1975–76 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team

1975–76 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball
1975–76 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Record	14–13 (10–8 Big Ten)
Head coach	Gus Ganakas (7th season);
Assistant coaches	Dick Versace; Pat Miller; Vernon Payne;
Captain	Terry Furlow
Home arena	Jenison Fieldhouse
	Seasons ← 1974–75 1976–77 →

1975–76 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 1 Indiana	18	–	0	1.000	32	–	0	1.000
No. 9 Michigan	14	–	4	.778	25	–	7	.781
Purdue	11	–	7	.611	16	–	11	.593
Michigan State	10	–	8	.556	14	–	13	.519
Iowa	9	–	9	.500	19	–	10	.655
Minnesota	8	–	10	.444	16	–	10	.615
Illinois	7	–	11	.389	14	–	13	.519
Northwestern	7	–	11	.389	12	–	15	.444
Wisconsin	4	–	14	.222	10	–	16	.385
Ohio State	2	–	16	.111	6	–	20	.231

Rankings from AP Poll

The 1975–76 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team represented Michigan State University in the 1975–76 NCAA Division I men's basketball season as members of the Big Ten Conference. They played their home games at Jenison Fieldhouse in East Lansing, Michigan and were coached by Gus Ganakas in his seventh and final year as head coach of the Spartans. MSU finished the season 14–13, 10–8 in Big Ten play to finish in fourth place.

Ganakas was fired as head coach after the season due, in part to the walk-out of black players in 1975 and as part of an athletic department purge.^[1] Ganakas would continue as an assistant athletic director for MSU until 1998.^[2]

Previous season[edit]

The Spartans finished the 1974–75 season 17–9, 10–8 in Big Ten play to finish in fifth place.

Roster and statistics[edit]

1975–76 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team
No	Name	Pos	Year	Height	Pts	Reb	Ast
12	Milt Wiley	G	FR	5–11	1.6	0.3	1.0
15	Kevin Vandenbussche	G	JR	6–4	0.2	0.2	0.4
21	Paul Stoll	G	JR	6–2	0.0	0.0	0.0
22	Lovelle Rivers	C	SR	6–5	1.3	2.8	0.3
23	Benny White	G	SR	5–9	6.3	1.9	3.9
24	Cedric Milton	C	SR	6–9	6.5	5.3	0.8
25	Terry Furlow	F	SR	6–5	29.4	7.7	3.2
32	Greg Kelser	F	FR	6–6	11.7	9.5	1.2
33	Edgar Wilson	F	JR	6–5	7.7	5.4	1.6
34	Ricky Nash	F	SO	6–4	0.9	1.3	0.1
41	Dan Riewald	F	JR	6–5	1.5	1.2	0.3
42	Tanya Webb	F	FR	6–8	1.5	1.1	0.0
44	Robert Chapman	G	JR	6–2	14.6	3.5	2.0
45	David Jordan	F	SO	6–5
52	Patrick Holewinski	C	SR	6–10	0.6	0.0	0.3

Source^[3]^[4]

Schedule and results[edit]

Date time, TV	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site city, state
Non-conference regular season
Dec 1, 1975*	Central Michigan	W 69–61	1–0	Jenison Fieldhouse East Lansing, MI
Dec 6, 1975*	at Eastern Michigan	L 79–85	1–1	Bowen Field House Ypsilanti, MI
Dec 8, 1975*	Canisius	W 83–68	2–1	Jenison Fieldhouse East Lansing, MI
Dec 13, 1975*	at Western Michigan	L 68–78	2–2	University Arena Kalamazoo, MI
Dec 20, 1975*	at No. 9 NC State	L 75–84	2–3	Reynolds Coliseum Raleigh, NC
Dec 22, 1975*	at Detroit Mercy	L 82–85	2–4	Calihan Hall Detroit, MI
Dec 29, 1975*	vs. Southern Miss VCU Invitational semifinals	W 89–77	3–4	Franklin Street Gym Richmond, VA
Dec 30, 1975*	at VCU VCU Invitational championship	L 75–80	3–5	Franklin Street Gym Richmond, VA
Big Ten regular season
Jan 3, 1976	at Wisconsin	L 63–70	3–6 (0–1)	Wisconsin Field House Madison, WI
Jan 5, 1976	Iowa	W 105–88	4–6 (1–1)	Jennison Fieldhouse East Lansing, MI
Jan 8, 1976	at Northwestern	L 89–105	4–7 (1–2)	Welsh-Ryan Arena Evanston, IL
Jan 10, 1976	Ohio State	W 92–82	5–7 (2–2)	Jenison Fieldhouse East Lansing, MI
Jan 12, 1976	No. 1 Indiana	L 57–69	5–8 (2–3)	Jenison Fieldhouse East Lansing, MI
Jan 17, 1976	at No. 16 Michigan Rivalry	L 63–66	5–9 (2–4)	Crisler Arena Ann Arbor, MI
Jan 24, 1976	at Illinois	W 74–63	6–9 (3–4)	Assembly Hall Champaign, IL
Jan 24, 1976	at Purdue	W 66–65	7–9 (4–4)	Mackey Arena West Lafayette, IN
Jan 31, 1976	Minnesota	W 75–63	8–9 (5–4)	Jenison Fieldhouse East Lansing, MI
Feb 2, 1976	Northwestern	W 91–71	9–9 (6–4)	Jenison Fieldhouse East Lansing, MI
Feb 7, 1976	at Ohio State	W 83–82	10–9 (7–4)	St. John Arena Columbus, OH
Feb 9, 1976	at No. 1 Indiana	L 70–85	10–10 (7–5)	Assembly Hall Bloomington, IN
Feb 14, 1976	No. 16 Michigan Rivalry	L 64–81	10–11 (7–6)	Jenison Fieldhouse East Lansing, Mi
Feb 21, 1976	Illniois	W 69–59	11–11 (8–6)	Jenison Fieldhouse East Lansing, MI
Feb 23, 1976	Purdue	W 89–76	12–11 (9–6)	Jenison Fieldhouse East Lansing, MI
Feb 28, 1976	at Minnesota	L 61–71	12–12 (9–7)	Williams Arena Minneapolis, MN
Mar 1, 1976	at Iowa	W 93–88	13–12 (10–7)	Iowa Field House Iowa City, IA
Mar 6, 1976	Wisconsin	L 82–86	13–13 (10–8)	Jenison Fieldhouse East Lansing, MI
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. Source^[5]^[4]

Awards and honors[edit]

Terry Furlow – All-Big Ten First Team
Terry Furlow – Big Ten Scoring Champion (31.0 ppg in-conference)

References[edit]

^ "Former Michigan State basketball coach Jud Heathcote dies at age 90". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
^ "Michigan State Radio | Spartan Sports Network | Big Ten Radio". www.spartansportsnetwork.com. Archived from the original on August 29, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
^ "1975–76 Michigan State Spartans Roster and Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
^ ^a ^b "16-17 Michigan State Spartans" (PDF). Michigan State University. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 15, 2019. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
^ "1975-76 Michigan State Spartans Schedule and Results".

[1] "Former Michigan State basketball coach Jud Heathcote dies at age 90". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved August 29, 2017.

[2] "Michigan State Radio | Spartan Sports Network | Big Ten Radio". www.spartansportsnetwork.com. Archived from the original on August 29, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2017.

[3] "1975–76 Michigan State Spartans Roster and Stats | College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved February 21, 2017.

[MSU_Media_Guide-4] "16-17 Michigan State Spartans" (PDF). Michigan State University. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 15, 2019. Retrieved April 16, 2022.

[5] "1975-76 Michigan State Spartans Schedule and Results".

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[5]

v t e Michigan State Spartans men's basketball
Venues	Armory (1899–1918) IM Circle (1918–1930) Demonstration Hall (1930–1940) Jenison Fieldhouse (1940–1989) Breslin Student Events Center (1989–present)
Rivalries	Michigan
Culture & lore	Basketbowl Champions Classic "The Flintstones" Izzone Michigan State University student riots
People	Head coaches NBA players Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1898–99 1899–1900 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 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
NCAA national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics