1959–60 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team

American college basketball season

1959–60 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball

NCAA tournament National champions Big Ten regular season champions
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 3
AP	No. 3
Record	25–3 (13–1 Big Ten)
Head coach	Fred Taylor
Assistant coaches	Jack Graf Frank Truitt
Home arena	St. John Arena
Seasons ← 1958–59 1960–61 →

1959–60 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 3 Ohio State	13	–	1	.929	25	–	3	.893
No. 7 Indiana	11	–	3	.786	20	–	4	.833
Illinois	8	–	6	.571	16	–	7	.696
Minnesota	8	–	6	.571	12	–	12	.500
Northwestern	8	–	6	.571	11	–	12	.478
Iowa	6	–	8	.429	14	–	10	.583
Purdue	6	–	8	.429	11	–	12	.478
Michigan State	5	–	9	.357	10	–	11	.476
Wisconsin	4	–	10	.286	8	–	16	.333
Michigan	1	–	13	.071	4	–	20	.167

Rankings from https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/conferences/big-ten/1960.html

The 1959–60 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team is the only basketball team to win a national title in Ohio State history. They were coached by Hall of Fame coach Fred Taylor and had three future Hall of Famers on their roster—center Jerry Lucas, forward John Havlicek, and reserve forward Bob Knight, who entered the Hall for his storied coaching career, most notably at Indiana.

Roster

1959–60 Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Previous school	Hometown
G	3	Mel Nowell	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	165 lb (75 kg)	So	East	Columbus, Ohio
G	5	John Havlicek	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	195 lb (88 kg)	So	Bridgeport	Bridgeport, Ohio
F/C	11	Jerry Lucas	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	220 lb (100 kg)	So	Middletown	Middletown, Ohio
	12	Dick Furry	—	—	Sr	West	Columbus, Ohio
F	14	Joe Roberts	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	210 lb (95 kg)	Sr	East	Columbus, Ohio
G	21	Larry Siegfried	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	Jr	Shelby	Shelby, Ohio
F	24	Bob Knight	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	—	So	Orrville	Orrville, Ohio

Head coach

Fred Taylor (Ohio State)

Assistant coach(es)

Legend

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

Injured
Current redshirt

Season summary

Coach Fred Taylor started two sophomores at the beginning of the season, Lucas and Mel Nowell, with returnees Joe Roberts, Larry Siegfried and Dick Furry. An injury to Furry got Havlicek inserted into that first game, and he started thereafter.

In this era, freshman could not play varsity college basketball. The recruiting class of Lucas, Nowell, Havlicek, Knight, and Gary Gearhart were not eligible to lead the Buckeyes until 1959–60. This was their first college season of play as the game is considered today.

The 1959–60 team posted the best shooting, highest-scoring team in college basketball that season at over 90 points per game. The key to the attack was the rebounding and outlet passing of Lucas. The other four athletes routinely overwhelmed opponents with fast break baskets. In 1960, this kind of offensive play was then the cutting edge of the game, and a big reason why all five starters were later drafted into the NBA. There were only eight NBA teams at this time, so this was not an easy feat.

Lucas shot a then-record 63% from the floor that season in an era when some college starters commonly shot 35% from the floor. More than just a great rebounder, he also had a great shooting eye from as far out as 25 feet (there was no three-point line then), and also had a hook shot that was nearly automatic. While the statistic was not well-kept then, Lucas probably led this team in assists, at 5–6 per game, he was an outstanding passer as well. He came very close to leading the country in both individual scoring and rebounding as well as shooting. After the outstanding Lucas, the Bucks may have had the best backcourt in the country in Siegfried and Nowell. Siegfried was then rated very highly as an all-around guard at both ends of the court. With Havlicek looked to contribute to the great offensive team with his hustling defense, Siegfried became active this season in this area as well and was outstanding. Nowell had one-on-one playground skills that were well-developed and effective immediately that season. With three sophomores now starting, Ohio State did have two early-season losses to Utah and Kentucky, but then clicked through the rest of the schedule. A late-season loss to Indiana came after they had clinched the Big Ten.

The Buckeyes steamrolled through the NCAA tournament by an average of 19.5 points a game, dusting off defending national champion California 75–55 in the final behind two future NBA stars, Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek, two excellent guards in Larry Siegfried and Mel Nowell and a defensive work ethic that limited opponents to .388 shooting over the course of the season. The team was also very well-coached. After Hall-of-Famer Taylor, Graf^{[clarification needed]} had coached at Harvard and was very strong on defense. Truitt^{[clarification needed]} later led as a college coach at several NCAA schools.

NCAA basketball tournament

Mideast
- Ohio State 98, Western Kentucky 79
- Ohio State 86, Georgia Tech 69
Final Four
- Ohio State 76, NYU 54
- Ohio State 75, California 55

^[1]

NCAA Basketball Championship

In that game, the Buckeyes shooting was off the charts, but it was also defense that won them the championship. Lucas gave Darrall Imhoff room only when he was far away from the basket; in close, he was always between Imhoff and the ball. Still, very few in the noisy capacity audience at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California -most of them California partisans- were ready to concede defeat to the Big Ten champions. Often enough in the past, California had come from behind to win on the wings of its mistake-inducing press. Pete Newell brought his team back into play in the second half, with a crushing defense and within five minutes, Cal scored 10 points to Ohio State's 5. Ironically, though, it was this fanatical defense that eventually proved to be Cal's undoing. Covering on the Ohio State man with the ball, the Golden Bears were obliged to uncover a free man somewhere else. After a short period of fumbling, Ohio State began to find him. Two or three furiously quick breaks with more than five minutes to go destroyed California for good. When the flurry was over, Ohio State's shooting percentage was a remarkable 67.4 percent, and its victory margin was the largest in the 22-year history of the NCAA finals.

Rankings

Ranking movements
**Legend:** ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
	Week
Poll	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Final
AP	Not released		3	5	7	5	5	5	4	4	4	2	2	3
Coaches	4	2	3	4	5	4	5	5	4	4	3	3	3	3

^[2]^[3]

Awards and honors

Jerry Lucas, NCAA Men's MOP Award^[4]
Jerry Lucas, All-America selection
Jerry Lucas, Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball
Jerry Lucas, First-Team All Big Ten

Team players drafted in the NBA

Round	Pick	Player	NBA Club
3	21	Joe Roberts	Syracuse Nationals

^[5]

References

^ "RotoWire Fantasy Football, Baseball, Basketball and More".
^ *ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. Random House. 2009. pp. 679–680. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.
^ "1959-60 College Basketball Polls". Sports Reference. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
^ "Final Four Most Outstanding Players". cbs.sportsline.com. Archived from the original on September 7, 2008. Retrieved March 31, 2008.
^ "1960 NBA Draft on Basketballreference.com". www.databasebasketball.com. Archived from the original on February 13, 2006. Retrieved June 6, 2022.

v t e Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball 1959–60 NCAA champions
3 Mel Nowell 5 John Havlicek 11 Jerry Lucas (MOP) 14 Joe Roberts 21 Larry Siegfried 24 Bob Knight Head coach Fred Taylor Assistant coaches Jack Graf Frank Truitt

v t e Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball
Venues	The Armory (1897–1918) Fairgrounds Coliseum (1918–1956) St. John Arena (1956–1998) Value City Arena (1998–present)
Rivalries	Michigan
Culture & lore	Brutus Buckeye Buckeye Nuthouse WBNS WBNS-FM Ohio State Sports Network
People	Head coaches NBA players Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1897–98 1898–99 1899–1900 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
NCAA national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics

v t e NCAA Division I men's basketball champions
1939 Oregon 1940 Indiana 1941 Wisconsin 1942 Stanford 1943 Wyoming 1944 Utah 1945 Oklahoma A&M 1946 Oklahoma A&M 1947 Holy Cross 1948 Kentucky 1949 Kentucky 1950 CCNY 1951 Kentucky 1952 Kansas 1953 Indiana 1954 La Salle 1955 San Francisco 1956 San Francisco 1957 North Carolina 1958 Kentucky 1959 California 1960 Ohio State 1961 Cincinnati 1962 Cincinnati 1963 Loyola (IL) 1964 UCLA 1965 UCLA 1966 Texas Western 1967 UCLA 1968 UCLA 1969 UCLA 1970 UCLA 1971 UCLA 1972 UCLA 1973 UCLA 1974 NC State 1975 UCLA 1976 Indiana 1977 Marquette 1978 Kentucky 1979 Michigan State 1980 Louisville 1981 Indiana 1982 North Carolina 1983 NC State 1984 Georgetown 1985 Villanova 1986 Louisville 1987 Indiana 1988 Kansas 1989 Michigan 1990 UNLV 1991 Duke 1992 Duke 1993 North Carolina 1994 Arkansas 1995 UCLA 1996 Kentucky 1997 Arizona 1998 Kentucky 1999 Connecticut 2000 Michigan State 2001 Duke 2002 Maryland 2003 Syracuse 2004 Connecticut 2005 North Carolina 2006 Florida 2007 Florida 2008 Kansas 2009 North Carolina 2010 Duke 2011 Connecticut 2012 Kentucky 2013 Louisville (Vacated) 2014 UConn 2015 Duke 2016 Villanova 2017 North Carolina 2018 Villanova 2019 Virginia 2020 No tournament 2021 Baylor 2022 Kansas 2023 UConn 2024 UConn

NCAA Division I men's basketball champions