The Dentist: Terry Dischinger
Terry Dischinger is a 6'7" Small Forward/Shooting Guard drafted by the Chicago Zephyrs (now the Washington Wizards) as the 10th pick in the 1962 NBA Draft. Before joining the Zephyrs, he played three seasons for the Purdue Boilermakers. Dischinger played Center for all three seasons since no one on the team was taller than him.
College Years (1959-62)
Unfortunately, the Boilermakers would not make the NCAA Tournament while Terry Dischinger was there since everybody besides him was, to put it lightly, not good. In his first season (1959-60) with the Boilermakers, they would go 11-12 (42.9 W/L%) and were the sixth seed in the Big Ten Conference. Not a single player outside of Dischinger scored more than ten points.
Here are the stats between Dischinger and the second-best player's, Jerry Berkshire's stats:
T. Dischinger: 26.3 Points and 14.3 Rebounds (54.6 FG% and 78.1 FT%)
J. Berkshire: 9.0 Points and 6.0 Rebounds (37.2 FG% and 73.3 FT%)
Thankfully, Terry Dischinger would start to get teammates that would average more than 10 points over the following seasons! In the second season, the Boilermakers went 16-7 (71.4 W/L%) and went second in the Big Ten Conference. In the third season, the team would get a better record, going 17-7 (64.3 W/L%), but ended up seeding worse, going third.
In his final season, he averaged:
30.3 Points and 13.4 Rebounds
53.7 FG% and 83.4 FT%
Once Dischinger left the Boilermakers, the team went from third to the last seed in the Big Ten Conference, going 7-17 (29.2 W/L%). He would leave the team with three Consensus All-Americans and All-Big Ten selections.
During his second season (1960) with the Boilermakers, Terry Dischinger was selected to play for USA's Olympic Basketball team. Besides points, his stats during the Olympics are unknown. He ended up averaging 11.5 points and was the fourth-leading scorer behind NBA greats like Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas, and Jerry West. The team would end up winning Gold!
First Three Seasons in the NBA (1962-65)
In Terry Dischinger's first season in the NBA (1962-63), he played for the Chicago Zephyrs. While playing for the Zephyrs, he was still at Purdue University, finishing his Senior year to get his Chemical Engineering Degree. What's crazy is that he was playing 40 MINUTES per game as a rookie! The Zephyrs' previous draft pick (1961), Walt Bellamy, also played 40 minutes per game!
The Zephyrs were a new team, starting in 1961, so they were VERY reliant on their younger players. There was not a single player above the age of 30.
In his first season, Dischinger averaged:
25.5 Points, 8.0 Rebounds, 3.1 Assists
51.2 FG%, 77.0 FT%
40.2 Minutes
The only player that was better than Dischinger was Bellamy, who averaged 27.9 points and 16.4 rebounds on even better efficiency (52.7 FG%)! However, despite the youngsters' impressive performances, the Zephyrs' regular season was not the best. They finished with a 25-55 (31.3 W/L%) record and were the last seed in the Western Conference.