1996–97 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

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

Schedule

SourceUniversity of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1996-97, FightingIllini.com

!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 PlayerGames Played2 pt. Field Goals3 pt. Field GoalsFree ThrowsReboundsAssistsBlocksStealsPointsKiwane Garris329576204113180252622Chris Gandy321201469181182128352Kevin Turner 325862217566132323Matt Heldman3242644711066141322Bryant Notree3282105811842122252Jarrod Gee 3286023123211014195Brian Johnson 3258153121641420172Victor Chukwudebe3237012695121286Jerry Hester 52061328130471Halim Abdullah 2655862501633Herb Caldwell 1720591009David Freeman 1740075148Jelani Boline 1500179041Jeff Reichardt 200020000

NCAA basketball tournament Southeast regional Illinois 90, Southern Cal 77 Tennessee-Chattanooga 75, Illinois 63 1997 NCAA Tournament

Awards and honors Kiwane Garris Associated Press All-American Honorable Mention Team Most Valuable Player

Team players drafted into the NBA PlayerNBA ClubRoundPick

Rankings

References