The 1937–38 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

Regular season

The 1937-38 season for second year head coach

Doug Mills Douglas Raymond "Gaga" Mills (April 9, 1907 – August 12, 1993), a native of Elgin, Illinois, was a high school and college basketball player and coach in the state of Illinois. During high school, Mills was the first player in the state to lead ...

took a major step backward after finishing in a first place tie a year earlier. Mills'

Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball The Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team is an NCAA Division I college basketball team competing in the Big Ten Conference. Home games are played at the State Farm Center, located on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's campu ...

team dropped to a tie for eighth place in the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

during his sophomore season. This team featured future major league baseball hall of fame shortstop and manager,

Lou Boudreau Louis Boudreau (July 17, 1917 – August 10, 2001), nicknamed "Old Shufflefoot", "Handsome Lou", and "The Good Kid", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 15 seasons, primarily as a ...

. Even though they returned 6 letterman, the Illini finished the season with a conference record of 4 wins and 8 losses (the worst of Mills' career at Illinois). The team finished the season with an overall record of 9 wins 9 losses. Along with ''team captain'' Boudreau, the Illini also featured a starting lineup of Lewis Dehner at the center position, Joe Frank and William Hapac at forward and George Wardley, Tom Nisbit and Colin Handlon at guard.

Roster

Source

Schedule

, - !colspan=12 style="background:#DF4E38; color:white;", Non-Conference regular season , - align="center" bgcolor="" , - !colspan=9 style="background:#DF4E38; color:#FFFFFF;", Big Ten regular season ''Bold Italic'' connotes conference game SourceUniversity of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 1937–38 pg.79
FightingIllini.com

Awards and honors

** Madison Square Garden 1st team All-American *

Louis Dehner Louis "Pick" Dehner, sometimes stylized as "Lewis," (August 29, 1914 – April 7, 1987) was an American basketball player and high school coach. He was an All-American player at the University of Illinois, played professionally in the United Sta ...

** Converse 3rd team All-American

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1937-38 Illinois Fighting Illini Men's Basketball Team

Illinois Fighting Illini The Illinois Fighting Illini () are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university offers 10 men's and 11 women's varsity sports. The University operates a number of athletic faci ...

Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball seasons 1937 in sports in Illinois 1938 in sports in Illinois