The 2019–20 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. Led by third-year head coach Brad Underwood, the Illini played their home games at State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois as members of the Big Ten Conference. The Illini finished the season 21–10, 13–7 in Big Ten play to finish in fourth place. Their season ended following the cancellation of postseason tournaments due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Previous season The Illini finished the 2018–19 season 12–21, 7–13 in Big Ten play and finished in a three-way tie for 10th place. Due to the tie-breaking rules, they received the No. 11 seed in the Big Ten tournament where they defeated Northwestern in the first round before losing to Iowa in the second round.
Offseason The Illini took a trip to Italy and compiled a 3-1 record, beating the three Italian teams they faced and losing to the Dutch team. Cockburn and Feliz did not come on the trip due to visa issues.
Departures Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Notes Drew Cayce 3 G 6'1" 175 RS Junior Libertyville, IL Graduated Adonis de La Rosa 12 C 7'0" 265 RS Senior Bronx, NY Graduated Anthony Higgs 22 F 6'8" 215 Freshman Baltimore, MD Transferred to Chipola College Aaron Jordan 23 G 6'5" 210 Senior Plainfield, IL Graduated Samba Kane 34 C 7'0" 220 Freshman Dakar, Senegal Transferred to Indian Hills Community College
2019 recruiting class
Roster
Note: Alan Griffin would later be removed from the roster site due to transferring out of the program.
Schedule and results
!colspan=9 style=""|Italy Trip
!colspan=9 style=""|Exhibition
!colspan=9 style=""|Regular season
!colspan=9 style=""|Big Ten tournament |- !colspan=9 style=|Canceled |- !colspan=9 style=""|NCAA Tournament |- !colspan=9 style=|Canceled
Source
Rankings
*AP does not release post-NCAA Tournament rankings
References