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1953–54 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

American college basketball season

Field	Value
mode	Basketball
year	1953–54
team	Illinois Fighting Illini
image	1953–54_Illinois_Fighting_Illini_men's_basketball_team.jpg
image_size	300px
conference	Big Ten Conference
short_conf	Big Ten
APRank	19
record	17–5
conf_record	10-4
head_coach	Harry Combes
asst_coach1	Howie Braun
hc_year	7th
ac1_year	17th
captain	John Kerr
mvp	John Kerr
stadium	Huff Hall

The 1953–54 Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball team represented the University of Illiniois.

Regular season

In his seventh year at Illinois, Harry Combes continued to offer the fans of the Fighting Illini a successful team that they could be follow across the country to record crowds. The 1953-54 team returned one of the most dominant players in the NCAA, Johnny "Red" Kerr. During the season, Kerr shattered Illinois’ single-season scoring record by tallying 556 points in his senior year. Kerr’s 1,299 career points in three seasons currently ranks 20th on the all-time Illinois scoring list. After his Illinois career came to an end, Kerr started a 12-year professional career followed by becoming the first head coach of the Chicago Bulls in 1966.

The 1954 team added twin brothers, Paul and Phil Judson from Hebron, Illinois, Bruce Brothers and Bill Ridley as sophomores. A youth movement that helped the Illini finish in a 3rd place tie in the Big Ten. Unfortunately the Illini would lose 5 total games with three of the five losses coming at the hands of ranked opponents. The starting lineup included captain John Kerr at the center position, Jim Wright and Paul Judson at guard and Bruce Brothers and Max Hooper at the forward slots.

Roster

Harry Combes (University of Illinois) (7th year)
Howie Braun (University of Illinois) (17th 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: 1953–54 NCAA men's basketball rankings

Player stats

Illinois Fighting Illini	color=white}}"	Player	Illinois Fighting Illini	color=white}}"
John Kerr	22	210	136	556
Paul Judson	22	92	62	246
Bruce Brothers	22	64	59	187
Max Hooper	22	67	34	168
Jim Wright	22	59	45	163
Bill Ridley	19	30	54	114
Jim Dutcher	19	30	32	92
Ed Makovsky	22	22	21	65
Morris Sterneck	16	17	9	43
Elmer Plew	13	7	6	20
Phil Judson	9	4	5	13
Warren Wilkinson	5	2	1	5
Robert Reitsch	9	1	2	4
Earl Newman	4	0	2	2

Awards and honors

Johnny Kerr
- Helms 2nd Team All-American
- Look Magazine 3rd Team All-American
- Associated Press 3rd Team All-American
- United Press International 3rd Team All-American
- Converse Honorable Mention All-American
- Team Most Valuable Player

Team players drafted into the NBA

Illinois Fighting Illini	color=white}}"	Player	Illinois Fighting Illini	color=white}}"	NBA club	Illinois Fighting Illini	color=white}}"	Round	Illinois Fighting Illini	color=white}}"	Pick
Johnny Kerr	Syracuse Nationals	1	6

Rankings

Main article: 1953–54 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

References

Fighting Illini Basketball: A Hardwood History By [[The News-Gazette (Champaign-Urbana). News-Gazette]], Sports Publishing LLC {{ISBN. 1-58261-356-7
[https://fightingillini.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule/1953-54 University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1953-54], FightingIllini.com
[https://fightingillini.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule/1953-54 Schedule]
[http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-baskbl/records/year-1953.html Season Stats] {{webarchive. link. (2014-03-22)
"List of MVPs".
{{usurped

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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