1982–83 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1982–83 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball

Illini Classic, Champion
NCAA Men's Division I Tournament, First Round
Conference	Big Ten Conference
1982–83 record	21–11 (11–7 Big Ten)
Head coach	Lou Henson
Assistant coach	Tony Yates
Assistant coach	Dick Nagy
Assistant coach	Bob Hull
MVP	Derek Harper
Captain	Kevin Bontemps Derek Harper Bryan Leonard
Home arena	Assembly Hall

	Conf				Overall
1982–83 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
#5 Indiana	13	–	5	.722	24	–	6	.800
Purdue	11	–	7	.611	21	–	9	.700
Ohio State	11	–	7	.611	20	–	10	.667
Illinois	11	–	7	.611	21	–	11	.656
Iowa	10	–	8	.556	21	–	10	.677
Minnesota	9	–	9	.500	18	–	11	.621
Michigan State	9	–	9	.500	17	–	13	.567
Northwestern	7	–	11	.389	17	–	13	.567
Michigan	6	–	12	.333	15	–	13	.536
Wisconsin	3	–	15	.167	8	–	20	.286

Rankings from AP Poll)

The 1982–83 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illiniois.

Regular season

One of Illinois’ best groups arrived on campus for the 1982-83 season. Guards Bruce Douglas and Doug Altenberger, and forwards Scott Meents and Efrem Winters joined sophomores George Montgomery and Anthony Welch to form the nucleus for a team that would win 95 games during the next four seasons. During this season, the Fighting Illini became the nation’s 25th team to cap the 1,000-win mark with a 72-70 victory over Texas A&M in the Great Alaska Shootout. Later that year, Derek Harper was selected First-Team All-Big Ten, falling one vote shy of being a unanimous pick, before leaving school early for the NBA draft. He was a first round selection of the Dallas Mavericks.

Team

No.	Player	Hometown	High School	Class	Position
11	Mike O'Brien	Peoria, Illinois	Richwoods High School	Jr.	Guard
12	Derek Harper (co-captain)	West Palm Beach, Florida	North Shore High School	Jr.	Guard
20	Kevin Bontemps (co-captain)	Morton, Illinois	Morton High School	Sr.	Guard
21	Quinn Richardson	Robbins, Illinois	Eisenhower High School	Sr.	Guard
22	Doug Altenberger	Peoria, Illinois	Richwoods High School	Fr.	Guard
23	George Montgomery	Chicago, Illinois	Corliss High School	So.	Forward
24	Efrem Winters	Chicago, Illinois	King High School	Fr.	Forward
25	Bruce Douglas	Quincy, Illinois	Quincy Senior High School	Fr.	Guard
30	Scott Meents	Kankakee, Illinois	Herscher High School	Fr.	Forward/Center
31	Don Klusendorf	Western Springs, Illinois	Lyons Township High School	Jr.	Forward
32	Jay Daniels	West Palm Beach, Florida	John I. Leonard High School	So.	Forward
34	Dee Maras	Antioch, Illinois	Antioch Community High School	So.	Forward
35	Reggie Woodward	Chicago, Illinois	King High School	Fr.	Guard
43	Bryan Leonard (co-captain)	Belleville, Illinois	Belleville High School-East	Sr.	Center
44	Anthony Welch	Grand Rapids, Michigan	Creston High School	So.	Forward

Head Coach Lou Henson (8th year at Illinois) ^[1]

Schedule and Results

Source^[2]

Date	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (Attendance)
Regular Season
11/26/1982*	vs. Vanderbilt (Great Alaska Shootout)	L 47-58	0-1	Buckner Fieldhouse (3,500)
11/27/1982*	vs. Texas A&M (Great Alaska Shootout)	W 72-70	1-1	Buckner Fieldhouse (3,500)
11/28/1982*	vs. Florida (Great Alaska Shootout)	W 68-55	2-1	Buckner Fieldhouse (2,500)
12/2/1982*	vs. Valparaiso	W 94-59	3-1	Assembly Hall (11,184)
12/4/1982*	vs. Western Michigan	W 75-59	4-1	Assembly Hall (12,874)
12/19/1982*	@ Kansas State	W 59-55	5-1	Ahearn Field House (11,220)
12/11/1982*	@ #2 Kentucky	L 57-76	5-2	Rupp Arena (23,872)
12/13/1982*	vs. Vanderbilt	W 79-77 ^2ot	6-2	Assembly Hall (10,341)
12/17/1982*	vs. Southern Illinois (Illini Classic)	W 79-61	7-2	Assembly Hall (10,119)
12/18/1982*	vs. Illinois State (Illini Classic)	W 67-60	8-2	Assembly Hall (14,328)
12/23/1982*	@ Oklahoma	L 75-101	8-3	Lloyd Noble Center (8,713)
12/31/1982*	vs. Loyola (Chicago)	W 73-72	9-3	Assembly Hall (10,152)
1/3/1982*	vs. Iowa State	W 74-57	10-3	Rosemont Horizon (7,628)
1/6/1983	@ Minnesota	L 49-75	10-4 (0-1)	Williams Arena (15,543)
1/8/1983	@ Wisconsin	W 61-54	11-4 (1-1)	Wisconsin Field House (7,401)
1/13/1983	vs. #4 Indiana	L 55-69	11-5 (1-2)	Assembly Hall (14,827)
1/5/1983	vs. #20 Ohio State	W 63-55	12-5 (2-2)	Assembly Hall (13,015)
1/19/1983	@ Purdue	L 62-63	12-6 (2-3)	Mackey Arena (13,502)
1/27/1983	@ Michigan State	W 78-71	13-6 (3-3)	Jenison Fieldhouse (7,018)
1/29/1983	@ Michigan	W 87-74	14-6 (4-3)	Crisler Arena (12,876)
2/3/1983	vs. #13 Iowa	W 62-61	15-6 (5-3)	Assembly Hall (15,181)
2/5/1983	vs. Northwestern	W 78-62	16-6 (6-3)	Assembly Hall (14,684)
2/10/1983	@ Northwestern	L 55-58	16-7 (6-4)	Welsh-Ryan Arena (5,223)
2/12/1983	@ #20 Iowa	L 66-68	16-8 (6-5)	Carver–Hawkeye Arena (15,450)
2/17/1983	vs. Michigan	W 91-71	17-8 (7-5)	Assembly Hall (12,716)
2/19/1983	vs. Michigan State	W 69-61	18-8 (8-5)	Assembly Hall (14,123)
2/23/1983	vs. Purdue	L 54-56	18-9 (8-6)	Assembly Hall (13,507)
2/27/1983	@ #14 Ohio State	W 74-73	19-9 (9-6)	St. John Arena (11,979)
3/5/1983	@ #11 Indiana	L 55-67	19-10 (9-7)	Assembly Hall (17,328)
3/10/1983	vs. Wisconsin	W 71-64	20-10 (10-7)	Assembly Hall (12,947)
3/13/1983	vs. Minnesota	W 70-67 ^2ot	21-10 (11-7)	Assembly Hall (15,386)
NCAA Tournament
3/17/1983*	vs. Utah (NCAA Tournament)	L 49-52	21-11	BSU Pavilion (11,200)
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. ( ) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time.

Player stats

Player	Games Played	Field Goals	Free Throws	Rebounds	Assists	Blocks	Steals	Points
Derek Harper^[3]	32	198	83	112	118	18	72	792
Efrem Winters^[4]	31	159	67	213	20	31	14	385
Anthony Welch^[5]	32	158	61	201	44	15	17	377
Bruce Douglas^[6]	32	118	64	87	189	5	78	301
George Montgomery^[7]	32	78	70	146	22	7	15	184
Bryan Leonard^[8]	30	51	20	104	22	9	10	122

NCAA basketball tournament

West
- Utah 52, Illinois 49

^[9]

Awards and honors

Derek Harper
- Associated Press 2nd team All-American
- Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)
- Team Most Valuable Player ^[10]

Bruce Douglas
- Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)

Team players drafted into the NBA

Round	Pick	Player	NBA Club
1	11	Derek Harper	Dallas Mavericks

^[11]

Rankings

Main article: 1982–83 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)

Rivalries	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

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