1973–74 Carolina Cougars season

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 2nd 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 team was 6, done near the end of the season, but by that point they had clinched the third spot in the playoffs, finishing 19 games above Virginia, who they beat in their final regular season game at home, 99–91. 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.^[1]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

1974 ABA All-Star Game selections (game played on January 30, 1974)

• Mack Calvin
• Ted McClain

• Cougars on Basketball Reference

• RememberTheABA.com 1973-74 regular season and playoff results
• RememberTheABA.com Carolina Cougars page