1993–94 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1993–94 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball

Illini Classic, Champion
NCAA Men's Division I Tournament, First Round
Conference	Big Ten Conference
1993–94 record	17–11 (10–8 Big Ten)
Head coach	Lou Henson
Assistant coach	Dick Nagy
Assistant coach	Jimmy Collins
Assistant coach	Mark Coomes
MVP	Deon Thomas
Captain	Tom Michael Deon Thomas T.J. Wheeler
Home arena	Assembly Hall

1993–94 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
#3 Purdue	14	–	4	.778	29	–	5	.853
#11 Michigan	13	–	5	.722	24	–	8	.750
#18 Indiana	12	–	6	.667	21	–	9	.700
# 23 Minnesota	10	–	8	.556	21	–	12	.636
Michigan State	10	–	8	.556	20	–	12	.625
Illinois	10	–	8	.556	17	–	11	.607
Wisconsin	8	–	10	.444	18	–	11	.621
Penn State	6	–	12	.333	13	–	14	.481
Ohio State	6	–	12	.333	13	–	16	.448
Northwestern	5	–	13	.278	15	–	14	.517
Iowa	5	–	13	.278	11	–	16	.407

Rankings from AP Poll *Minnesota vacated all NCAA tournament games due to sanctions against the program. Disputed record (22-13)

The 1993–94 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season

The 1993-94 season saw Illinois again advance to the NCAA Tournament and in the process, senior Deon Thomas broke a 13-year-old record and became the school’s all-time leading scorer. Thomas scored his record-breaking 1,693rd point in the championship game of the Illini/Pepsi Classic against American University and he went on to finish his career with 2,129 points. Also during this season, a young upstart freshman, Kiwane Garris, would begin his assault on the all-time scoring list. He notched 446 points as a freshman and would be the catalyst on the Illini team over the next few years.

Team

No.	Player	Hometown	High School	Class	Position
22	Kiwane Garris	Chicago, Illinois	Westinghouse High School	Fr.	Guard
24	Richard Keene	Collinsville, Illinois	Collinsville High School	So.	Guard
25	Deon Thomas (captain)	Chicago, Illinois	Simeon High School	Sr.	Forward/Center
30	Robert Bennett	Chicago, Illinois	Julian High School	Jr.	Forward
32	Tom Michael (captain)	Hoffman, Illinois	Carlyle High School	Sr.	Forward
34	Andy Kaufmann	Jacksonville, Illinois	Jacksonville High School	Sr.	Forward
35	Shelly Clark	Chicago, Illinois	South Shore High School	Jr.	Forward/Center
40	Jerry Hester	Peoria, Illinois	Manual High School	Fr.	Forward
42	Gene Cross	Olympia Fields, Illinois	Rich Central High School	Sr.	Guard
44	T.J. Wheeler (captain)	Buckner, Illinois	Christopher High School	Sr.	Guard
45	Chris Gandy	Kankakee, Illinois	Bradley Bourbanais High School	Fr.	Forward
52	Steve Roth	Belleville, Illinois	Belleville High School-East	Jr.	Center

Head Coach Lou Henson (19th year at Illinois) ^[1]

Schedule

Source^[2]

Date Time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (Attendance) City, State
Regular Season
12/1/1993* no, no	No. 16	vs. LaSalle	W 99-73	1-0	Assembly Hall (12,831) Champaign, IL
12/4/1993* no, no	No. 16	vs. Illinois-Chicago	W 101-80	2-0	Assembly Hall (16,321) Champaign, IL
12/7/1993* no, no	No. 16	@ Marquette	L 65-74	2-1	Bradley Center (14,195) Milwaukee, WI
12/10/1993* no, no	No. 16	vs. Morehead State Illini Classic	W 110-75	3-1	Assembly Hall (13,914) Champaign, IL
12/11/1993* no, no	No. 16	vs. American Illini Classic	W 108-84	4-1	Assembly Hall (14,523) Champaign, IL
12/18/1993* no, no	No. 19	vs. Chicago State	W 121-52	5-1	Assembly Hall (14,023) Champaign, IL
12/20/1993* no, no	No. 19	vs. Jackson State	W 79-63	6-1	Assembly Hall (11,997) Champaign, IL
12/22/1993* no, no	No. 19	vs. Missouri Braggin' Rights	L 107-108 ^3ot	6-2	St. Louis Arena (18,273) St. Louis, MO
1/2/1994* no, no	No. 22	vs. Texas	W 83-78	7-2	Assembly Hall (16,129) Champaign, IL
1/8/1994 no, no	No. 21	@ Michigan State	L 74-79	7-3 (0-1)	Breslin Student Events Center (12,118) East Lansing, MI
1/12/1994 no, no	No. NR	vs. Northwestern	W 81-53	8-3 (1-1)	Assembly Hall (14,229) Champaign, IL
1/15/1994 no, no	No. NR	@ Ohio State	W 83-75	9-3 (2-1)	St. John Arena (13,276) Columbus, OH
1/19/1994 no, no	No. NR	vs. Iowa	W 105-90	10-3 (3-1)	Assembly Hall (16,011) Champaign, IL
1/23/1994 no, no	No. NR	vs. #15 Michigan	L 70-74	10-4 (3-2)	Assembly Hall (16,321) Champaign, IL
1/25/1994 no, no	No. NR	@ #16 Wisconsin	L 56-66	10-5 (3-3)	Wisconsin Field House (11,500) Madison, WI
1/30/1994 no, no	No. NR	vs. #11 Indiana	W 88-81	11-5 (4-3)	Assembly Hall (16,321) Champaign, IL
2/2/1994 no, no	No. NR	@ Penn State	W 83-65	12-5 (5-3)	Rec Hall (7,103) University Park, PA
2/9/1994 no, no	No. 24	vs. Michigan State	W 72-64	13-5 (6-3)	Assembly Hall (14,676) Champaign, IL
2/12/1994 no, no	No. 24	@ Northwestern	L 68-79	13-6 (6-4)	Welsh-Ryan Arena (8,117) Evanston, IL
2/15/1994 no, no	No. NR	vs. Ohio State	W 80-68	14-6 (7-4)	Assembly Hall (15,096) Champaign, IL
2/19/1994 no, no	No. NR	@ Iowa	L 69-83	14-7 (7-5)	Carver–Hawkeye Arena (15,500) Iowa City, IA
2/22/1994 no, no	No. NR	@ #3 Michigan	L 70-79	14-8 (7-6)	Crisler Arena (13,548) Ann Arbor, MI
2/27/1994 no, no	No. NR	vs. Wisconsin	W 76-65	15-8 (8-6)	Assembly Hall (16,321) Champaign, IL
3/1/1994 no, no	No. NR	@ #17 Indiana	L 77-82	15-9 (8-7)	Assembly Hall (17,066) Bloomington, IN
3/5/1994 no, no	No. NR	vs. Penn State	W 84-59	16-9 (9-7)	Assembly Hall (16,321) Champaign, IL
3/9/1994 no, no	No. NR	@ #20 Minnesota	W 90-75	17-9 (10-7)	Williams Arena (15,267) Minneapolis, MN
3/13/1994 no, no	No. NR	@ #6 Purdue	L 77-87	17-10 (10-8)	Mackey Arena (14,123) West Lafayette, IN
NCAA Tournament
3/18/1994* no, no	No. 18	vs. Georgetown NCAA Tournament	L 77-84	17-11	Myriad Gardens (13,336) Oklahoma City, OK
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time.

Player stats

Player	Games Played	Field Goals	Three Pointers	Free Throws	Rebounds	Assists	Blocks	Steals	Points
Deon Thomas^[3]	28	207	0	133	194	43	37	23	548
Kiwane Garris^[4]	28	133	29	151	98	107	1	33	446
T.J. Wheeler^[5]	26	99	30	61	119	97	3	22	289
Shelly Clark^[6]	26	97	0	54	166	33	6	15	248
Jerry Hester^[7]	28	87	21	32	111	43	6	19	227
Richard Keene^[8]	28	81	48	14	97	113	4	30	224
Robert Bennett^[9]	28	49	0	43	103	10	6	16	141
Tom Michael^[10]	26	41	30	11	45	21	4	4	123

Awards and honors

Deon Thomas
- Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American
- Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)
- Team Most Valuable Player ^[11]

NCAA basketball tournament

Midwest
- Georgetown 84, Illinois 77

^[12]

Team players drafted into the NBA

Round	Pick	Player	NBA Club
2	1	Deon Thomas	Dallas Mavericks

^[13]

Rankings

Main article: 1993–94 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

References

Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball

Venues	Kenney Gym (1906–1925) Huff Hall (1926–1963) State Farm Center (1963–present) Prairie Capital Convention Center (2015)

Rivalries	Indiana Missouri

Culture & lore	Whiz Kids Flyin' Illini Orange Krush Fighting Illini Sports Network Oskee Wow-Wow Illinois Loyalty Chief Illiniwek

People	Head coaches NBA draftees Consensus All-Americans

Seasons	1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17

Helms and Premo-Porretta national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics

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