It has been 50 years since the last perfect NCAA champion. Indiana will be honored not far from home

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Bob Knight's halftime speech on March 29, 1976, was an instant classic.

Indiana's players remember walking into the locker room, down 35-29 to a Michigan team they'd already beaten twice in close games earlier that season with starting guard Bobby Wilkerson ruled out because of an injury. That's when the late Hall of Fame coach arrived and issued the challenge that fueled the comeback and made history.

Indiana responded with one of the most dominant halves in NCAA Tournament history, outscoring the Wolverines 57-33 to rally for an 86-68 victory in Philadelphia. It gave the Hoosiers their third national championship, Knight the first of his three crowns and it remains the last perfect season in Division I men's basketball 50 years later.

“The greatest game I remember,” starting forward Tom Abernethy recalled during the team’s February reunion. “We had 20 minutes to make history. It could have been the best half of basketball I’ve ever witnessed. The way he (Quinn Buckner) played, (Kent Benson) played unbelievably well in that second half, Scott (May), those three guys they were not going to be held back."

A half-century later, much to the surprise of the Hoosiers players who used The General's words to complete a two-year mission, they're still the last perfect team standing.

There were a number of undefeated champions before these Hoosiers and there have been close calls since, including Indiana State (31-1 in 1978-79), UNLV (34-1 in 1990-91), Wichita State (35-1 in 2013-14) and Kentucky's 38-0 start in 2014-15 befoe losing to Wisconsin in the Final Four.

The 1975-76 Hoosiers didn't just set the record for the most wins (32) by an undefeated national champion that season, they dominated opponents.

Knight's lineup featured six future NBA players, four of whom were top 11 picks, two All-Americans, the Associated Press National Player of the Year and one player, Buckner, who also was a 14th-round draft pick of the NFL's Washington Redskins.

They shot nearly 52% from the field, made nearly 200 more baskets than their foes, had 655 assists compared to 325 for opponents, posted an averaged victory margin of 17.3 points and won a record 37 consecutive Big Ten games over three years.

Three different organizations selected the team as the greatest March Madness squad in the event's first 75 years, though many longtime Hoosiers fans don't even think that was the school's top team of the decade.

One year earlier, the Indiana roster had eight future NBA players, outscored opponents by nearly 23 points per game and won their first 31 contests before falling 92-90 in the Elite Eight to Kentucky when May tried to play with a cast on his broken left arm. He finished with two points in seven minutes against a rival Indiana had routed 98-74 in December.

But as those players sat in that stunned locker room in March 1975, they didn't need Knight's words to console them. They were determined not to let it happen again.

“I'll tell you how good that team was,” Buckner said. “Coach Knight asked Scott and I when we were juniors, ‘Do you want to play UCLA in St. Louis?’ This is after we lost the Kentucky game, so we had our own blemishes to deal with and we immediately said yes. Then we go out there and pound them. They came back and one individual, I don’t want to mention his name, said that was a ‘practice game.’”

Indiana didn't back down from anybody that season, even after Benson suffered a serious wrist injury in win No. 14. Benson continued to play, taping his wrist for each game and wearing a cast when he wasn't playing.

A challenging schedule tested the Hoosiers' mettle, too.

After blasting UCLA 84-64 in the season opener, they beat Kentucky in overtime at Louisville. Then they had to win three games in three days in Madison Square Garden, all against New York City schools. Then came the injury and a handful of close calls in conference play before a brutal tournament pairing that required five straight wins over teams ranked in the top 17.

The run began with a 90-70 victory in a rematch with No. 17 St. John's. That was followed by a 74-69 victory over No. 6 Alabama and a 65-56 victory over No. 2 Marquette. Then came the emotional rematch with No. 5 UCLA in Philadelphia.

“I don’t normally look at games with revenge," Buckner said, referring to the practice game comment. “But with them after that statement and playing them in the Final Four, I wanted to bury them."

Indiana didn't disappoint, walking away with a 65-51 victory before closing it out by beating No. 9 Michigan for the third time.

The team will be honored before Monday night’s national championship game.

Knight long ago explained to his players the significance of what they had done. But with the Olympics and pro careers beckoning, the players admittedly didn't fully comprehend what Knight meant.

It finally hit as they watched other teams try and fail to match what they did decades ago, including undefeated Gonzaga losing the national title game to Baylor in 2021.

Still, the Hoosiers have never celebrated holding on to the title as college basketball' last perfect team.

“The Miami Dolphins thing does not happen where they pop the champagne because they, you know, were the last undefeated team. We don’t do that,” Buckner said.

It's not that they don't appreciate their moment in the spotlight each March. It's just that they'd embrace welcoming another team to the club, which numbers only seven teams and just four schools (San Francisco in 1956, North Carolina in 1957 and UCLA in 1964, '67 and 1972-73 are the others).

Strangely, the drought has gone on so long that Buckner, an Indiana board of trustee member, has even seen the long-suffering Hoosiers football team go 16-0 and win a national championship before seeing another men's team post a perfect season. With no end in sight, it's made Knight's words from a half-century ago feel relevant again.

"Coach (Knight) said at the conclusion of the ’76 season, ‘Fans should take a good look at the group because you’ll never see another group like it again,’” Buckner said. “All of us were young enough, stupid enough to not know what that meant. But obviously, that’s been the case.”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness