1975–76 Michigan State Spartans men's basketball team

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

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

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

Roster and statistics

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

Date time, TV	Rank^#	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		Illinois	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

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

References

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.
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".