1948–49 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

American college basketball season

1948–49 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball

Big Ten Conference champions
NCAA men's Division I tournament, Final Four
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
AP	No. 4
Record	21–4 (10–2 Big Ten)
Head coach	Harry Combes (2nd season)
Assistant coaches	Howie Braun (12th season) Wally Roettger (14th season)
MVP	Dike Eddleman
Captain	Dike Eddleman
Home arena	Huff Hall
Seasons← 1947–48 1949–50 →

1948–49 Big Nine Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 4 Illinois	10	–	2	.833	21	–	4	.840
No. 6 Minnesota	9	–	3	.750	18	–	3	.857
Michigan	7	–	5	.583	15	–	6	.714
No. 20 Ohio State	6	–	6	.500	14	–	7	.667
Indiana	6	–	6	.500	14	–	8	.636
Purdue	6	–	6	.500	13	–	9	.591
Wisconsin	5	–	7	.417	12	–	10	.545
Iowa	3	–	9	.250	10	–	10	.500
Northwestern	2	–	10	.167	5	–	16	.238

Rankings from AP Poll

The 1948–49 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season

The 1948-49 squad, led by Dike Eddleman, Bill Erickson, and Walter Osterkorn, was Illinois’ first 20-game winner since 1908, finishing 21-4. Illinois beat Yale, 71-67, to advance to a national semifinal showdown with Kentucky at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Illini fell to the Wildcats, 76-47, forcing Illinois to defeat Oregon State, 57-53, in Seattle for third place.

Roster

1948–49 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Previous school	Hometown
G	7	Jim Cottrell	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)	167 lb (76 kg)	So	Champaign Central High School	Champaign, Illinois
F	8	Roy Gatewood	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	174 lb (79 kg)	Jr	Salem High School	Salem, Illinois
G	9	Dick Foley	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	165 lb (75 kg)	Sr	Paris High School	Paris, Illinois
C	10	Bill Boyer	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	So	Beardstown High School	Beardstown, Illinois
G	11	Don Sunderlage	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	So	Elgin High School	Elgin, Illinois
G	12	Richard Brogren	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	So	East High School	Rockford, Illinois
C	13	Walter Osterkorn	6 ft 4.5 in (1.94 m)	207 lb (94 kg)	Jr	Amundsen High School	Chicago, Illinois
F	14	Burdette Thurlby	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	Jr	Kirkland High School	Kirkland, Illinois
G	15	Paul Eckert	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	178 lb (81 kg)	So	Herrin High School	Herrin, Illinois
C	21	Walt Kersulis	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	197 lb (89 kg)	Jr	East St. Louis Senior High School	East St. Louis, Illinois
F	22	Van Anderson	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	Jr	Sullivan Community High School	Sullivan, Illinois
F	23	Ted Beach	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	165 lb (75 kg)	So	Champaign Central High School	Champaign, Illinois
F	24	Benton Odum	6 ft 0.5 in (1.84 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	Jr	Marion High School	Marion, Illinois
F	27	Jim Marks	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	177 lb (80 kg)	Sr	Edwardsville High School	Edwardsville, Illinois
F	30	Glen Trugillo	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)	160 lb (73 kg)	So	East High School	Rockford, Illinois
G	31	Bill Hoffman	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	So	Wells High School	Chicago, Illinois
G	33	Bill Erickson	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	184 lb (83 kg)	Jr	East High School	Rockford, Illinois
C	36	Al Leavitt	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	230 lb (104 kg)	So	Sullivan High School	Chicago, Illinois
F	40	Dwight Eddleman (C)	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	189 lb (86 kg)	Sr	Centralia High School	Centralia, Illinois
C	48	Fred Green	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	208 lb (94 kg)	Sr	Urbana High School	Urbana, Illinois

Head coach

Harry Combes (University of Illinois) (2nd year)

Assistant coach(es)

Wally Roettger (University of Illinois) (14th year)
Howie Braun (University of Illinois) (12th year)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Roster

Schedule

Source

Date time, TV	Rank	Opponent	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Non-Conference regular season
12/3/1948* no, no		Butler	W 67–62	1–0	Huff Hall (–) Champaign, IL
12/8/1948* no, no		at Notre Dame	W 59–58	2–0	Notre Dame Fieldhouse (–) Notre Dame, IN
12/11/1948* no, no		vs. DePaul	L 50–60	2–1	Chicago Stadium (17,189) Chicago, IL
12/13/1948* no, no		Oklahoma	W 73–68	3–1	Huff Hall (6,902) Champaign, IL
12/18/1948* no, no		Pennsylvania	W 80–61	4–1	Huff Hall (3,943) Champaign, IL
12/20/1948* no, no		DePaul	W 89–51	5–1	Huff Hall (6,013) Champaign, IL
12/21/1948* no, no		Cornell	W 71–47	6–1	Huff Hall (3,042) Champaign, IL
12/29/1948* no, no		Colgate	W 77–54	7–1	Huff Hall (4,541) Champaign, IL
12/30/1948* no, no		Colgate	W 85–55	8–1	Huff Hall (3,880) Champaign, IL
Big Ten regular season
1/3/1949 no, no		Wisconsin	W 62–50	9–1 (1–0)	Huff Hall (–) Champaign, IL
1/8/1949 no, no		at Indiana Rivalry	W 44–42	10–1 (2–0)	The Field House (10,000) Bloomington, IN
1/10/1949 no, no		at Ohio State	W 64–63	11–1 (3–0)	Ohio Expo Center Coliseum (6,958) Columbus, OH
1/15/1949* no, no		Creighton	W 96–30	12–1	Huff Hall (6,958) Champaign, IL
1/29/1949 no, no	No. 7	No. 4 Minnesota	W 45–44	13–1 (4–0)	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
1/31/1949 no, no	No. 6	at Purdue	L 53–55	13–2 (4–1)	Lambert Fieldhouse (10,000) West Lafayette, IN
2/5/1949 no, no	No. 4	at Wisconsin	W 61–54	14–2 (5–1)	Wisconsin Field House (13,500) Madison, WI
2/7/1949 no, no	No. 4	Northwestern Rivalry	W 85–66	15–2 (6–1)	Huff Hall (12,088) Champaign, IL
2/12/1949 no, no	No. 4	No. 18 Ohio State	W 64–49	16–2 (7–1)	Huff Hall (6,905) Champaign, IL
2/21/1949 no, no	No. 4	Iowa Rivalry	W 80–49	17–2 (8–1)	Huff Hall (–) Champaign, IL
2/26/1949 no, no	No. 4	vs. Northwestern Rivalry	W 81–64	18–2 (9–1)	Chicago Stadium (17,905) Chicago, IL
2/28/1949 no, no	No. 4	Indiana Rivalry	W 91–28	19–2 (10–1)	Huff Hall (–) Champaign, IL
3/7/1949 no, no	No. 4	at Michigan	L 53–70	19–3 (10–2)	Yost Field House (–) Ann Arbor, MI
NCAA tournament
3/21/1949* no, no	No. 4	vs. Yale NCAA tournament	W 71–67	20–3	Madison Square Garden (18,051) New York, NY
3/22/1949* no, no	No. 4	vs. No. 1 Kentucky NCAA Tournament Final Four	L 47–76	20–4	Madison Square Garden (15,126) New York, NY
3/26/1949* no, no	No. 4	vs. Oregon State NCAA Tournament 3rd place game	W 57–53	21–4	Hec Edmundson Pavilion (–) Seattle, WA
*Non-conference game. Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time.

NCAA basketball tournament

Eastern
- Illinois 71, Yale 67
Final Four
- Kentucky 76, Illinois 47
Third-place game
- Illinois 57, Oregon State 53

Rankings

Main article: 1948–49 NCAA men's basketball rankings

Player stats

Player	Games Played	Field Goals	Free Throws	Points
Dwight Eddleman	25	130	69	329
Wally Osterkorn	25	90	81	261
Bill Erickson	25	91	79	261
Fred Green	25	65	24	154
Don Sunderlage	25	57	39	153
Jim Marks	20	53	27	133
Walt Kersulis	20	43	23	109
Burdette Thurlby	17	36	21	93
Van Anderson	23	32	8	72
Dick Foley	24	24	11	59
Ted Beach	14	13	8	34
Roy Gatewood	9	9	4	22
Richard Brogren	6	4	3	11
Glen Trugillo	10	2	2	6
Benton Odum	3	1	3	3
Jim Cottrell	5	1	1	3
Bill Boyer	2	0	0	0

Awards and honors

Dwight Eddleman
- Converse 1st team All-American (1949)
- Associated Press 2nd team All-American (1949)
- United Press International 2nd team All-American (1949)
- Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball award (1949)
- Big Ten Player of the Year (1949)
- Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)
- Team Most Valuable Player
Bill Erickson
- Consensus 2nd team All-American (1949)
- Helms 1st team All-American (1949)
- Collier's Weekly 1st team All-American (1949)
- National Association of Basketball Coaches 1st team All-American (1949)
- United Press International 3rd team All-American (1949)
- Sporting News 3rd team All-American (1949)
- Converse Honorable Mention All-American (1949)

Team players drafted into the NBA

Round	Pick	Player	NBA Club
3	N/A	Dike Eddleman	Chicago Stags

Rankings

Main article: 1948–49 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

References

University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1948-49 Archived 2014-04-07 at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com
^ "RotoWire Fantasy Football, Baseball, Basketball and More".
"Season Stats". Archived from the original on April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 1, 2014.
"List of MVPs" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2013.
1949 NBA draft Archived 2012-05-03 at the Wayback Machine

v t e Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
Venues	Kenney Gym (1906–1925) Huff Hall (1926–1963) State Farm Center (1963–present) Prairie Capital Convention Center (2015)
Rivalries	Indiana Iowa Missouri Northwestern
Culture & lore	Whiz Kids Flyin' Illini Orange Krush Fighting Illini Sports Network Oskee Wow-Wow Illinois Loyalty Chief Illiniwek 1960s slush fund scandal
People	Head coaches NBA draftees Statistical leaders
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Helms and Premo-Porretta national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics

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