Indiana's Streak as Last Unbeaten Team Now Stretches to 44 Years
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Add another log to the proverbial college basketball fire, because you can now officially add another year to the greatest streak in college basketball history.
Late Saturday night, San Diego State lost for the first time all year, ending a 26-game winning streak in a 66-63 loss at home to UNLV. (There's some irony there. More on that in a minute.)
The No. 4-ranked Aztecs had been the last remaining unbeaten team this season, so that means Indiana's amazing 32-0 unbeaten season in 1976 remains the standard for perfection. We're now at 44 years and counting since anyone has accomplished that feat of running the table from start to finish.
It's a massive sense of pride to Indiana fans, of course, who consider that team to be the greatest in college basketball history. The Sporting News actually named it such in 2016. And for 44 years since that run to the 1976 title in Philadelphia, some very good college basketball teams have tried— and failed — to match that record.
And now, after Saturday night, another year will pass. It's been more than 16,000 days since a team finished a college basketball season unbeaten.
Members of that 1976 team consider it something of a badge of honor, of course, but they don't go to any extreme to celebrate when the last team goes down every year like the NFL's 1972 Miami Dolphins do. Many of their players will gather and toast with champagne every year when the last NFL team drops from the ranks of the unbeatens.
Quinn Buckner (right) shares a laugh with his former coach, Bob Knight, and Knight's son Patrick during reunion at Assembly Hall on Feb. 8. It was the first time Knight had returned to the iconic arena since he was fired 20 years earlier. (USA TODAY SPORTS)
No, it's different for Indiana, mostly because of the humility of the people involved with that 1976 team. Players like Quinn Buckner, Scott May and Bobby Wilkerson were never guys to pound their chest and command a spotlight even in their playing days, which included dozens of combined years in the NBA as defensive stalwarts. Neither was center Kent Benson, even though he was a No. 1 pick in the NBA, or fifth-starter Tom Abernethy.
As great as they were, they were simply humble, hard-working guys who gave their all every day without ever expecting a pat on the back from Bob Knight, their hard-charging head coach, who was only 35 years old at the time.
So they don't expect a pat on the back now, either, even 44 years later.
Don't get me wrong, Knight's players from 1976 are very proud of what they accomplished, but they really don't care if someone else came along and went undefeated. They can't control that, which is an emotion they learned from Coach Knight a long time ago. Control what you can control.
That was still true even just two weeks ago, when many of them were back together for Bob Knight's return to Assembly Hall on Feb. 8 for the first time in 20 years. (Related stories below). They cherish their time together.
Four years ago, I talked with Buckner about going undefeated when the team was honored on the 40-year anniversary of the title. He said he never acknowledges when the last college basketball team falls every year.
"Why would I let it bother me if it happens? We won all of our games, and no one can ever take that away from us,'' Buckner said. "I'd be happy to welcome them to the table if someone did it, because it's an amazingly hard thing to do. It's not like we were the first team to do it, and we probably won't be the last, either
"To me, it seems petty to root against a bunch of kids now because this is our record. More power to them. I actually hope someone DOES do it one of these days.''
That's a big maybe. Several have come close through the years — Indiana State (1979), UNLV (1991), Illinois (2005) Kentucky (2015) just to name a few — but none have made it to the finish line.
Even when Kentucky almost did it in 2015, winning 38 in a row before losing to Frank Kaminsky and Wisconsin in the Final Four, Buckner didn't mind, and the Wildcats were at one time a bitter rival.
"You can't do anything about whatever comes next,'' Buckner said. "They always bring us up every year when someone loses, and that's fine. But they'll also bring us up again when someone does do it. It's hard to do, but it's going to happen one of these days.
"And when it does, it still won't take away from what we accomplished. I will applaud whoever it is for a job well done.''
Bob Knight won a national title in 1976 with the Hoosiers, college basketball's last unbeaten team in the past 44 years. He would go on to win two more titles. (Courtesy: IU Archives)
That humility factor does indeed push a lot of this, but for those Indiana guys, they also know there's a bit of luck involved in staying perfect every day. And they know it because the 1976 team — considering by many as the greatest team in college basketball history — wasn't even the best team they played on.
The 1975 team was better, and lots of people will tell you that, players and coaches, too.
That group, which also included stars Steve Green and John Laskowski who weren't around a year later, was undefeated too, and pounded everyone all year long, winning every Big Ten game by an average of 22.8 points. But May, their smooth forward and leading scorer, broke his arm in Feb. 22, 1975 — 45 years ago this week — and the Hoosiers weren't quite the same team, losing to Kentucky 92-90 in the regional final.
That plays into it, but so does the fact that those great UCLA teams of the 1960s and 1970s would often go undefeated in winning titles. John Wooden and the Bruins did it four times (1964, 1967, 1972 and 1973), so when Indiana did it in 1976, it had only been three years since someone had done it. Indiana's players in 1976 grew up with watching teams run the table, and it happened with regularlity.
Not anymore. Now it's 44 years!
Buckner often talks about how Coach Knight expected those teams to win every game. He sat them all down prior to that 1976 season and told them that they would be the most talented team on the court in every game they played, and that no one else could beat them. Going undefeated was predicted — and expected.
The only team that could beat Indiana, Knight would say, was Indiana itself. So they worked and worked to make sure that would never happen, and played at a high level all year in going 32-0, winning at home, on the road, anywhere they had to.
Will this streak last forever? Who knows, but as Buckner says, it really doesn't matter to them because Indiana's legends can't do anything about it. Good mid-major teams like San Diego State or Gonzaga have a chance because their conference schedules aren't bloodbaths every night. They can go deep into a season like this with a clean slate. The major conferences still chew everyone up.
It takes a special team to do this — like the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers.
So even though the Indiana players won't do it, let's raise a glass of orange juice this morning to the 1976 Hoosiers.
The streak continues, 44 years and counting.
Greatness.
RELATED: Bob Knight returns to Assembly Hall
- BREAKING NEWS: Indiana coaching legend Bob Knight is coming home to Assembly Hall on Saturday. CLICK HERE
- LOVEFEST 20 YEARS IN THE MAKING: Bob Knight's return to the Assembly Hall floor brought tears to players and fans alike. CLICK HERE
- FINALLY, CLOSURE FOR PLAYERS: Now that Bob Knight's 20-year feud with Indiana is over, former players can get back to normal. CLICK HERE
- REUNION OF 1980 TEAM: Forty years later, a great reminder of how this is one of Indiana's forgotten great teams. CLICK HERE
- BEST INDIANA TEAMS TO NOT WIN TITLES: Bob Knight's return has rekindled interest in the best-selling book, "Missing Banners,'' that looks at five seasons where Indiana could have won a title but didn't. CLICK HERE
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