1969–70 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

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Ranking
Coaches	No. Not ranked
AP	No. Not ranked

1969–70 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 7 Iowa	14	–	0	1.000	20	–	5	.800
Purdue	11	–	3	.786	18	–	6	.750
Ohio State	8	–	6	.571	15	–	9	.625
Illinois	8	–	6	.571	15	–	9	.625
Minnesota	7	–	7	.500	13	–	11	.542
Michigan	5	–	9	.357	10	–	14	.417
Wisconsin	5	–	9	.357	10	–	14	.417
Michigan State	5	–	9	.357	9	–	15	.375
Northwestern	4	–	10	.286	9	–	15	.375
Indiana	3	–	11	.214	7	–	17	.292

Rankings from AP Poll

The 1969–70 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season

The 1969-70 basketball season for head coach Harv Schmidt saw his team enter the collegiate top 25 rankings in December, only to fall back off the chart in February. The team was lead in scoring for the season by Greg Jackson, Mike Price and Rick Howat. Price would finish his senior season by being named on the Converse honorable mention All-American team. The Fighting Illini would go on to finish the season with a 15-9 overall record and tied for 3rd place in the conference with an 8-6 record.

The 1969-70 team's starting lineup included Randy Crews and Fred Miller at the forward spots, Price and Howat as guards and Jackson at center.

Team

No.	Player	Hometown	High School	Class	Position
10	Rick Howat	Downers Grove, Illinois	Downers Grove North High School	Jr.	Guard
11	Bob Windmiller	Ossian, Indiana	Ossian High School	Jr.	Guard
14	Fred Miller	Pekin, Illinois	Pekin High School	Jr.	Forward
15	Mike Price	Indianapolis, Indiana	Arsenal Technical High School	Sr.	Forward
24	Larry Dykstra	Rockford, Illinois	Guilford High School	So.	Center
25	Jim Krelle	Aurora, Illinois	Aurora West High School	So.	Guard
30	Randy Crews	Kankakee, Illinois	Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School	Sr.	Forward
31	Greg Jackson	Chicago, Illinois	St. Philip High School	Jr.	Center
32	Sam Scaletta	Blue Island, Illinois	Eisenhower High School	So.	Guard
40	Tom Dezort	Edwardsville, Illinois	Edwardsville High School	So.	Forward
42	Doug Faulds	LaGrange Park, Illinois	Lyons Township High School	So.	Forward
43	Bob Shapland	Champaign, Illinois	Central High School	Jr.	Guard

Head Coach Harv Schmidt (3rd year at Illinois) ^[1]

Schedule

Source^[2]

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
12/2/1969* no, no	No. NR	vs.Butler	W 83-67	1 - 0	Assembly Hall (13,752) Champaign, IL
12/6/1969* no, no	No. NR	@ Georgia	W 81-70	2 - 0	Stegeman Coliseum (6,271) Athens, GA
12/8/1969* no, no	No. NR	vs. DePauw	W 91-57	3 - 0	Assembly Hall (13,367) Champaign, IL
12/13/1969* no, no	No. NR	vs. Creighton	W 57-51	4 - 0	Assembly Hall (6,000) Champaign, IL
12/18/1969* no, no	No. NR	vs. Detroit	W 82-65	5 - 0	Assembly Hall (6,251) Champaign, IL
12/20/1969* no, no	No. NR	vs. Wichita State	W 66-63	6 - 0	Chicago Stadium (5,240) Chicago, IL
12/20/1969* no, no	No. 15	@ Washington State	L 58-59	6-1	Bohler Gymnasium (13,000) Pullman, WA
12/29/1969* no, no	No. 15	vs. Michigan St. Far West Classic	W 86-77	7-1	Veterans Memorial Coliseum (6,873) Portland, OR
12/30/1969* no, no	No. NR	vs. #19 Southern California Far West Classic	L 62-65	7-2	Veterans Memorial Coliseum (6,324) Portland, OR
1/3/1970 no, no	No. NR	@ Wisconsin	W 74-69	8 - 2 ( 1 - 0 )	Wisconsin Field House (5,411) Madison, WI
1/6/1970 no, no	No. NR	vs. Indiana	W 94-74	9 - 2 ( 2 - 0 )	Assembly Hall (15,392) Champaign, IL
1/10/1970 no, no	No. NR	vs. Ohio State	W 77-59	10 - 2 ( 3 - 0 )	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
1/13/1970 no, no	No. 17	@ Northwestern	W 101-80	11 - 2 ( 4 - 0 )	Welsh-Ryan Arena (7,677) Evanston, IL
1/17/1970 no, no	No. 17	@ Michigan	W 75-73	12 - 2 ( 5 - 0 )	Crisler Center (8,405) Ann Arbor, MI
1/31/1970* no, no	No. 10	vs. Notre Dame	L 83-86	12 - 3	Chicago Stadium (15,864) Chicago, IL
2/3/1970 no, no	No. 14	vs. Wisconsin	L 65-66	12 - 4 ( 5 - 1 )	Assembly Hall (14,217) Champaign, IL
2/7/1970 no, no	No. 14	@ Minnesota	L 73-82	12 - 5 ( 5 - 2 )	Williams Arena (12,519) Minneapolis, MN
2/14/1970 no, no	No. NR	@ Purdue	L 49-83	12 - 6 ( 5 - 3 )	Mackey Arena (14,123) West Lafayette, IN
2/17/1970 no, no	No. NR	vs. #11 Iowa	L 81-83	12 - 7 ( 5 - 4 )	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
2/21/1970 no, no	No. NR	vs. Purdue	L 81-88	12 - 8 ( 5 - 5 )	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
2/24/1970 no, no	No. NR	@ Michigan State	W 74-67	13 - 8 ( 6 - 5 )	Jenison Fieldhouse (6,417) East Lansing, MI
2/28/1970 no, no	No. NR	vs. Minnesota	W 75-73	14 - 8 ( 7 - 5 )	Assembly Hall (16,128) Champaign, IL
3/3/1970 no, no	No. NR	@ Indiana	W 85-75	15 - 8 ( 8 - 5 )	Assembly Hall (5,196) Bloomington, IN
3/7/1970 no, no	No. NR	vs. Michigan State	L 76-81	15 - 9 ( 8 - 6 )	Assembly Hall (16,128) 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
Greg Jackson^[3]	24	175	59	234	409
Mike Price^[4]	24	135	89	220	359
Rick Howat^[5]	24	147	41	66	335
Fred Miller^[6]	24	107	79	138	293
Randy Crews^[7]	23	77	47	142	201
Bob Windmiller^[8]	21	56	15	37	127
Tom Dezort^[9]	15	15	6	21	36
Bob Shapland^[10]	21	8	18	25	34
Jim Krelle^[11]	13	10	3	14	23

Awards and honors

Rick Howat
- Team Most Valuable Player ^[12]
Mike Price
- Honorable Mention All-American (Converse)

Team players drafted into the NBA

Round	Pick	Player	NBA Club
1	17	Mike Price	New York Knicks

^[13]

Rankings

References

[1] All-Time Illini Rosters

[2] University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1969-70, FightingIllini.com

[3] Season Stats

[4] Season Stats

[5] Season Stats

[6] Season Stats

[7] Season Stats

[8] Season Stats

[9] Season Stats

[10] Season Stats

[11] Season Stats

[12] List of MVPs

[13] 1970 NBA Draft

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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