The 1938–39 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 1938-39 season was year number three for

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

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 ...

. Overall the team regrouped from a miserable eighth-place finish 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 ...

a year earlier by winning 9 of their 10 home games only losing to conference rival

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. Unfortunately for the

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 ...

they finished with a 5-5 record on the road to finish in third place overall in conference action. 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 featured only 5 returning letterman. Along with ''team captain'' Tom Nisbit, the Illini also featured a starting lineup of Lewis Dehner at the center position, John Drish, Joe Frank and William Hapac at forward and George Wardley, 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 1938–39 pg.79
FightingIllini.com

Awards and honors

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 ...

** Madison Square Garden 1st team All-American ** Converse 3rd team All-American

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1938-39 Illinois Fighting Illini Men's Basketball Team

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball seasons 1938 in sports in Illinois 1939 in sports in Illinois