Before college basketball became the one and done place of athletics, college players played …4 years and were polished when they went on to the pros…such was the case for Scott May. He played all four years at Indiana and led the Hoosiers to the National Title in 1976.
In his last two seasons with the school, 1974-75 and 1975-76, the Hoosiers were undefeated in the regular season and won 37-consecutive Big Ten games. The 1974-75 Hoosiers swept the entire Big Ten by an average of 22.8 points per game. However, in an 83-82 win against Purdue, May broke his left arm. With May’s injury keeping him to 7 minutes of play, the No. 1 Hoosiers lost to Kentucky 92-90 in the Mideast Regional. The Hoosiers were so dominant that four starters – May, Steve Green, Kent Benson and Quinn Buckner – would make the five-man All-Big Ten team. The following season, 1975–76, the Hoosiers went the entire season and 1976 NCAA tournament without a single loss, beating Michigan 86–68 in the title game. Indiana remains the last school to accomplish this feat.
May was the 1975-76 team’s leading scorer, “its most dependable clutch scorer, and an outstanding defensive player and rebounder, too.” He was named NCAA men’s basketball National Player of the Year in 1976. He won a gold medal as a member of the United States basketball team in the 1976 Summer Olympics. May graduated from Indiana in the standard four years with a degree in education.
The Chicago Bulls chose May with the second overall pick in the 1976 NBA Draft. He made the NBA All-Rookie team after averaging 14.2 points for the Bulls. Injuries kept him to seven seasons in the NBA, scoring 3,690 points and pulling down 1,450 rebounds. He went on to play seven more years in Europe with Torino, Rome and Livorno in the Italian league.
Smallthoughts: Old School Tuesday spotlights…Scott May.
| Career history | |
|---|---|
| 1976–1981 | Chicago Bulls |
| 1981–1982 | Milwaukee Bucks |
| 1982 | Detroit Pistons |
| 1983 | Cidneo Brescia (Italy) |
| 1983–1986 | Berloni Torino (Italy) |
| 1986 | Virtus Banco di Roma (Italy) |
| 1986–1988 | Enichem Livorno (Italy) |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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| Career NBA statistics | |
| Points | 3,690 (10.4 ppg) |
| Rebounds | 1,450 (4.1 rpg) |
| Assists | 610 (1.7 apg |
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