1918–19 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1918–19 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
Minnesota	10	–	0	1.000	13	–	0	1.000
Chicago	10	–	2	.833	21	–	6	.778
Northwestern	6	–	4	.600	6	–	6	.500
Michigan	5	–	5	.500	18	–	6	.750
Illinois	5	–	7	.417	6	–	8	.429
Indiana	4	–	6	.400	10	–	7	.588
Iowa	4	–	7	.364	8	–	7	.533
Purdue	4	–	7	.364	6	–	8	.429
Wisconsin	3	–	9	.250	5	–	11	.313
Ohio State	2	–	6	.250	7	–	12	.368

The 1918–19 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season

The 1918–19 season for the Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team, was the lowest point for head coach Ralph Jones during his tenure at the University of Illinois. Jones experienced his only losing season as a Big Ten coach, as a matter of fact, this was the only losing season he would have in career spanning nearly 35 years. Jones, who coached the Purdue Boilermakers men's basketball team for three seasons prior to coming to Illinois, had never lost more than 6 games during any conference campaign.^[1] The record the Illini would possess at the conclusion of the 1918–19 season would overall be 6 wins, 8 losses with a 6 win 6 loss conference mark. The starting lineup included captain Burt Ingwersen, Benjamin Mittleman and Ralph Fletcher at the forward positions, K.L. Wilson at center, and W.K. Kopp and P.C. Taylor as guards.^[2]

Roster

Player	Position	Class	Hometown
Ralph Fletcher	Right Forward, Left Forward	Sophomore	Champaign, Illinois
Burt Ingwersen	Left Forward, Right Forward	Junior	Urbana, Illinois
John S. Probst	Center	Junior	East Aurora, Illinois
Paul C. Taylor	Right Guard	Junior	New Orleans, Louisiana
Kenneth L. Wilson	Center	Junior	Wilmette, Illinois
William K. Kopp	Left Guard	Sophomore	Beverly Farms, Massachusetts
Benjamin F. Mittleman	Left Forward	Senior
George Clifford Buchheit	Right Guard	Sophomore	Beardstown, Illinois
Daniel Willard Smith	Right Forward	Freshman	Bellflower, Illinois
T. Johnson	Right Guard

Head Coach: Ralph Jones (7th year at Illinois)

^[3]

Schedule

Source^[4]

Date time, TV	Opponent	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
1/3/1919* no, no	vs Great Lakes	L 26–28	0-1 (0-0)	Kenney Gym (467) Urbana, IL
1/10/1919* no, no	vs Millikin University	W 37–17	1-1 (0-0)	Kenney Gym (577) Urbana, IL
1/18/1919 no, no	vs Purdue	L 13–16	1-2 (0-1)	Kenney Gym (1,519) Urbana, IL
1/20/1919 no, no	vs Ohio State	W 25–20	2-2 (1-1)	Kenney Gym (1,462) Urbana, IL
1/25/1919 no, no	@ Wisconsin	W 25–15	3-2 (2-1)	University of Wisconsin Armory and Gymnasium (-) Madison, WI
1/27/1919 no, no	@ Minnesota	L 17–36	3-3 (2-2)	University of Minnesota Armory (-) Minneapolis, MN
2/1/1919 no, no	@ Michigan	W 27–23	4-3 (3-2)	Waterman Gymnasium (-) Ann Arbor, MI
2/8/1919 no, no	@ University of Chicago	L 12–17	4-4 (3-3)	Bartlett Gymnasium (-) Chicago, IL
2/15/1919 no, no	vs Wisconsin	W 16–14	5-4 (4-3)	Kenney Gym (1,774) Urbana, IL
2/21/1919 no, no	@ Purdue	W 25–18	6-4 (5-3)	Memorial Gymnasium (-) West Lafayette, IN
2/24/1919 no, no	@ Ohio State	L 15–32	6-5 (5-4)	Ohio Expo Center Coliseum (-) Columbus, OH
3/1/1919 no, no	vs University of Chicago	L 15–17	6-6 (5-5)	Kenney Gym (2,126) Urbana, IL
3/3/1919 no, no	vs Minnesota	L 9–26	6-7 (5-6)	Kenney Gym (1,485) Urbana, IL
3/10/1919 no, no	vs Michigan	L 18–22	6-8 (5-7)	Kenney Gym (1,329) Urbana, IL
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time.

Bold Italic connotes conference game

Player stats

Player	Games Played	Field Goals	Free Throws	Points
Kenneth Wilson^[5]	14	28	53	109
Paul Taylor^[6]	12	24	6	54
Ralph Fletcher^[7]	12	23	2	48
Bert Ingwersen^[8]	13	10	0	20
Benjamin Mittleman^[9]	13	8	1	17
D.W. Smith^[10]	7	6	1	13

Awards and honors

References

^ A Century of Orange and Blue: Celebrating 100 Years of Fighting Illini Basketball By Loren Tate, Jared Gelfond pg.17 ISBN 1-58261-793-7
^ Fighting Illini Basketball: A Hardwood History By News-Gazette, Sports Publishing LLC ISBN 1-58261-356-7
^ [1]
^ University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1918-19, FightingIllini.com
^ http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-baskbl/records/year-1918.html
^ http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-baskbl/records/year-1918.html
^ http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-baskbl/records/year-1918.html
^ http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-baskbl/records/year-1918.html
^ http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-baskbl/records/year-1918.html
^ http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-baskbl/records/year-1918.html

v t e Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
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Helms and Premo-Porretta national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics