The 2010–11 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

in the

2010–11 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2010–11 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 8, 2010, with the preliminary games of the 2010 Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, and ended with the 2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament's championship game on Apri ...

. This was head coach Bruce Weber's eighth season at Illinois. They played their home games at

Assembly Hall An assembly hall is a hall to hold public meetings or meetings of an organization such as a school, church, or deliberative assembly. An example of the last case is the Assembly Hall (Washington, Mississippi) where the general assembly of the s ...

and are members of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

. They finished the season 20–14, 9–9 in Big Ten play and lost in the quarterfinals of the 2011 Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament to

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. They received an at-large bid in the

2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament that determined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's basketball national champion for the 2010-11 ...

where they beat

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. ...

in the second round before falling to

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

in the third round.

Pre-season

Illinois welcomes back all five starters and its top seven players from last season. The Illini return 89.4 percent of its points, 79 percent of its rebounds, and 85 percent of its minutes played from the 2009–10 campaign.Illinois Basketball 2010-11 Record Book
, FightingIllini.com, retrieved 11-08-10 In addition to the returning players, Illinois adds a top-15 ranked recruiting class to its roster. Three true

freshmen A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary school, post-se ...

join the squad this season in guard/forward Jereme Richmond, center Meyers Leonard, and guard Crandall Head. The 2010 recruiting class is ranked No. 11 by Scout.com and No. 13 by both Rivals.com and

ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remain ...

. Richmond earned Illinois Mr. Basketball honors and was selected to play in the 2010 McDonald's All-American Game, becoming Illinois' 13th

McDonald's All-American McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American multinational fast food chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese chain Mixue Ice Cream & Tea. Brothers ...

and first since Dee Brown. A top-25 recruit, Richmond averaged 21 points, 11.5 rebounds, three assists and three blocks as a senior. Leonard was a consensus first-team all-state selection who led Robinson High School to the 2010 Illinois state title in Class 2A. A top-50 recruit, Leonard averaged 19 points, 11 rebounds and 4.5 blocks as a senior. Head is the younger brother of former Illini All-American Luther Head. Crandall missed his senior season after having surgery to repair a torn ACL. He is a top-75 recruit who earned all-state honors as a junior, averaging 21 points, seven rebounds and four steals.

Departures

2010 additions

Roster

Schedule

Source , - !colspan=12 style="background:#DF4E38; color:white;", Exhibition , - !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

National rankings

Various publications and news sources released their preseason rankings prior to the start of the 2010–11 season. Illinois has been ranked by the publications below. The Fighting Illini were ranked 13th in the AP Poll and 16th in the

Coaches Poll In the United States, the Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has ...

in their respective pre-season polls.

Season statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2010-11 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball seasons