This year celebrates the centennial season of men's basketball at Tennessee. The News Sentinel continues its series looking into the players, teams and events that have molded an exciting history.
When the 1967-68 basketball season opened, Tennessee wasn't sure who would replace the scoring punch of departed All-American Ron Widby. But the Vols knew exactly who was going to get the ball in the scorers' hands.
That was Bill Hann, a junior guard from Cleveland, Ohio.
Hann was never better at his job than in the SEC opener at Alabama on Jan. 6, 1968. In fact, nobody in the SEC was ever better than Hann was that day.
UT had never won a game in Alabama's Foster Auditorium, which would shut its doors at season's end in favor of the new Coleman Coliseum.
The Vols made good on their last try, romping by 82-63, with Hann propelling the offense along with 19 assists.
Bobby Croft scored 22 points, Bill Justus 21, Tom Hendrix 18 and Tom Boerwinkle 10.
Hann's accomplishment wasn't celebrated, at least not in print. The News-Sentinel account of the game includes one sentence at the end of a paragraph listing the scoring leaders: "Hann had 19 assists."
Two days later a newspaper story said that coach Ray Mears thought the 19 assists might be an SEC record. Box scores didn't tabulate assists in 1967-68, so it's unclear if anyone had 19 up to that point.
Perhaps Hann's day inspired the school to keep track. Both the SEC and Tennessee started recording assists in 1968-69. Hann dished out 173 that year as a senior, an average of 6.2 per game.
Hann's 19 is listed in the SEC record book as the single-game record, matched by LSU's Kenny Higgs in 1977. The NCAA record is 22.
Hann also averaged 7.2 points over his three-year career. The Vols won at least 20 games in all three of his seasons and never finished worse than second in the SEC.
The closest any Vol has come came to Hann's 19 assists in the years since was 16, by Bert Bertelkamp (in a 1980 NCAA tournament game), Johnny Darden (1977) and Rodney Woods (1975).
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Comments » 7
johnlg00 writes:
Hahn couldn't shoot it a lick, except at the free-throw line, but he controlled the ball like a yo-yo on a string. Not sure what his assist-to-turnover ration was--bball stats were not that sophisticated in those days--but he sure didn't turn it over much. He was also an excellent defender, having the main responsibility for covering Pete Maravich. Even though he needed a lot of help, the Vols did a better job of holding Maravich than almost anybody. For those who think Mears only used the 1-3-1 zone, against LSU, Hahn shadowed Maravich while the rest of the team played essentially a 3-1 zone.
snoopbob87 writes:
Hahn was a roll player. He took care of the ball, brought it down court with some help from his pal Justus. With John Ward making the radio call, coach Mears & Aberdeen setting the offense it was a great show and time for UT basketball.
ect1983 writes:
Billy Hann frustrated Pete Maravich so badly that Pistol hated Tennessee. In fact, Maravich played 4 games against Hann and never scored more than 21.....while averaging 44. (As a freshman,Maravich was guarded by Kerry Myers in a box and one....LSU's frosh team's only loss was against the Vols...and Maravich was held to his lowest output of the year). After Hann graduated,Maravich killed us down in Baton Rouge,but Rudy kinard hit a last second shot from the corner to beat LSU by a point up here that year.
sambad writes:
Hann would guard Pete staying to his right so that Pete had to go left. He didn't shoot the ball as well going left.
bgorngvol writes:
well stated!
CaliforTN writes:
The Hahn era was when I was about 12, laying on the floor in front of the radio listening to John Ward. You couldn't expect anybody to fill John Ward's shoes...or Ray Mears!
GeneralNeylandsReturn writes:
No but he would still throw it up with his left
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