois
F	30	Deon Flessner	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	193 lb (88 kg)	So	Fithian High School	Fithian, Illinois
F	33	Bogie Redmon	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	225 lb (102 kg)	Sr	Collinsville High School	Collinsville, Illinois
G	34	Bill McKeown	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	Sr	Clinton High School	Clinton, Illinois
C	35	Skip Thoren (C)	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	232 lb (105 kg)	Sr	Rockford East High School	Rockford, Illinois
G/F	40	Bob Brown	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	Jr	P. S. Dupont High School	Wilmington, DE
F	43	Larry Hinton	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	194 lb (88 kg)	Jr	Shelbyville High School	Shelbyville, Illinois
F	44	Mike Graville	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	Jr	Madison High School	Madison, Illinois
F	54	Dan Lee	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	Jr	Attica High School	Attica, Indiana

Head coach

Harry Combes (University of Illinois) (18th year)

Assistant coach(es)

Howie Braun (University of Illinois) (28th year)
Jim Wright (University of Illinois) (7th year)

Legend

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

Injured
Current redshirt

Roster

Schedule

Source^[2]

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Non-Conference regular season
12/4/1964* no, no		No. 2 UCLA	W 110-83	1-0	Assembly Hall (11,873) Champaign, IL
12/5/1964* no, no		at St. Louis	L 64-79	1-1	Kiel Auditorium (9,230) St. Louis, MO
12/8/1964* no, no		Bowling Green	W 100-62	2-1	Assembly Hall (9,889) Champaign, IL
12/12/1964* no, no		Washington (St. Louis)	W 103-59	3-1	Assembly Hall (9,027) Champaign, IL
12/15/1964 no, no		at Wisconsin	W 70-56	4-1 (1-0)	Wisconsin Field House (9,538) Madison, WI
12/18/1964* no, no		vs. Dayton Kentucky Invitational Tournament	W 104-86	5-1	Memorial Coliseum (11,800) Lexington, KY
12/19/1964* no, no		at No. 8 Kentucky Kentucky Invitational Tournament	W 91-86	6-1	Memorial Coliseum (11,800) Lexington, KY
12/26/1964* no, no	No. 7	vs. NYU ECAC Quaker City Tournament	W 102-79	7-1	Palestra (9,500) Philadelphia, PA
12/28/1964* no, no	No. 7	at St. Joseph's ECAC Quaker City Tournament	L 71-75	7-2	Palestra (9,500) Philadelphia, PA
12/29/1964* no, no	No. 6	at Villanova ECAC Quaker City Tournament	W 74-65	8-2	Palestra (9,500) Philadelphia, PA
Big Ten regular season
1/4/1965 no, no	No. 6	No. 2 Indiana Rivalry	W 88-81	9-2 (2-0)	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
1/9/1965 no, no		at No. 3 Michigan	L 83-89	9-3 (2-1)	Yost Field House (7,600) Ann Arbor, MI
1/16/1965 no, no		Minnesota	W 75-72	10-3 (3-1)	Assembly Hall (10,789) Champaign, IL
1/30/1965* no, no		vs. Notre Dame	W 101-87	11-3	Chicago Stadium (16,746) Chicago, IL
2/6/1965 no, no		Purdue	W 121-93	12-3 (4-1)	Assembly Hall (8,828) Champaign, IL
2/8/1965 no, no		at Ohio State	W 86-71	13-3 (5-1)	St. John Arena (7,626) Columbus, OH
2/13/1965 no, no	No. 10	at Minnesota	L 90-105	13-4 (5-2)	Williams Arena (8,184) Minneapolis, MN
2/16/1965 no, no		Ohio State	W 95-72	14-4 (6-2)	Assembly Hall (8,751) Champaign, IL
2/20/1965 no, no		at Michigan State	W 100-89	15-4 (7-2)	Jenison Fieldhouse (8,643) East Lansing, MI
2/23/1965 no, no		Iowa Rivalry	W 97-80	16-4 (8-2)	Assembly Hall (13,387) Champaign, IL
2/27/1965 no, no		No. 1 Michigan	L 79-80	16-5 (8-3)	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
3/2/1965 no, no		at Northwestern Rivalry	W 93-70	17-5 (9-3)	McGaw Memorial Hall (5,500) Evanston, IL
3/6/1965 no, no		at Iowa Rivlary	L 84-94	17-6 (9-4)	Iowa Field House (10,500) Iowa City, IA
3/9/1965 no, no		Michigan State	W 121-89	18-6 (10-4)	Assembly Hall (10,456) Champaign, IL
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time.

Player stats

Player	Games Played	Field Goals	Free Throws	Rebounds	Points
Skip Thoren^[2]	24	219	95	349	533
Tal Brody^[2]	24	183	95	108	463
Don Freeman^[2]	24	178	84	226	440
Bogie Redmon^[2]	24	155	55	192	365
Bill McKeown^[2]	9	41	17	39	99
Jim Dawson^[2]	22	38	11	41	87
Jim Vopicka^[2]	23	34	19	61	87
Bob Johansen^[2]	19	56	22	34	56
Larry Hinton^[2]	18	36	14	17	36
Preston Pearson^[2]	17	16	4	18	16
Deon Flessner^[2]	13	4	5	14	13
Bob Brown^[2]	13	2	6	8	10
Jerry Mettile^[2]	9	3	2	8	8

Awards and honors

Team players drafted into the NBA

Player	NBA Club	Round	Pick
Tal Brody	Baltimore Bullets	2	4
Skip Thoren	Baltimore Bullets	4	4
Bogie Redmon	Baltimore Bullets	10	2
Roger Taylor	Baltimore Bullets	17	1

^[4]

Rankings

References

^ Fighting Illini Basketball: A Hardwood History by News-Gazette, Sports Publishing LLC ISBN 1-58261-356-7
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1964-65 Archived 2014-03-08 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com
^ "List of MVPs" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
^ 1965 NBA Draft Archived 2013-02-03 at the Wayback Machine

[1] Fighting Illini Basketball: A Hardwood History by News-Gazette, Sports Publishing LLC ISBN 1-58261-356-7

[Stats-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1964-65 Archived 2014-03-08 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com

[3] "List of MVPs" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2013.

[4] 1965 NBA Draft Archived 2013-02-03 at the Wayback Machine

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

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	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