1973–74 Carolina Cougars season

ABA basketball team season August 2023 July 2016 Carolina Cougars ABA 1974 47 37 Eastern 3rd Larry Brown Greensboro ColiseumCharlotte ColiseumDorton Arena Lost in the Eastern Division Semifinals Spirits of St. Louis The 1973–74 Carolina Cougars season was the fifth and final season of the Cougars in the American Basketball Association and the team's seventh overall season of play when including the two seasons they played as the Houston Mavericks. Billy Cunningham (who had been named the MVP the previous season), Dennis Wuycik, and Mike Lewis were hobbled by injuries through the season, which meant the team struggled to gain much ground in the Division, though they finished consistently enough to qualify for a playoff spot for the second straight season. The Cougars finished 2nd in points scored, with 110.5 per game, but 6th in points allowed with 107.0 per game. The team was 26–16 by the midpoint of the season (with a seven-game winning streak in the middle of it), while going 21–21 for the second half of the season. The biggest losing streak by the Cougars was six games long, which was done near the end of the season, though by that point point in time, they had already clinched the third place spot in the ABA Playoffs, finishing 19 games above the Virginia Squires, who they beat 99–91 in their final regular season game at home. Once again, the Cougars faced the Kentucky Colonels in the playoffs, but once again the Colonels prevailed, this time in a First Round sweep. This turned out to be the final game the Cougars played. Owner Tedd Munchak sold the team after the season ended to a group of New York businessmen, which included Harry Weltman, Donald Schupak, Ozzie Silna and Daniel Silna for $1.5 million. The team subsequently moved to St. Louis to become the Spirits of St. Louis, playing for two seasons.https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CAR/1974_games.html 1973-74 Carolina Cougars Schedule and Results During the regular season, the Cougars played 21 games in Greensboro, 14 in Charlotte, and 7 in Raleigh; in the playoffs, the team played once in Greensboro, and once in Charlotte. The city of Charlotte in particular would not have another professional basketball team until the Charlotte Hornets first came to the NBA in 1988. That original iteration of the team would stay in the city until 2002 when that franchise first moved to New Orleans (another city that previously held an ABA team in the New Orleans Buccaneers) to become the New Orleans Hornets at the time (though they have since rebranded themselves to the New Orleans Pelicans as of 2013), while Charlotte would have a second NBA team two years later with the Charlotte Bobcats expansion team. Originally, the Hornets and Bobcats held separate histories as franchises properly before 2014 when the Bobcats rebranded themselves as the new iteration of the Charlotte Hornets. Once the new Hornets took place in the NBA, they were granted all of the old Hornets' team history up until their 2002 move to New Orleans alongside the more dubious Bobcats history, while the New Orleans team was allowed to keep the history of the New Orleans Hornets franchise as a part of their own (including the temporary moniker of the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets due to Hurricane Katrina) alongside the newer history of the New Orleans Pelicans. ABA Draft 1973 ABA draft Interestingly, this year's ABA draft would involve four different types of drafts throughout the early 1973 year: a "Special Circumstances Draft" on January 15, a "Senior Draft" on April 25, a "Undergraduate Draft" also on April 25, and a "Supplemental Draft" on May 18. As such, the following selections were made in these respective drafts by the Cougars, which could be considered the last official drafts the North Carolina-based franchise would do in the ABA while using the Carolina Cougars name if you don't include them using that team name during the 1974 ABA draft period. ABA Special Circumstances Draft Round Pick Player Position Nationality College 2 11 Bobby Jones PF USA United States North Carolina 2 12 Tommy Burleson C USA United States North Carolina State Interestingly, the Cougars were the only team from this specific draft to not have a first round draft picks from the "Special Circumstances Draft" in particular. Despite that notion, however, they would still have two selections in the second round of this specific draft, likely with all of those moves being done with trades involving other ABA teams like the Denver Rockets going down in the process at some point in time. In any case, both of the players the Cougars selected would be players that played college basketball somewhere in the state of North Carolina at the time of the draft, though neither player decided to go play for this franchise specifically either this season or the seasons after that point in time. ABA Senior Draft Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 1 10 Mel Davis PF USA United States St. John's 2 20 Nick Weatherspoon SF USA United States Illinois 4 40 Krešimir Ćosić C YUG YugoslaviaCRO Croatia Brigham Young University 5 50 Larry Hollyfield SG/SF USA United States UCLA 6 60 Joe Reaves SF USA United States Bethel College (Tennessee) 7 70 Ozie Edwards G USA United States Oklahoma City 8 80 Steve Becker G USA United States Yankton College 9 90 Abe Steward F USA United States Jacksonville 10 100 Gerald Smith C USA United States Detroit The "Senior Draft" done in April is often considered the official, main draft period of the 1973 ABA draft by basketball historians. Also, the Cougars would select the only player in the entire "Senior Draft" to eventually enter the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for their work as a player (as of 2025) in the Yugoslavian-born center Krešimir Ćosić, though Ćosić would get there primarily for his contributions playing professional basketball in his home nation before it got broken up in relation to the Revolutions of 1989 and the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, with his home land being modern-day Croatia nowadays. ABA Undergraduate Draft Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 11 (1) 110 (10) Maurice Lucas PF USA United States Marquette 12 (2) 120 (20) Kevin Restani PF/C USA United States San Francisco The "Undergraduate Draft" is considered a continuation of the "Senior Draft" that was done earlier that same day, hence the numbering of the rounds and draft picks here. ABA Supplemental Draft Round Pick Player Position(s) Nationality College 1 8 Cal Tatum PG USA United States Southern Colorado State 2 16 Steve Smith F USA United States Loyola University of Los Angeles 3 24 Bill Bailey F USA United States Catawba College 4 31 Dave Angel C USA United States Clemson 5 37 Carl Jackson F USA United States St. Bonaventure 6 44 Lynn Greer C USA United States Virginia State University 7 50 Dale Adams F USA United States St. Mary's College of Maryland 8 56 Terrence Murchison F USA United States Fayetteville State University In early online ABA Draft media outlets, Cal Tatum was misconstrued as the #1 pick of the "Supplemental Draft" (sometimes even being labelled as someone that was drafted by the wrong team there) due to the lack of proper ordering involved with that particular draft in mind when compared to the other drafts involved before recent discoveries helped provide a proper draft order for the "Supplemental Draft" to go alongside the other drafts done this year by the ABA. (To clarify on that regard, some media outlets chose to order draft picks done by a first name basis over anything else in mind for the "Supplemental Draft", meaning Cal Tatum was sometimes regarded as the #1 pick of that specific draft just because his name was considered the first one up in name ordering for "Supplemental Draft" prospects in the first round. On the contrary, Cal Tatum would be considered the last first round pick in that specific draft so long as the ordering of the "Senior Draft" and "Undergraduate Draft" beforehand remains firm and true here with this draft since it'd be using the same season-ending results on display, minus the fact that both the Indiana Pacers and New York Nets both declined being involved with this specific draft entirely for currently unknown reasons.) Outside of that notion, however, none of the eight players that the Cougars selected would end up playing for them this season or for anyone else either in the ABA or NBA afterward. Roster Carolina Cougars 1973–74 #009744 #FFFFFF #012F6B #FFFFFF 27 Joe Caldwell SF 6 5 195 November 1, 1941 Arizona State 20 Mack Calvin PG 6 0 165 July 27, 1947 USC 53 Jim Chones C 6 11 220 November 30, 1949 Marquette 32 Billy Cunningham SF 6 6 210 June 3, 1943 UNC 21 Steve Jones basketball SG 6 5 205 October 17, 1942 Oregon 42 Mike Lewis basketball C 6 8 225 March 18, 1946 Duke 23 Gene Littles PG 6 0 160 June 29, 1943 High Point University 22 Ed Manning SF 6 7 210 January 2, 1944 Jackson State University 24 Ted McClain SG 6 1 180 August 30, 1946 Tennessee State 52 Tom Owens PF 6 10 215 June 28, 1949 South Carolina 31 Marv Roberts PF 6 8 200 January 29, 1950 Utah State University 14 Ollie Taylor SG 6 2 194 March 7, 1947 Houston 44 Dennis Wuycik SF 6 6 215 March 29, 1950 UNC Larry Brown https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/CAR/1974.html Final standings Eastern Division + Team W L % GB New York Nets 55 29 .655 - Kentucky Colonels 53 31 .631 2 Carolina Cougars 47 37 .560 8 Virginia Squires 28 56 .333 27 Memphis Tams 21 63 .250 34 ABA Playoffs 1974 ABA Playoffs Carolina Cougars 1974 yes #012F6B #FFFFFF Carolina Cougars ABA Eastern Division Semifinals yes no yes #009744 #FFFFFF 0 2 0 2 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 1 | April 1 | @ Kentucky | L 102–118 | Mack Calvin (21) | Jim Chones (7) | Gene Littles (6) | Freedom Hall6,749 | 0–1 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 2 | April 5 |Kentucky | L 96–99 | Calvin, McClain (20) | Joe Caldwell (13) | Mack Calvin (5) | Greensboro Coliseum8,638 | 0–2 |- |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 3 | April 6 | Kentucky | L 110–120 | Mack Calvin (25) | Jim Chones (9) | Caldwell, Littles (3) | Charlotte Coliseum3,724 | 0–3 |- |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 4 | April 8 | @ Kentucky | L 119–128 | Mack Calvin (31) | McClain, Cunningham, Caldwell (7) | Gene Littles (7) | Freedom Hall5,243 | 0–4 |- CAR 1974 yes Awards and honors 1974 ABA All-Star Game selections (game played on January 30, 1974) Mack Calvin Ted McClain References 2 Cougars on Basketball Reference External links RememberTheABA.com 1973-74 regular season and playoff results RememberTheABA.com Carolina Cougars page Category:Carolina Cougars Carolina Carolina Cougars, 1973-74 Carolina Cougars, 1973-74