1976 Indiana Advances with Best Ever 78-40 Over 1963 Champs

 Four years ago in the tournament of our first 96 great teams, the last undefeated team, 1976 Indiana, seemed a sure fire all-time Final 4 team after three straight double digit wins. Then they were stunned as a 12-point favorite in the Elite 8, 70-68 by Draymond Green's 2009 Michigan State.

This was our first game since then - as we bring back the best teams from our four tournaments over the years, and to say Indiana advanced to the all-time Sweet 16 is an understatement.

 1. Indiana won 78-40 against the 1963 champs, Loyola-Chicago.

2. The Loyola reserves play the first 8 possessions, and they were outscored 13-0.

3. Loyola's great Jerry Harkness led the all-time champs with 9 points. Every Indiana starter had double digits.

4. The turnover margin was the biggest in any of our 300+ games, 33-15.

5. The dunk chart showed almost the ultimate margin for Indiana, with Indiana's 51-61 dunk range and Loyola's +0 the dunk chart resulted in a 51-65 range for automatic dunks. Loyola's no dunks (51-50) and Indiana's unbelievable -14 defense, the chart gave Loyola a 51-64 stop range, meaning on those rolls if the defense is a 1-4 or higher defensive rebound, while if 1-3 or lower it is a turnover.

The way we calculate this is the best win ever in our google sheet of scores is that 1975 Indiana beat 1963 Loyola 80-42, so a +38 for win margin. The winning team always gets +5 so that's +43. Loyola's team rating was +4 so that is added to make it a +47 performance, the best performance of any team in the 300+ Value Add games by 6 points. Three other games were a +41, as we show in the top 10 table at the bottom of the blog. 1975 UCLA beat 2012 Kentucky 83-62, while 2019 UVa beat 2002 Maryland 97-64 and finally 2021 Houston beat 2023 Princeton 102-50.

Loyola-Chicago 1963	Today Pts, other stats	NBA?	Ht	Season Stats
John Egan	2		5'10	13.7 Pts, 3.6 Reb
Jerry Harkness	9, 6 stls	NBA	6'2	21.4 Pts, 7.6 Reb
Ron Miller	6		6'2	13.3 Pts, 5.4 Reb
Vic Rouse	5		6'6	13.5 Pts, 12.1 Reb
Les Hunter	8, 4 blks	NBA	6'7	17.0 Pts, 11.4 Reb
Dan Connaughton	2		6'1	1.9 Pts, 1.1 Reb
Rich Rochelle	2		6'10	1.5 Pts, 1.4 Reb
Jim Reardon	2		6'4	2.2 Pts, 2.1 Reb
Chuck Wood	2		6'3	1.9 Pts, 1.9 Reb
Billy Smith	2		6'5	7.7 Pts, 5.5 Reb
Indiana 1976			Height	Summary
Quinn Buckner	12	NBA	6'3	8.9 Pts, 2.8 Reb, 4.2 Ast
Bob Wilkerson	12, 6 Stls	NBA	6'6	7.8 Pts, 4.9 Reb, 5.3 Ast
Tom Abernethy	13, 9 rebs	NBA	6'7	10.0 Pts, 5.3 Reb, 2.0 Ast
Scott May	22, 7 rebs, 6 stls	NBA	6'7	23.5 Pts, 7.7 Reb, 2.1 Ast
Kent Benson	11,5 blks	NBA	6'10	17.3 Pts, 8.8 Reb, 1.6 Ast
Jim Wisman	2		6'2	2.5 Pts, 0.8 Reb, 2.2 Ast
Jim Crews	2		6'5	3.3 Pts, 0.7 Reb, 1.4 Ast
Mark Haymore	2		6'8	1.8 Pts, 2.2 Reb, 0.3 Ast
Rich Valavicius	2		6'5	2.4 Pts, 1.8 Reb, 0.3 Ast
Bob Bender	2		6'2	2.1 Pts, 0.8 Reb, 0.8 Ast

Here are the most impressive wins of all our Value Add Basketball Games. The math is similar to kenpom except we add 5 points for the winner and subtract 5 from the loser. We actually only award a maximum +25 for a game, but if we did not cap the game these would be the most impressive showings.

So 1975 Indiana beat 1963 Loyola 80-42, so a +38 for win margin. The winning team always gets +5 so that's +43. Loyola's team rating was +4 so that is added to make it a +47 performance, the best performance of any team in the 300+ Value Add games by 6 points. Three other games were a +41, as we show in the top 10 table at the bottom of the blog. 1975 UCLA beat 2012 Kentucky 83-62, while 2019 UVa beat 2002 Maryland 97-64 and finally 2021 Houston beat 2023 Princeton 102-50. 

Best	Team	Year	score	allow	Margin	Win	Opp Rat	Rating	Opponent	Opp Year
1	Indiana	1976	80	42	38	5	4	47	Loyola-Chicago	1963
2	UCLA	1975	83	62	21	5	15	41	Kentucky	2012
3	Virginia	2019	97	64	33	5	3	41	Maryland	2002
4	Houston	2021	102	50	52	5	-16	41	Princeton	2023
5	Duke	2010	89	57	32	5	0	37	Wake Forest	2005
6	Kansas	2008	83	52	31	5	0	36	St. Joe's	2004
7	Gonzaga	2017	81	48	33	5	-3	35	UCLA	2006
8	Villanova	2018	106	72	34	5	-5	34	Creighton	2020
9	DePaul	1980	86	71	15	5	13	33	UCLA	1967
10	Houston	1968	80	57	23	5	5	33	Kansas	1957