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1996–97 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

American college basketball season

American college basketball season

FieldValue
modeBasketball
year1996–97
teamIllinois Fighting Illini
image1996–97 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team.jpg
image_size300px
conferenceBig Ten Conference
short_confBig Ten
APRank19
record22–10
conf_record11–7
head_coachLon Kruger
asst_coach1Robert McCullum
asst_coach2Rob Judson
asst_coach3Mike Shepherd
hc_year1st
ac1_year1st
ac2_year1st
ac3_year1st
captainHerb Caldwellcaptain2=Kiwane Garriscaptain3=Chris Gandy
mvpKiwane Garris
stadiumAssembly Hall
championIllini Classic, Champion
bowl[NCAA men's Division I tournament](1997-ncaa-division-i-men-s-basketball-tournament)
bowl_result[second round](1997-ncaa-division-i-men-s-basketball-tournament)

The 1996–97 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season

On March 21, 1996, a new era in Illinois basketball began when Director of Athletics Ron Guenther introduced Lon Kruger as the University’s 14th men’s basketball coach. Kruger came to Illinois from the University of Florida and carried a list of impressive credentials, including guiding Florida to the Final Four in 1994. In his first year at Illinois, Kruger guided Illinois to a 22–10 record and the second round of the NCAA tournament. Over the course of the season, Illinois defeated five ranked opponents, including No. 7 Minnesota, 96–90, at the Assembly Hall. Illinois also traveled to Bloomington and handed Indiana a 78–74 loss, the first win for Illinois at Assembly Hall in Bloomington since 1990. During the course of the year, Kiwane Garris etched his name in the Illinois record book with one of the best season performances by any Illini player in history. He finished his career second on the all-time scoring list with 1,948 points and set the single-season record for free throws made and attempted. Garris averaged 19.4 points and missed being the Big Ten’s leading scorer by three one-hundredths of a point.

Roster

  • Lon Kruger (Kansas State) (1st year)
  • Rob Judson (University of Illinois) (1st year)
  • Robert McCullum (Seminole State) (1st year)
  • Mike Shepherd (Kansas State) (1st year)

Schedule

Source

|- !colspan=12 style="background:#DF4E38; color:white;"| Non-Conference regular season |- !colspan=9 style="background:#DF4E38; color:#FFFFFF;"|Big Ten regular season |- !colspan=9 style="text-align: center; background:#DF4E38"|NCAA tournament |-

Player stats

Illinois Fighting Illinicolor=white}}"PlayerIllinois Fighting Illinicolor=white}}"Games PlayedIllinois Fighting Illinicolor=white}}"2 pt. Field GoalsIllinois Fighting Illinicolor=white}}"3 pt. Field GoalsIllinois Fighting Illinicolor=white}}"Free ThrowsIllinois Fighting Illinicolor=white}}"ReboundsIllinois Fighting Illinicolor=white}}"AssistsIllinois Fighting Illinicolor=white}}"BlocksIllinois Fighting Illinicolor=white}}"StealsIllinois Fighting Illinicolor=white}}"Points
Kiwane Garris329576204113180252622
Chris Gandy321201469181182128352
Kevin Turner325862217566132323
Matt Heldman3242644711066141322
Bryant Notree3282105811842122252
Jarrod Gee3286023123211014195
Brian Johnson3258153121641420172
Victor Chukwudebe3237012695121286
Jerry Hester52061328130471
Halim Abdullah2655862501633
Herb Caldwell1720591009
David Freeman1740075148
Jelani Boline1500179041
Jeff Reichardt200020000

NCAA basketball tournament

  • Southeast regional
    • Illinois 90, Southern Cal 77
    • Tennessee-Chattanooga 75, Illinois 63

Awards and honors

Team players drafted into the NBA

Illinois Fighting Illinicolor=white}}"PlayerIllinois Fighting Illinicolor=white}}"NBA ClubIllinois Fighting Illinicolor=white}}"RoundIllinois Fighting Illinicolor=white}}"Pick

Rankings

Main article: 1996–97 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

References

References

  1. [https://fightingillini.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule/1996-97 University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1996-97], FightingIllini.com
  2. "Season Stats pg. 124".
  3. "Season Stats pg. 124".
  4. "Season Stats pg. 124".
  5. "Season Stats pg. 124".
  6. "Season Stats pg. 124".
  7. "Season Stats pg. 124".
  8. "Season Stats pg. 124".
  9. "Season Stats pg. 124".
  10. [http://www.databasesports.com/ncaab/tourney.htm?yr=1997 1997 NCAA Tournament]
  11. "List of MVPs".
  12. {{usurped
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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