1986–87 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

The 1986–87 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

1986–87 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
Illini Classic, Champion BYU-Hawaii Classic, Champion
NCAA men's Division I tournament, first round
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 11
AP	No. 11
Record	23–8 (13–5 Big Ten)
Head coach	Lou Henson
Assistant coaches	Dick Nagy Jimmy Collins Mark Coomes
MVP	Ken Norman
Captain	Doug Altenberger Ken Norman Tony Wysinger
Home arena	Assembly Hall
Seasons ← 1985–86 1987–88 →

1986–87 Big Ten Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 3 Indiana	15	–	3		.833			30	–	4		.882
No. 7 Purdue	15	–	3		.833			25	–	5		.833
No. 6 Iowa	14	–	4		.778			30	–	5		.857
No. 11 Illinois	13	–	5		.722			23	–	8		.742
Michigan	10	–	8		.556			20	–	12		.625
Ohio State	9	–	9		.500			20	–	13		.606
Michigan State	6	–	12		.333			11	–	17		.393
Wisconsin	4	–	14		.222			14	–	17		.452
Minnesota	2	–	16		.111			9	–	19		.321
Northwestern	2	–	16		.111			7	–	21		.250
As of March 30, 1987^[1] Rankings from AP Poll

Regular season

The 1986–87 season saw the addition of an outstanding group of young players to the roster. Guards Steve Bardo, Kendall Gill and Larry Smith joined forward Nick Anderson in a highly touted recruiting class. This group produced another 20-win season (23-8) and a trip to the NCAA Tournament, where Illinois was beaten 68-67 by Austin Peay in arguably the school's most shocking upset.

This marked the first season in Big Ten Conference basketball history where two teams finished with 30 or more victories. This season also marks the NCAA's first unified 3-point line of 19 feet 9 inches after 5 years of experimentation.

Roster

1986–87 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Height Weight Year Previous school Hometown G 10 Tony Wysinger (C) 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) 155 lb (70 kg) Sr Peoria Central High School Peoria, Illinois G 13 Kendall Gill 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 180 lb (82 kg) Fr Rich Central High School Matteson, Illinois G 21 Glynn Blackwell 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 175 lb (79 kg) Jr Highland Park Community High School Highland Park, Michigan G 22 Doug Altenberger (C) 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 200 lb (91 kg) RS Sr Richwoods High School Peoria, Illinois G/F 25 Nick Anderson   6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 215 lb (98 kg) RS Fr Simeon High School Chicago, Illinois G 31 Larry Smith 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 185 lb (84 kg) Fr Alton High School Alton, Illinois F 32 Kenny Battle   6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 210 lb (95 kg) RS Jr West Aurora High School Aurora, Illinois F 33 Ken Norman (C) 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 215 lb (98 kg) Sr Crane High School Chicago, Illinois G 34 Dave Wells 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 200 lb (91 kg) Sr Freeport High School Freeport, Illinois G/F 35 Stephen Bardo 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 215 lb (98 kg) Fr Carbondale Community High School Carbondale, Illinois C 40 Olaf Blab   7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) 235 lb (107 kg) RS So Charleston High School Munich, West Germany F 42 Jim Green 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 190 lb (86 kg) Jr Academy of Our Lady/Spalding Institute Morton, Illinois F 43 Jeff Finke 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 200 lb (91 kg) Fr Casey-Westfield High School Casey, Illinois F 44 Phil Kunz 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 230 lb (104 kg) Fr Carlyle High School Carlyle, Illinois F 45 Lowell Hamilton 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 210 lb (95 kg) So Providence St. Mel High School Chicago, Illinois F/C 50 Bryan Brickner 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 180 lb (82 kg) Fr Scales Mound High School Scales Mound, Illinois C 54 Jens Kujawa 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 245 lb (111 kg) So Taylorville High School Braunschweig, West Germany	Head coach Lou Henson (New Mexico State University) (12th year) Assistant coach(es) Jimmy Collins (New Mexico State) (4th year) Dick Nagy (Hardin-Simmons University) (6th year) Mark Coomes (New Mexico State) (2nd year) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible (W) Walk-on   Injured   Current redshirt All-Time Illini Roster

Source^{[2] [3]}

Schedule

Source^[4]

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Non-Conference regular season
11/28/1986* no, no	No. 14	vs. New Mexico State BYU-Hawaii Classic	W 67–65	1–0	BYU-Hawaii Campus (450) Laie, HI
11/29/1986* no, no	No. 14	vs. Duke BYU-Hawaii Classic	W 69–62	2–0	BYU-Hawaii Campus (1,887) Laie, HI
12/4/1986* no, no	No. 9	Chicago State	W 92–78	3–0	Assembly Hall (13,986) Champaign, Illinois
12/6/1986* no, no	No. 9	at No. 12 Pittsburgh	W 99–97	4–0	Civic Arena (6,689) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
12/8/1986* no, no	No. 9	Eastern Illinois	W 85–51	5–0	Assembly Hall (13,578) Champaign, Illinois
12/12/1986* no, no	No. 6	Baylor Illini Classic	W 92–68	6–0	Assembly Hall (13,922) Champaign, Illinois
12/13/1986* no, no	No. 6	Princeton Illini Classic	W 81–55	7–0	Assembly Hall (14,543) Champaign, Illinois
12/20/1986* no, no	No. 5	at No. 4 North Carolina	L 77–90	7–1	Dean Smith Center (21,444) Chapel Hill, North Carolina
12/23/1986* no, no	No. 9	vs. Missouri Braggin' Rights	W 92–74	8–1	St. Louis Arena (16,500) St. Louis, Missouri
12/27/1986* no, no	No. 9	vs. Loyola (Chicago)	L 82–83	8–2	Alumni Gym (9,017) Chicago, Illinois
Big Ten regular season
1/3/1987 no, no	No. 16	Michigan	W 95–84	9–2 (1–0)	Assembly Hall (16,468) Champaign, Illinois
1/5/1987 no, no	No. 16	Michigan State	W 79–72	10–2 (2–0)	Assembly Hall (13,672) Champaign, Illinois
1/8/1987 no, no	No. 12	at Wisconsin	W 68–66	11–2 (3–0)	Wisconsin Field House (8,054) Madison, Wisconsin
1/10/1987 no, no	No. 12	at Northwestern	W 76–69	12–2 (4–0)	Welsh-Ryan Arena (8,117) Evanston, Illinois
1/14/1987 no, no	No. 8	No. 2 Iowa Rivalry	L 88–91 ^OT	12–3 (4–1)	Assembly Hall (16,666) Champaign, Illinois
1/17/1987 no, no	No. 8	Minnesota	W 80–58	13–3 (5–1)	Assembly Hall (13,814) Champaign, Illinois
1/22/1987 no, no	No. 9	at No. 5 Purdue	L 86–87 ^OT	13–4 (5–2)	Mackey Arena (14,123) West Lafayette, Indiana
1/24/1987* no, no	No. 9	Arizona	W 82–63	14–4	Assembly Hall (15,884) Champaign, Illinois
1/28/1987 no, no	No. 12	at No. 4 Indiana Rivalry	L 66–69	14–5 (5–3)	Assembly Hall (17,249) Bloomington, Indiana
1/31/1987* no, no	No. 12	Colorado	W 69–65	15–5	Assembly Hall (14,596) Champaign, Illinois
2/2/1987 no, no	No. 12	at Ohio State	W 93–70	16–5 (6–3)	St. John Arena (14,075) Columbus, Ohio
2/5/1987 no, no	No. 14	Northwestern	W 72–43	17–5 (7–3)	Assembly Hall (14,095) Champaign, Illinois
2/7/1987 no, no	No. 14	Wisconsin	W 99–74	18–5 (8–3)	Assembly Hall (16,682) Champaign, Illinois
2/12/1987 no, no	No. 11	at Minnesota	W 79–67	19–5 (9–3)	Williams Arena (11,183) Minneapolis, Minnesota
2/14/1987 no, no	No. 11	at No. 4 Iowa Rivalry	L 61–66	19–6 (9–4)	Carver–Hawkeye Arena (15,500) Iowa City, IA
2/23/1987 no, no	No. 14	No. 6 Purdue	L 75–76 ^OT	19–7 (9–5)	Assembly Hall (16,667) Champaign, Illinois
2/25/1987 no, no	No. 14	Ohio State	W 93–70	20–7 (10–5)	Assembly Hall (14,075) Champaign, Illinois
3/1/1987 no, no	No. 14	No. 3 Indiana Rivalry	W 69–67	21–7 (11–5)	Assembly Hall (16,793) Champaign, Illinois
3/4/1987 no, no	No. 12	at Michigan	W 89–75	22–7 (12–5)	Crisler Arena (13,145) Ann Arbor, Michigan
3/7/1987 no, no	No. 12	at Michigan State	W 77–64	23–7 (13–5)	Jenison Fieldhouse (10,004) East Lansing, Michigan
NCAA Tournament^[5]
3/12/1987* no, no	(3 SE) No. 11	vs. (14 SE) Austin Peay First Round	L 67–68	23–8	Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex (-) Birmingham, Alabama
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time.

Rankings

Main article: 1986–87 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

Player stats

Player	Games Played	Minutes Played	2 pt. Field Goals	3 pt. Field Goals	Free Throws	Rebounds	Assists	Blocks	Steals	Points
Ken Norman^[6]	31	1112	255	1	128	303	68	48	37	641
Doug Altenberger^[7]	30	996	63	76	55	138	91	6	41	409
Tony Wysinger^[8]	30	948	100	28	54	56	192	2	40	338
Lowell Hamilton^[9]	31	729	149	0	36	121	28	31	24	334
Glynn Blackwell^[10]	31	679	114	6	61	106	64	4	31	307
Jens Kujawa^[11]	31	499	53	0	35	109	22	14	14	141
Stephen Bardo^[12]	31	630	41	1	34	92	85	15	23	119
Kendall Gill^[13]	31	345	40	0	34	42	27	8	39	114
Larry Smith	20	108	12	0	14	13	16	2	6	38
Phil Kunz	23	161	13	0	10	30	3	11	4	36
Olaf Blab	8	15	2	0	2	5	0	2	0	4
Jeff Finke	6	25	1	0	2	5	1	0	1	4
Jim Green	12	16	1	0	1	3	0	1	0	3
Bryan Brickner	2	3	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0
Dave Wells	4	5	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0

Awards and honors

• Ken Norman
  • Associated Press 2nd team All-American
  • United States Basketball Writers Association 2nd team All-American
  • National Association of Basketball Coaches 3rd team All-American
  • Team Most Valuable Player ^[14]
  • Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)
• Kendall Gill
  • Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)

Team players drafted into the NBA

Player	NBA Club	Round	Pick
Ken Norman	Los Angeles Clippers	1	19
Doug Altenberger	Chicago Bulls	6	125

^[15]

Rankings

Main article: 1986–87 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

References

1. "1986-87 Big Ten Conference Season Summary". sports-reference.com. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
2. Men's Basketball Roster
3. All-Time Illini Rosters 2010-04-22 at the Wayback Machine
4. University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1986-87 February 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, FightingIllini.com
5. 1987 NCAA Tournament
6. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
7. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
8. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
9. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
10. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
11. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
12. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
13. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
14. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-10-30. Retrieved 2013-01-15.
15. 1987 NBA Draft 2011-05-20 at the Wayback Machine