1967–68 Minnesota Muskies season

The 1967–68 Minnesota Muskies season was the first and only season of the Muskies in the newly created American Basketball Association. The team was created on February 2, 1967 for the price of $30,000 to L.P. Shields and Fred Jefferson. The team was named after a nickname for the Muskellunge, which is a fish found in Minnesota. The team did well on the court, finishing 2nd to the Pipers in the Eastern Division. In the playoffs, they made it to the Division Finals, but the Muskies lost in 5 games to the Pipers. However, this proved to be the only season for the Muskies due to losing money (reportedly $400,000) with middling attendance with minimal season tickets purchased (In the five playoff games played in Minnesota, they averaged 3,511 in attendance, with the highest being 8,357 for Game 3 of the Division Finals and the lowest being 661 for Game 1 of the Semifinals). A plan to play 9 games of next season in places around Minnesota and a television contract were curtailed, and the Muskies moved to Miami on May 24, 1968. However, basketball in Minnesota would not be curtailed for long, as the Pittsburgh Pipers moved to play in the same location

1967–68 Minnesota Muskies season
Head coachJim Pollard
ArenaMet Center
Results
Record50–28 (.641)
PlaceDivision: 2nd (Eastern)
Playoff finishLost in the Eastern Division Finals

Roster

Final standings

Eastern Division
TeamWLPCT.GB
Pittsburgh Pipers C5424.692–
Minnesota Muskies5028.6414
Indiana Pacers3840.48716
Kentucky Colonels3642.46218
New Jersey Americans3642.46218

Record vs. opponents
1967-68 ABA Records
Team ANA DAL DEN HOU IND KEN MIN NJA NOB OAK PIT
Anaheim —2–83–76–32–40–61–52–42–76–41–5
Dallas 8–2—4–58–23–35–12–43–34–67–22–4
Denver 7–35–4—6–34–22–42–45–15–57–32–4
Houston 3–62–83–6—3–33–33–33–30–107–32–4
Indiana 4–23–32–43–3—6–53–86–43–34–24–6
Kentucky 6–01–54–23–35–6—5–54–72–43–33–7
Minnesota 5–14–24–23–38–35–5—7–35–15–14–7
New Jersey 4–23–31–53–34–67–43–7—3–35–13–8
New Orleans 7–26–45–510–03–34–21–53–3—6–33–3
Oakland 4–62–73–73–72–43–31–51–53–6—0–6
Pittsburgh 5–14–24–24–26–47–37–48–33–36–0—

Playoffs

Eastern Division Semifinals[1]

GameDateLocationScoreRecordAttendance
1March 24Minnesota115–1021–0661
2March 26Minnesota95–1001–13,874
3March 27Kentucky116–1072–11,458
4March 29Kentucky86–942–24,472
5March 30Minnesota114–1083–2879

Muskies win series 3–2

Division Finals[1]

GameDateLocationScoreRecordAttendance
1April 4Pittsburgh117–1250–13,159
2April 6Pittsburgh137–1231–12,123
3April 10Minnesota99–1071–28,357
4April 13Minnesota108–1171–33,787
5April 14Pittsburgh105–1141–43,350

Muskies lose series, 4–1

Awards and honors

1968 ABA All-Star Game selections (game played on January 9, 1968)

Jim Pollard was selected to coach the Eastern squad.

References
  1. "1967-68 ABA Regular Season Standings". Remembertheaba.com. Archived from the original on 2010-11-29. Retrieved 2015-06-18.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.