After the loss against Kentucky, we made a commitment to each other and that was my commitment to the team. “I knew I was an integral part of the team, not the most important part, but an integral part. “I only had the use of my fingers and my thumb,” he said. His post-injury practice routine included trainers cutting off his protective plaster cast and constructing a tape cast before working out then putting the plaster cast back on after Benson showered. ![]() The 6-foot-10, 235-pound center “mangled” his left wrist early in the conference season. Perhaps nothing illustrated the team’s toughness like Benson’s ability to play through pain. “But once you start thinking about that, you’re probably going to be in trouble.” “I don’t know how we couldn’t have felt pressure with the target that was on our back and playing in front of a lot of fans, just being human,” Abernethy said. They were mentally and physically tough, athletic and undeterred, knowing each opponent wanted to ruin the perfect season. 1 overall in 1977 and Abernethy and the late Wayne Radford also played in the NBA or ABA. Kent Benson, the Most Outstanding Player of the ’76 tourney, went No. May, Buckner and guard Bobby Wilkerson were top 11 draft picks in 1976. May and Quinn Buckner were elite college football prospects who chose to play for Knight. Indiana had two chances, failing in 1974-75 when May tried to play with a broken arm.Ī year later, the team was still stacked with talent. I wish them well and it’s right there for them.” Every game is important and as you get down to the Elite Eight or the Final Four it gets even harder. “I thought there would be some teams that would do it,” said Scott May, a two-time All-American and the 1976 national player of the year. The Bulldogs need two more wins to match the Hoosiers’ 32-0 mark and become the eighth undefeated men’s team to win it all. Two of those runs ended in Indianapolis where Gonzaga (30-0) will play UCLA in the Final Four on Saturday night. ![]() Kentucky took down Wichita State in 2014 and a year later, Wisconsin returned the favor by beating Kentucky. Larry Bird and Indiana State lost in the 1979 title game. Many have tried to replicate Indiana’s most enduring feat for 45 years. ![]() “It wasn’t so much what was said, it was how we felt.” “It felt terrible and it it didn’t go away for quite a while,” soft-spoken forward Tom Abernethy said, referring to the loss.
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