The 2002–03 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented
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
2002-03 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. This was head coach
Bill Self
Billy Eugene Self Jr. (born December 27, 1962) is an American basketball coach who is the head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball, Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team. Self has held various coaching roles at the collegiate level an ...
's third (and final) season at Illinois.
Season
The 2003 squad started three freshmen, a sophomore and one senior, and still finished with a 25–7 record and second-place finish in the
Big Ten
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...
.
Brian Cook earned
Big Ten Player of the Year honors and the Illini won the
Big Ten tournament Big Ten Tournament can refer to any Big Ten Conference sport that has a tournament or championship game:
* Big Ten Football Championship Game
* Big Ten men's basketball tournament
* Big Ten women's basketball tournament
* Big Ten baseball tournamen ...
championship for the first time.
Roster
Schedule
Source:
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!colspan=12 style="background:#DF4E38; color:white;", Exhibition
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!colspan=12 style="background:#DF4E38; color:white;", Non-Conference regular season
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Big Ten regular season
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Big Ten tournament
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NCAA tournament
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Season Statistics
NCAA basketball tournament
*West regional
** Illinois 65, Western Kentucky 60
** Notre Dame 68, Illinois 60
Awards and honors
*
Brian Cook
**
Big Ten tournament Most Outstanding Player
Big or BIG may refer to:
* Big, of great size or degree
Film and television
* ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks
* ''Big'', a 2023 Taiwanese children's film starring Van Fan and Chie Tanaka
* ''Big!'', a Discovery ...
**
Big Ten Player of the Year
**
Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball
The ''Chicago Tribune'' Silver Basketball was an award presented annually by the ''Chicago Tribune'' to the men's and women's college basketball most valuable players of the Big Ten Conference each season, as voted upon by the league's coaches a ...
award
**Team Most Valuable Player
**
Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)
**
Sporting News 2nd team All-American
**
Associated Press 3rd team All-American
**
National Association of Basketball Coaches 3rd team All-American
**
Basketball Times 3rd team All-American
Team players drafted into the NBA
Rankings
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2002-03 Illinois Fighting Illini Men's Basketball Team
Illinois Fighting Illini
The Illinois Fighting Illini () are the College athletics, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university offers 10 men's and 11 women's Varsity team, varsity sports.
The university op ...
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
2002 in sports in Illinois
2003 in sports in Illinois
Big Ten men's basketball tournament championship seasons