The 1997–98 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.
Regular season During the 1997-98 season, head coach Lon Kruger did the unthinkable as he took a team picked to finish seventh in the Big Ten and guided the Illini to a share of its first Big Ten title since 1984. On the way to the league crown, Illinois went 5–0 against Indiana, Iowa and Michigan, marking the first time in school history the Illini had gone undefeated against those teams during the course of a season. Illinois advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament after earning a #5 seed in the West Regional. The Illini defense was the Big Ten's best as Illinois finished the year first in scoring defense, fieldgoal defense and three-point defense in conference games. Additionally, this would be the inaugural season for the Big Ten tournament, thus reducing the number of regular season conference games by 2, from 18 to 16. Illinois received 2nd seed for the tournament.
Roster
Schedule
SourceUniversity of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1997-98 , 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"|Big Ten tournament
!colspan=9 style="text-align: center; background:#DF4E38"|NCAA tournament
Player stats PlayerGames Played2 pt. Field Goals3 pt. Field GoalsFree ThrowsReboundsAssistsBlocksStealsPointsKevin Turner 33137787610591244584Jerry Hester33146407417549828486Matt Heldman3330679897131042359Jerry Gee 33115049175232932279Brian Johnson 3383066147781729232Sergio McClain333842810354940116Arias Davis28724322100689Victor Chukwudebe33250101101191366Awvee Storey 1724063265554Rich Beyers 214061830114Jelani Boline 280081016308David Freeman 1930150017Jeff Reichardt 102000006Luke Williams 100000000
Awards and honors Jerry Hester Team Co-Most Valuable Player Kevin Turner Team Co-Most Valuable Player
Team players drafted into the NBA PlayerNBA ClubRoundPick
Rankings
References