1963–64 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

The 1963–64 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

1963–64 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Record	13-11 (6-8 Big Ten)
Head coach	Harry Combes
Assistant coaches	Howie Braun Jim Wright
MVP	Skip Thoren
Captain	Bill Edwards
Home arena	Assembly Hall
Seasons ← 1962–63 1964–65 →

1963–64 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 2 Michigan	11	–	3		.786			23	–	5		.821
Ohio State	11	–	3		.786			16	–	8		.667
Minnesota	10	–	4		.714			17	–	7		.708
Michigan State	8	–	6		.571			14	–	10		.583
Purdue	8	–	6		.571			12	–	12		.500
Illinois	6	–	8		.429			13	–	11		.542
Northwestern	6	–	8		.429			8	–	13		.381
Indiana	5	–	9		.357			9	–	15		.375
Iowa	3	–	11		.214			8	–	15		.348
Wisconsin	2	–	12		.143			8	–	16		.333
Rankings from AP Poll

Regular season

The 1963-64 Fighting Illini basketball team, playing in their first full season in Assembly Hall, dropped back from its previous championship season with a losing finish in the Big Ten and a mediocre overall record. Head coach Harry Combes guided the Illini to a 10-3 record after the first 13 games of the season only to see the team reverse trends and go 3-8 the rest of the way. Once again the Illini played in a mid-season tournament, playing in the Los Angeles Basketball Classic. During the tournament the Illini would face eventual national champion, UCLA.

The 1963-64 team utilized several returning lettermen including the leading scorer and team "MVP" Skip Thoren. It also saw the return of team captain Bill Edwards, juniors Tal Brody, Bogie Redmon, Bill McKeown as well as sophomores Don Freeman, Jim Vopicka and Larry Hinton to their lineup. The Illini finished the season with a conference record of 6 wins and 8 losses, finishing in a 6th place tie in the Big Ten. They would finish with an overall record of 13 wins and 11 losses. The starting lineup included Skip Thoren at the center position, Tal Brody and Jim Vopicka at guard and Don Freeman and Bogie Redmon at the forward slots.^[1]

Roster

1963–64 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Height Weight Year Previous school Hometown F 10 Larry Bauer 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 207 lb (94 kg) Jr Springfield High School Springfield, Illinois G 11 Bob Meadows 5 ft 7 in (1.7 m) 157 lb (71 kg) Jr Collinsville High School Collinsville, Illinois G 12 Tal Brody 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 170 lb (77 kg) Jr Central High School Trenton, New Jersey F 14 John Love 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 190 lb (86 kg) Sr Ottawa Township High School Ottawa, Illinois G 15 Don Freeman 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 180 lb (82 kg) So Madison High School Madison, Illinois F 20 Mel Blackwell 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 168 lb (76 kg) So Centralia High School Centralia, Illinois G 22 Jim Vopicka 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 170 lb (77 kg) So Morton West High School Brookfield, Illinois G 23 Ron Beeks 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 180 lb (82 kg) Jr Princeton High School Princeton, New Jersey F 30 Jeff Ferguson 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 195 lb (88 kg) Sr Benton Consolidated High School Benton, Illinois G 31 Tony Latham 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) 163 lb (74 kg) Jr Waukegan High School Waukegan, Illinois G 32 Bill Edwards (C) 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 185 lb (84 kg) Sr Windsor High School Windsor, Illinois F 33 Bogie Redmon 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 225 lb (102 kg) Jr Collinsville High School Collinsville, Illinois G 34 Bill McKeown 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 185 lb (84 kg) Jr Clinton High School Clinton, Illinois C 35 Skip Thoren 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 215 lb (98 kg) Jr Rockford East High School Rockford, Illinois G/F 40 Bob Brown 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 190 lb (86 kg) So P. S. Dupont High School Wilmington, DE F 43 Larry Hinton 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 185 lb (84 kg) So Shelbyville High School Shelbyville, Illinois F 44 Mike Graville 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 170 lb (77 kg) So Madison High School Madison, Illinois F 53 George Johnson 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 185 lb (84 kg) So York High School Elmhurst, Illinois F 54 Dan Lee 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 175 lb (79 kg) So Attica High School Attica, Indiana	Head coach Harry Combes (University of Illinois) (17th year) Assistant coach(es) Howie Braun (University of Illinois) (27th year) Jim Wright (University of Illinois) (6th year) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible (W) Walk-on   Injured   Current redshirt All-Time Illini Roster

Source^[2]

Schedule

Source^[3]

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state^[4]
Non-Conference regular season
11/30/1963* no, no	No. NR	at Butler	W 59-52	1-0	Hinkle Fieldhouse (11,400) Indianapolis, IN
12/4/1963* no, no	No. NR	St. Louis	L 78-81	2-0	Assembly Hall (14,327) Champaign, IL
12/9/1963* no, no	No. NR	at Oklahoma	L 104-105	1-2	McCasland Field House (3,800) Norman, OK
12/14/1963* no, no	No. NR	Notre Dame	W 79-68	2-2	Assembly Hall (14,238) Champaign, IL
12/19/1963* no, no	No. NR	Butler	W 74-53	3-2	Assembly Hall (13,681) Champaign, IL
12/26/1963* no, no	No. NR	West Virginia Los Angeles Basketball Classic	W 92-86	4-2	Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (5,104) Los Angeles, CA
12/27/1963* no, no	No. NR	Pittsburgh Los Angeles Basketball Classic	W 83-76	5-2	Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (14,267) Los Angeles, CA
12/28/1963* no, no	No. NR	at #4 UCLA Los Angeles Basketball Classic	L 79-83	5-3	Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (13,060) Los Angeles, CA
12/31/1963* no, no	No. NR	Notre Dame	W 87-78	6-3	Chicago Stadium (13,571) Chicago, IL
Big Ten regular season
1/4/1964 no, no	No. NR	Michigan State	W 87-66	7-3 (1-0)	Assembly Hall (14,141) Champaign, IL
1/11/1964 no, no	No. NR	at Iowa Rivalry	W 87-70	8-3 (2-0)	Iowa Field House (8,800) Iowa City, IA
1/25/1964* no, no	No. NR	Arizona State	W 97-78	9-3	Chicago Stadium (19,000) Chicago, IL
2/1/1964 no, no	No. NR	Northwestern	W 73-71	10-3 (3-0)	Assembly Hall (10,093) Champaign, IL
2/3/1964 no, no	No. NR	at Indiana Rivalry	L 96-104	10-4 (3-1)	New Fieldhouse (8,002) Bloomington, IN
2/8/1964 no, no	No. NR	#2 Michigan	L 82-93	10-5 (3-2)	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
2/10/1964 no, no	No. NR	at Ohio State	L 92-110	10-6 (3-3)	St. John Arena (11,351) Columbus, OH
2/15/1964 no, no	No. NR	at Minnesota	L 81-92	10-7 (3-4)	Williams Arena (12,461) Minneapolis, MN
2/17/1964 no, no	No. NR	at Michigan State	L 82-85	10-8 (3-5)	Jenison Fieldhouse (6,124) East Lansing, MI
2/22/1964 no, no	No. NR	Minnesota	W 86-78	11-8 (4-5)	Assembly Hall (15,676) Champaign, IL
2/24/1964 no, no	No. NR	at Purdue	L 90-105	11-9 (4-6)	Lambert Fieldhouse (8,184) West Lafayette, IN
2/28/1964 no, no	No. NR	at #3 Michigan	L 83-89	11-10 (4-7)	Yost Field House (7,875) Ann Arbor, MI
3/2/1964 no, no	No. NR	Ohio State	L 74-86	11-11 (4-8)	Assembly Hall (8,643) Champaign, IL
3/7/1964 no, no	No. NR	Wisconsin	W 97-73	12-11 (5-8)	Assembly Hall (15,826) Champaign, IL
3/9/1964 no, no	No. NR	Iowa Rivalry	W 90-67	13-11 (6-8)	Assembly Hall (13,676) 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^[5]	24	187	114	331	488
Tal Brody^[6]	24	157	91	97	405
Don Freeman^[7]	24	130	81	231	341
Bogie Redmon^[8]	24	97	37	148	231
Jim Vopicka^[9]	24	56	24	62	136
Bill McKeown^[10]	15	46	17	34	109
Larry Hinton^[11]	23	36	18	54	90
Bill Edwards^[12]	20	32	24	24	88
Mel Blackwell^[13]	17	14	14	33	42
Bob Brown^[14]	16	14	12	7	40
Larry Bauer^[15]	12	11	6	24	28
John Love^[16]	16	6	2	17	14
Jeff Ferguson^[17]	2	0	4	0	4
Dan Lee	1	0	0	1	0
Bob Meadows	1	0	0	0	0

Awards and honors

• Tal Brody
  • Converse Honorable Mention All-American
  • Sporting News Honorable Mention All-American
• Duane "Skip" Thoren
  • Converse Honorable Mention All-American
  • Team Most Valuable Player ^[18]

Team players drafted into the NBA

Player	NBA Club	Round	Pick
No Player Selected

^[19]

Rankings

Main article: 1963–64 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

References

1. Fighting Illini Basketball: A Hardwood History By News-Gazette, Sports Publishing LLC ISBN 1-58261-356-7
2. Men's Basketball Roster
3. University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1963-64 2014-03-10 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com
4. Schedule
5. . Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
6. . Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
7. . Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
8. . Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
9. . Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
10. . Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
11. . Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
12. . Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
13. . Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
14. . Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
15. . Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
16. . Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
17. . Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
18. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2014. Retrieved February 14, 2013.
19. 1964 NBA Draft 2010-03-17 at the Wayback Machine