1983–84 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

1983–84 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball

Big Ten Conference champions
NCAA Men's Division I Tournament, Elite Eight
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	#6
AP	#6
1983–84 record	26–5 (15–3 Big Ten)
Head coach	Lou Henson
Assistant coach	Dick Nagy
Assistant coach	Jimmy Collins
Assistant coach	Bob Hull
MVP	Bruce Douglas
MVP	Quinn Richardson
Captain	Quinn Richardson
Home arena	Assembly Hall

	Conf				Overall
1983–84 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
#6 Illinois	15	–	3	.833	26	–	5	.839
#10 Purdue	15	–	3	.833	22	–	7	.759
Indiana	13	–	5	.722	22	–	9	.710
Michigan	10	–	8	.556	24	–	9	.727
Michigan State	8	–	10	.444	15	–	13	.536
Ohio State	8	–	10	.444	15	–	14	.517
Northwestern	5	–	13	.278	14	–	14	.500
Minnesota	6	–	12	.333	15	–	13	.536
Iowa	6	–	12	.333	13	–	15	.464
Wisconsin	4	–	14	.222	8	–	20	.286

Rankings from AP Poll)

The 1983–84 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illiniois.

Regular season

The 1983-84 season brought Illinois its 12th Big Ten Conference championship in a season where Illinois had four overtime games including an epic four-overtime 75-66 victory over Michigan. The next game was a two-overtime win at Iowa, Lou Henson’s 400th victory as a college head coach. The Illini recorded a 26-5 mark and were 15-3 in Big Ten play, tying Purdue for the league title. This season also marked Illinois’ first back-to-back 20 win seasons since 1951-52. The Illini would go on to record a total of nine consecutive 20-win seasons from 1982-83 to 1990-91. Illinois advanced to the NCAA Regional Finals before dropping a heart-breaking 54-51 loss to Kentucky on its home court causing the NCAA to put a rule in place not allowing a school to play in a tournament game on its home court.

Team

No.	Player	Hometown	High School	Class	Position
10	Tony Wysinger	Peoria, Illinois	Peoria Central High School	Fr.	Guard
11	Tom Schafer	Algonquin, Illinois	Harry D. Jacobs High School	Fr.	Forward
15	B.J. Jenkins	Palatine, Illinois	Palatine High School	Fr.	Forward
21	Quinn Richardson (captain)	Robbins, Illinois	Eisenhower High School	Sr.	Guard
22	Doug Altenberger	Peoria, Illinois	Richwoods High School	So.	Guard
23	George Montgomery	Chicago, Illinois	Corliss High School	Jr.	Center
24	Efrem Winters	Chicago, Illinois	King High School	So.	Forward
25	Bruce Douglas	Quincy, Illinois	Quincy Senior High School	So.	Guard
30	Scott Meents	Kankakee, Illinois	Herscher High School	So.	Forward/Center
31	Don Klusendorf	Western Springs, Illinois	Lyons Township High School	Sr.	Forward
32	Dragomir Marinkovich	Chicago, Illinois	Lane Tech High School	Jr.	Forward
33	Stephan Freeman	Chicago, Illinois	-	So.	Guard
34	Dee Maras	Antioch, Illinois	Antioch Community High School	Jr.	Forward
35	Reggie Woodward	Chicago, Illinois	King High School	So.	Guard
43	Tom Siegel	Belleville, Illinois	Belleville High School-East	Jr.	Center
44	Anthony Welch	Grand Rapids, Michigan	Creston High School	Jr.	Forward

Head Coach Lou Henson (9th Season at Illinois)^[1]

Schedule

Source^[2]

Date	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (Attendance)
Regular Season
11/25/1983*	#NR	vs. Utah (Tribune Charities Holiday Classic)	W 99-65	1-0	Rosemont Horizon (5,463)
11/26/1983*	#NR	vs. Loyola (Chicago) (Tribune Charities Holiday Classic)	W 70-53	2-0	Rosemont Horizon (5,854)
12/2/1983*	#NR	vs. Western Illinois (Illini Classic)	W 65-49	3-0	Assembly Hall (10,365)
12/3/1983*	#NR	vs. Southern Mississippi (Illini Classic)	W 78-47	4-0	Assembly Hall (11,841)
12/6/1983*	#NR	@ Vanderbilt	W 69-55	5-0	Memorial Gymnasium (15,204)
12/10/1983*	#NR	vs. West Texas State	W 69-58	6-0	Assembly Hall (10,430)
12/12/1983*	#NR	vs. Loyola (Chicago)	W 74-69	7-0	Assembly Hall (10,488)
12/21/1983*	#NR	vs. Cal State Northridge	W 78-57	8-0	Assembly Hall (8,253)
12/24/1983*	#NR	vs. Kentucky (#2)	L 54-56	8-1	Assembly Hall (10,732)
12/28/1983*	#20	vs. Missouri (Braggin' Rights)	W 66-60	9-1	St. Louis Arena (17,844)
1/5/1984	#14	vs. Minnesota	W 80-53	10-1 (1-0)	Assembly Hall (11,012)
1/7/1984	#14	@ Wisconsin	W 63-62 ^OT	11-1 (2-0)	Wisconsin Field House (7,569)
1/11/1984	#9	vs. Indiana	L 68-73 ^OT	11-2 (2-1)	Assembly Hall (17,223)
1/14/1984	#9	@ Ohio State	W 55-53	12-2 (3-1)	St. John Arena (12,657)
1/21/1984	#10	vs. Purdue (#19)	W 76-52	13-2 (4-1)	Assembly Hall (16,166)
1/26/1984	#9	vs. Michigan State	W 46-40	14-2 (5-1)	Assembly Hall (14,035)
1/28/1984	#9	vs. Michigan	W 75-66 ^4OT	15-2 (6-1)	Assembly Hall (15,952)
2/2/1984	#8	@ Iowa	W 54-52 ^2OT	16-2 (7-1)	Iowa Field House (15,450)
2/4/1984	#8	@ Northwestern	W 71-52	17-2 (8-1)	Welsh-Ryan Arena (8,117)
2/8/1984	#8	vs. Northwestern	W 73-49	18-2 (9-1)	Assembly Hall (11,513)
2/12/1984	#8	vs. Iowa	W 73-53	19-2 (10-1)	Assembly Hall (16,166)
2/16/1984	#7	@ Michigan	L 60-62	19-3 (10-2)	Crisler Center (13,511)
2/19/1984	#8	@ Michigan State	W 70-53	20-3 (11-2)	Jenison Fieldhouse (10,004)
2/25/1984	#6	@ Purdue (#13)	L 55-59	20-4 (11-3)	Mackey Arena (14,123)
3/1/1984	#10	vs. Ohio State	W 73-58	21-4 (12-3)	Assembly Hall (14,911)
3/4/1984	#10	vs. Indiana	W 70-53	22-4 (13-3)	Assembly Hall (16,166)
3/8/1984	#7	@ Minnesota	W 53-41	23-4 (14-3)	Williams Arena (14,729)
3/10/1984	#7	vs. Wisconsin	W 81-57	24-4 (15-3)	Assembly Hall (16,116)
NCAA Tournament
3/18/1984*	#6	vs. Villanova (NCAA Division I Tournament)	W 64-56	25-4	U.S. Cellular Arena (10,788)
3/22/1984*	#6	vs. Maryland (#11) (NCAA Division I Tournament)	W 72-70	26-4	Rupp Arena (23,525)
3/24/1984*	#6	@ Kentucky (#3) (NCAA Division I Tournament)	L 51-54	26-5	Rupp Arena (23,525)
*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
Efrem Winters^[3]	31	182	92	205	54	21	19	456
Bruce Douglas^[4]	31	159	81	136	177	5	73	399
Doug Altenberger^[5]	31	143	66	15	68	4	39	352
George Montgomery^[6]	31	124	53	224	53	17	27	301
Quinn Richardson^[7]	31	94	50	61	93	0	23	238
Scott Meents^[8]	28	61	23	91	33	25	9	145

NCAA basketball tournament

Midwest
- Illinois 64, Villanova 56
- Illinois 72, Maryland 70
Regional Finals
- Kentucky 54, Illinois 51

^[9]

Awards and honors

Bruce Douglas
- United Press International 3rd team All-American
- Big Ten Player of the Year
- Team Co-Most Valuable Player^[10]
- Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)
Quinn Richardson
- Team Co-Most Valuable Player^[11]

Team players drafted into the NBA

No one from the Fighting Illini was selected in the 1984 NBA Draft.^[12]

Rankings

Main article: 1983–84 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