1971–72 Carolina Cougars season

ABA basketball team season August 2023 Carolina Cougars ABA 1972 35 49 5th Tom Meschery Greensboro ColiseumCharlotte ColiseumDorton Arena The 1971–72 Carolina Cougars season was the third season of the Cougars in the ABA and fifth season of the franchise when including their two seasons played as the Houston Mavericks. The team was 14–28 after the first half of the season, with a six-game losing streak (the longest of the season) contributing to their poor start. They then went 21–21 (with two instances of three game winning streaks) in the second half, but they ultimately lost the final spot in the playoffs by one game to The Floridians franchise. The two teams had met up for their final match-up of the season on March 24 in Greensboro, with the Cougars having two games to play afterwards and The Floridians having four left, respectively. The Floridians ended up winning that game with a 116–115 overtime victory, making their record 35–45 and the Cougars record at 33–49, which made it all but assured that the Cougars were eliminated from playoff contention this season due to The Floridians clinching the playoff spot four days later with their 36th win against the worst team of the Western Division, the Memphis Pros (if they had lost all four of their games played, the two teams would have been tied at 35–49, which would've necessitated a one-game playoff match to determine the final playoff spot in the Eastern Division). The Cougars had missed the playoffs for the second straight year in a row, with The Floridians later folding operations as a franchise months after their elimination in the 1972 ABA Playoffs. The team was fifth in points scored at 114.8 per game, but tenth in points allowed at 118.1 per game.https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CAR/1972_games.html 1971-72 Carolina Cougars Schedule and Results Following their season's end, the Cougars would replace head coach Tom Meschery with the debut of future Hall of Fame head coach (and former ABA All-Star MVP player) Larry Brown. During the regular season, the Cougars played 19 games in Greensboro, 14 in Charlotte, 6 in Raleigh, 3 in Winston-Salem, and one at Fort Bragg. ABA Draft 1971 ABA draft This draft was the first ABA draft to have a properly recorded historical note of every round in their draft available. Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 1 2 Elmore Smith C USA United States Kentucky State College 2 13 Rich Yunkus PF/C USA United States Georgia Tech 3 22 Gregg Northington C USA United States Alabama State 3 30 Ted McClain PG/SG USA United States Tennessee State 5 46 Luke Adams F USA United States Lamar State College Tech 6 57 Ron Rippletoe F USA United States David Lipscomb College 7 68 Ed Kemp F USA United States Adams State College 8 79 Kenneth Davis PG USA United States Georgetown College (Kentucky) 9 90 Dave Wohl PG USA United States Pennsylvania 10 101 Ken Mayfield SG USA United States Tuskegee Institute 11 112 Bobby McKenney C USA United States Pepperdine 12 122 Craig Love F USA United States Ohio 13 132 Bob Wenzel G USA United States Rutgers 14 141 Ron Dorsey SF USA United States Tennessee State 15 150 Hank Commodore G USA United States Northwestern State College 16 159 Frank Lorthridge PF/C USA United States Pan American College 17 167 Dan Fife G USA United States Michigan 18 174 Cliff Harris F USA United States Hardin–Simmons University 19 181 Steve Bilsky PG USA United States Pennsylvania Interestingly enough, despite the Cougars not having the #1 pick of the draft due to the Utah Stars making a trade with the Texas Chaparrals as they were known at the time the 1971 ABA draft first began, the Cougars would ultimately obtain the services of Western Kentucky University's Jim McDaniels (the official #1 pick of the ABA draft) all the same by getting the best deal for him out of anyone else involved with McDaniels' services at the time. McDaniels would later end up being named an ABA All-Star in his time with the Cougars. Not only that, but the Cougars would also be the only team with two third round draft picks (likely obtained by either a trade or multiple trades of some sort), though with the ordering of the third round teams being completely different from the other rounds during this draft year, it's unknown which team(s) Carolina might have traded with in order to obtain their third round selections this year.https://prosportstransactions.com/basketball/DraftTrades/Years/1971-aba.htm 1971 ABA Draft Pick Transactions Pro Sports Transactions December 23, 2024 ABA Special Circumstances Draft Before the regular season began for the ABA, they would host a unique little draft held in Memphis, Tennessee (home of the Memphis Pros) called the "Special Circumstances Draft" that was done in response to the NBA implementing a new mini-draft of theirs for college undergraduate players called the "Hardship Draft" during the 1971 NBA draft period. Similar to the "Hardship Draft" in the NBA, only a select few teams would actually end up participating in this specific draft (in this case, the Carolina Cougars, Denver Rockets, and New York Nets). Unlike the "Hardship Draft" for the NBA (which saw five players get selected in that specific draft), however, the "Special Circumstances Draft" that the ABA held on September 10, 1971 (the same day as the NBA's own "Hardship Draft") had only three total players (all junior players while in college) get selected in this draft, with two players get selected in the second round and one player selected in the fourth round (meaning no first round or third round draft picks were made in that draft and the second round actually held the #1 pick in this particular draft). Because of the unusual formatting, the Denver Rockets would technically get the #1 pick in this specific draft, while the Cougars got the #2 pick (fittingly in the second round) with their only selection there. Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 2 2 Phil Chenier SG USA United States California Phil Chenier would be the #2 pick of the "Special Circumstances Draft" and have success in both the NBA's "Hardship Draft" and ABA's "Special Circumstances Draft". Despite him being selected earlier in terms of pick numbers (being the #2 pick in the ABA as opposed to the #4 pick in the NBA for their respective drafts), Chenier would choose to play for the Baltimore Bullets (who would later become the Capital Bullets and then the Washington Bullets later in his career before being the Washington Wizards of the late 1990s) in the NBA over the Carolina Cougars in the ABA due in part to him being considered a first round talent by the NBA's standards. However, even though Chenier chose to play for the NBA instead of the ABA's Carolina Cougars, he would still get selected two more times by the ABA in later, equally gimmicky drafts: they would do with the Virginia Squires selecting him in 1973's "Senior Draft" despite him already playing in the NBA by this time and the New York Nets selecting him in 1974's "ABA Draft of NBA Players" in a failed attempt by the ABA to lure NBA players away from the rivaling league into their own. As such, Chenier would be one of the most selected players in NBA/ABA draft history.August 2026 Roster Carolina Cougars 1971–72 #005F30 #FFFFFF #1560BD #FFFFFF 27 Joe Caldwell SF 6 5 195 November 1, 1941 Arizona State 13 Frank Card SF 6 7 195 December 28, 1944 South Carolina State George Carter basketball SF 6 4 210 1944-01-10 St. Bonaventure 32 Warren Davis basketball PF 6 6 212 1943-06-30 North Carolina A&T 54 Randy Denton C 6 10 240 February 18, 1949 Duke 4 Ron Dorsey basketball, born 1948 F October 10, 1948 6 4 200 Tennessee State 35 Wayne Hightower PF 6 8 192 January 14, 1940 University of Kansas 13 Stew Johnson PF 6 8 220 August 19, 1944 Murray State 33 Wendell Ladner SF 6 5 220 1948-10-06 Southern Miss 21 George Lehmann PG 6 0 180 May 1, 1941 Campbell 23 Gene Littles PG 6 0 160 June 29, 1943 High Point University 22 Ed Manning PF 6 7 210 January 2, 1944 Jackson State University 24 Ted McClain SG 6 1 180 August 30, 1946 Tennessee State 1 Jim McDaniels C 6 11 228 April 2, 1948 Western Kentucky 44 Larry Miller basketball player SG 6 4 190 UNC 1946-04-04 52 Tom Owens C 6 10 215 June 28, 1949 South Carolina 33 George Stone basketball SF 6 7 195 February 9, 1946 Marshall 11 Bob Verga SG 6 1 190 September 7, 1945 Duke 21 Bob Warren basketball SG 6 5 190 July 17, 1946 Vanderbilt Tom Meschery https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CAR/1972.html Final standings Eastern Division + Team W L % GB Kentucky Colonels 68 16 .810 - Virginia Squires 45 39 .536 23 New York Nets 44 40 .524 24 The Floridians 36 48 .429 32 Carolina Cougars 35 49 .417 33 Pittsburgh Condors 25 59 .298 43 Awards, records, and honors 1972 ABA All-Star Game selection (game played on January 29, 1972) Jim McDaniels References Cougars on Basketball Reference Carolina Category:Carolina Cougars Carolina Cougars, 1971-72 Carolina Cougars, 1971-72