The 2011–12 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in the 2011–12 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. This was head coach Bruce Weber's ninth and final season at Illinois. The Illini played their home games at Assembly Hall and were members of the Big Ten Conference.
Pre-season Departures Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Notes Mike Davis 24 F 6'6" 225 Senior Alexandria, VA Graduated/Pro for BC Ferro-ZNTU (Ukraine) Bill Cole 30 F 6'9" 215 Senior Peoria, IL Graduated/Pro for Cheshire Jets (England) Demetri McCamey 32 G 6'3" 200 Senior Bellwood, IL Graduated/Pro for Mersin BB (Turkey) Mike Tisdale 54 F 7'1" 235 Senior Riverton, IL Graduated/Pro for DJK Würzburg (Germany)
2011–12 incoming team members Prior to the 2011–12 season, Illinois welcomed seven new players into the program. The 2011 recruiting class was ranked No. 13 by Scout.com and No. 11 by both Rivals.com and ESPNU. The class was celebrated for its talent and depth, and is the second class in a row that has revived top-15 national rankings. Six true freshman; Tracy Abrams, Myke Henry, Devin Langford, Nnanna Egwu, Mike Shaw, and Ibby Djimde as well as one transfer senior, Sam Maniscalco joined the 2011–12 team. Maniscalso transferred from Bradley University after graduating in May 2011. Because Bradley did not offer the graduate program he enrolled in at Illinois, Maniscalco was eligible to play immediately.
2011 Recruiting Class
Italy Trip Prior to the start of fall semester classes, the team embarked on a 10-day international tour of Italy in August, 2011. With stops in Rome, Florence, Venice, and Como the trip was a combination of basketball, sightseeing, and team-building. The team played four full games, which included wins over Roma Select, Castellanza Select, and Fulgor Omegna as well as an overtime loss to the New Zealand National team Also, the Illini traveled to Aviano Air Base, where Illinois played West Virginia in a 20-minute scrimmage and the Aviano varsity team in a 10-minute scrimmage.
Roster
Schedule
!colspan=12 style="background:#DF4E38; color:white;"| Italy Trip
!colspan=12 style="background:#DF4E38; color:white;"| Exhibition
!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"|Big Ten tournament
National rankings
+ Regular season pollsPoll Pre-Season Week1 Week2 Week3 Week4 Week5 Week6 Week7 Week8 Week9 Week10 Week11 Week12 Week13 Week14 Week15 Week16 Week17 Week18 Final AP (RV) (RV) (RV) (RV) 24 19 25 (RV) (RV) 22 (RV) (RV) Coaches (RV) (RV) T-22 19 24 (RV) (RV) (RV) 25 (RV) Record when polls released 0–0 1–0 3–0 6–0 8–0 10–0 10–1 11–2 12–3 14–3 15–3 15–5 15–6 16–7 16–9 16–11 17–12 17–14 17–15 17–15 + Legend Increase in ranking Decrease in ranking No change (RV) Received votes T Tied
Season Statistics Legend GP Games played GS Games started Avg Average per game FG Field-goals made FGA Field-goal attempts Off Offensive rebounds Def Defensive rebounds A Assists TO Turnovers Blk Blocks Stl Steals High Team high
+ Individual player statistics Minutes Scoring Total FGs 3-point FGs Free-throws Rebounds Player GP GS Tot Avg Pts Avg FG FGA Pct 3FG 3FA Pct FT FTA Pct Off Def Tot Avg A TO Blk Stl Paul, Brandon 32 30 1070 33.4 469 14.7 145 370 .392 54 162 .333 125 172 .727 30 121 151 4.7 94 109 27 46 Leonard, Meyers 32 30 1018 31.8 434 13.6 170 291 .584 1 11 .091 93 127 .732 73 189 262 8.2 43 68 60 15 Richardson, D.J. 32 31 1106 34.6 372 11.6 130 336 .387 71 204 .348 41 53 .774 28 68 96 3 55 44 5 27 Bertrand, Joseph 32 14 644 20.1 209 6.5 92 171 .538 3 10 .300 22 30 .733 23 63 86 2.7 43 37 5 11 Maniscalco, Sam 28 13 677 24.2 171 6.1 56 151 .371 27 96 .281 32 39 .821 7 46 53 1.9 64 27 0 15 Griffey, Tyler 30 20 496 16.5 146 4.9 59 137 .431 16 56 .286 12 16 .750 44 56 100 3.3 18 26 11 13 Abrams, Tracy 32 19 674 21.1 136 4.3 49 120 .408 9 35 .257 29 46 .630 22 50 72 2.3 60 50 0 14 Henry, Myke 22 0 179 8.1 70 3.2 28 62 .452 4 25 .160 10 15 .667 11 14 25 1.1 2 9 3 7 Egwu, Nnanna 32 3 313 9.8 60 1.9 27 57 .474 0 0 .000 6 13 .462 21 27 48 1.5 6 22 20 6 Head, Crandall 9 0 83 9.2 9 1 4 17 .235 0 5 .000 1 1 1.000 1 4 5 0.6 9 9 0 5 Shaw, Mike 20 0 139 7 17 0.9 6 21 .286 1 6 .167 4 10 .400 11 26 37 1.9 5 13 1 2 Djimde, Ibby 17 0 61 3.6 5 0.3 1 6 .167 0 0 .000 3 7 .429 2 12 14 0.8 0 6 0 1 Selus, Jean 9 0 9 1 0 0 0 2 .000 0 1 .000 0 0 .000 0 1 1 0.1 1 0 0 0 Berardini, Kevin 7 0 6 0.9 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Team 47 48 95 10 Total 32 6475 2098 65.6 767 1741 .441 186 611 .304 378 529 .715 320 725 1045 32.7 400 430 132 162 Opponents 32 6476 2055 64.2 712 1659 .429 208 549 .379 423 601 .704 298 704 1002 31.3 379 425 78 200
Notes
References