The 2020–21 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 ...
in the
2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season
The 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 25, 2020 and concluded on March 14, 2021. The 2021 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament culminated the season and began on March 18 and concluded on April 5.
Season ...
. Led by fourth-year head coach
Brad Underwood
Bradley Cole Underwood (born December 14, 1963) is the current head coach for the Illinois men's basketball team. Previously, he served as head coach at Oklahoma State, Stephen F. Austin, Dodge City Community College, and Daytona Beach Community ...
, the Illini played their home games at the
State Farm Center
The State Farm Center is a large dome-shaped 15,544-seat indoor arena located in Champaign, Illinois, owned and operated by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The arena hosts games for the Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball, ...
in
Champaign, Illinois
Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metropo ...
as members of the
Big Ten Conference
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 ...
. They finished the season 24–7, 16–4 in
Big Ten play to finish in second place. They defeated
Rutgers
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was a ...
,
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
, and
Ohio State
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...
to win the
Big Ten tournament and receive the conference's automatic bid to the
NCAA tournament. As the No. 1 seed in the Midwest region, they defeated
Drexel in the First Round before being upset by No. 8-seeded
Loyola–Chicago.
Previous season
The
Illini finished the
2019–20 season 21–10, 13–7 in
Big Ten play to finish in fourth place. Their season ended when the
Big Ten tournament and the
NCAA tournament were canceled due to the
coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
.
Offseason
On April 7, 2020, freshman big man
Kofi Cockburn
Kofi Cockburn ( ; born 1 September 1999) is a Jamaican professional basketball player who currently plays for Niigata Albirex of the Japanese B. League. He played college basketball for the Illinois Fighting Illini.
Early life
Cockburn was born i ...
declared for the
NBA draft, but did not hire an agent, leaving open the chance that he would return to school for his sophomore season. On April 16, sophomore guard
Ayo Dosunmu
Quamdeen Ayopo Dosunmu (born January 17, 2000) is an American professional basketball player for the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball at Illinois, where he was named a consensus first-team A ...
also declared for the draft. Dosunmu did not hire an agent, but stated that he intended to stay in the draft. On July 31, Cockburn and Dosunmu announced they had withdrawn from the NBA draft and would return to Illinois for the season.
Departures
2020 Recruiting Class
Roster
Schedule and results
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, -
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Big Ten regular season
, -
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, -
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NCAA tournament
Source
Rankings
*AP does not release post-NCAA Tournament rankings
^Coaches did not release a Week 1 poll.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team
2020–21 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season
2020-21
2020 in sports in Illinois
2021 in sports in Illinois
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 ...
2020-21