1949–50 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

Regular season

The 1949-50 season looked to have solid promise based on the fact that the team had 3 returning starters from a "Final Four" team a year earlier. Unfortunately for the Fighting Illini men's basketball team, the conference season proved to be more difficult than expected. With 5 of the team's 8 losses coming at the hands of conference competition, the Illini, not only placed in a third place tie in the Big Ten, they also missed out on the opportunity to play in a post-season tournament. Head coach Harry Combes had guided the team a year earlier to a Big Ten championship, a third place finish in the 1949 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and a final AP ranking of No. 4 in the nation. The 1949-50 team compiled an overall record of 14 wins and 8 losses with a conference record of 7 wins and 5 losses. The starting lineup included captain William Erickson, Roy Gatewood and Donald Sunderlage as forwards, Rodney Fletcher, and Burdette Thurlby at guard and Walter Osterkorn and Mack Follmer rotating at the center position.

Roster

• Harry Combes (University of Illinois) (3rd year)
• Howie Braun (University of Illinois) (13th year)

Schedule

Source

|- !colspan=12 style="background:#DF4E38; color:white;"| Non-Conference regular season

|- !colspan=9 style="background:#DF4E38; color:#FFFFFF;"|Big Ten regular season

|-

Rankings

Main article: 1949–50 NCAA men's basketball rankings

Player stats

Awards and honors

• Bill Erickson
  • Converse Honorable Mention All-American (1950)
• Wally Osterkorn
  • Team Most Valuable Player

Team players drafted into the NBA

Rankings

Main article: 1949–50 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

References

References

1. Fighting Illini Basketball: A Hardwood History By [[The News-Gazette (Champaign-Urbana). News-Gazette]], Sports Publishing LLC {{ISBN. 1-58261-356-7
2. [http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-baskbl/records/year-1949.html University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1949-50] {{Webarchive. link. (2014-04-07 , FightingIllini.com)
3. "Season Stats".
4. "List of MVPs".
5. {{usurped