Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Indiana 76 Wins Big Ten Rock Fight Over Fab Five, 55-46

After being stunned in the Sweet 16 in the first tournament of our initial 96 great teams, the undefeated 1976 Indiana team is heading to the Elite 8 of the championship of all 354 teams. Michigan was noted in this story as one of only 25 teams to ever go to three straight Elite 8s.

The game set a Value Add Basketball Game record with 50 turnovers forced in the lowest scoring game ever, a 55-46 win. If Michigan's Jimmy King had not heaved up a 3-pointer at the buzzer, it would have been our first game ever with fewer than 100 points scored between both teams. The next 2 lowest scoring games were:

106 points - 2017 Gonzaga over 1945 DePaul, 55-51
107 points - 1965 UTEP (Texas Western) over 1971 Marquette, 54-53

The MVP of the game in a losing effort was Juwan Howard who jad game highs in points (13), rebounds (10), steals (3) and drew five fouls on the Hoosiers star center Kent Benson.

However the two top super stars shut each other down at power forward, as Scott May (4 points, 8 rebounds) and Chris Webber (6,9) contained each other after both had dominated all other opponents.

Here is the scoresheet then preview of the game.






While Indiana 1976 enters our all-time Sweet 16 team as one of only seven schools to win an NCAA title to cap an undefeated season, they are not one of the schools to ever make it to the Elite 8 at least three years in a row. Their all-time Sweet 16 opponents - the Fab 5 from 1993 Michigan - is. Ranking the only 25 teams to accomplish the feat bases on the subsequent wins in those years in the Elite 8, we rank the Fab 5 as the 13th greatest ever with two runs to the title game (2-1 each year) and then being eliminated in the Elite 8 the year after Chris Webber left.

Our latest CBS247 piece appears here, noting that surprisingly if UConn makes at least the Elite 8 this season they would be the first Big East team to make it to that level three years in a row. Since they are 6-0 with in the Elite 8 with the title runs the last two years, we would rank them with as the 7th greatest team on this list if they made it to the Elite 8, rank them tied for 5th on this list if they made the Final 4, and we'd move them up to 4th all time if they were runner up or won the title.

In that case, the would be behind only three teams that made it to the Elite 8 five times in a row, each going 10-3 in those five years, and of course all are behind UCLA, which made it 10 years in a row and won eight titles those years to go 26-2 in Elite 8 games.

 
Rnk  3 Straight Elite 8s                 Seasons                 Elite 8 Wins    Losses
1UCLA Bruins1967-76 (10)262
2Duke Blue Devils1988-92 (5)103
3Cincinnati Bearcats1959-63 (5)103
 Connecticut Huskiesif champs91
 Connecticut Huskiesif Runner-up81
4Kentucky Wildcats1995-1999 (5)83
5San Francisco Dons1955-5771
 Connecticut Huskiesif make Elite 471
6Ohio State Buckeyes1960-6272
 Connecticut Huskiesif make Elite 861
7Michigan State Spartans1999-200152
8North Carolina Tarheels1981-8352
9California Golden Bears1957-60 (4)53
10Houston Cougars1982-8454
11North Carolina Tarheels2007-0942
12UNLV Runnin' Rebels1989-9142
13Michigan Wolverines1992-9443
14North Carolina Tarheels1967-6943
15UCLA Bruins2006-0843
16Dartmouth Big Green1941-44 (4)44
17Kentucky Wildcats1956-5832
18Kansas Jayhawks2002-0433
19Michigan Wolverines1964-6633
20Ohio State Buckeyes1944-4633
21Memphis Tigers2006-0823
22Kansas Jayhawks2016-1813
23Santa Clara Broncos1952-5413
24Florida Gators2011-14 (4)14
25Wyoming Cowboys1947-4903

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