March 3, 1979 — In a road win against Illinois, Indiana’s Mike Woodson exploded for 48 points — two-thirds of the team’s total — on 18-of-27 shooting, plus 12-of-14 free throws. It was the third-highest single-game total in program history.
The outburst came against the No. 1 ranked field goal defense in the nation. Points wise, it’s the third-best single-game effort by a Big Ten player against Illinois.
The 48 points were the most by any player in Bob Knight’s 3-school, 43-year, 1,273-game coaching career. And Woodson did it in a must-win schedule-ending game on the road at Illinois to squeeze the Hoosiers into the 1979 NIT, then led them to the championship. Indiana defeated Illinois 72-60.
Woodson scored the game’s first eight points, he had 29 points in the first half, and with 14:49 remaining in the second half, he had 37 points by himself while Illinois had 36 as a team.
In an April 2021 interview, Woodson told the New York Post the game was his favorite IU basketball memory:
My junior year at Indiana [1978-79], I remember Coach coming to a breakfast meeting, we were in Champaign, Illinois, playing University of Illinois. He turned the newspaper on my table in front where I was sitting at breakfast with the team that morning. I never read the paper about just what was going on, I was so in tune to just doing what I needed to do on and off the court with Coach Knight. And I read the paper, and it says, “Mike Woodson, second-team All-Big Ten.” And Coach was upset, ’cause he thought I should have been first-team All-Big Ten. So that night, I went out and the basketball gods shines down on me that night (chuckle). I scored 48 points against Illinois. And after the game, Coach did his postgame interview with the reporters and he said, “It’s a travesty that this young man is not first-team All-Big Ten. And the next day they put me on first-team All-Big Ten. It’s the first time they’ve ever had six players on the first team All-Big Ten in the history of the Big Ten. I didn’t go out after reading the paper saying that I was gonna score 48 points. It just happened that way. My teammates had a lot to do with it by getting me the ball, and I just happened to have a hot night. That was Coach Knight fighting for his player, so I thank him for that.
44 years later, Woodson would coach the second highest point total scored by an Indiana player at Illinois when Trayce Jackson-Davis dropped 35 points last season.
You can watch just over a minute of Woodson’s performance below.
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