2002–03 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team explained

Mode:	Basketball
Year:	2002–03
Team:	Illinois Fighting Illini
Conference:	Big Ten Conference
Short Conf:	Big Ten
Coachrank:	13
Aprank:	11
Record:	25–7
Conf Record:	11–5
Asst Coach2:	Wayne McClain
Asst Coach3:	Norm Roberts
Hc Year:	3rd
Ac1 Year:	1st
Ac2 Year:	2nd
Ac3 Year:	3rd
Captain:	Brian Cook
Captain2:	Sean Harrington
Bowl Result:	second round

The 2002–03 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the 2002-03 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. This was head coach Bill Self'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. Brian Cook earned Big Ten Player of the Year honors and the Illini won the Big Ten tournament championship for the first time.

Schedule

Source^[1] |-!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|-

Season Statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	Avg	Average per game
FG	Field-goals made	FGA	Field-goal attempts	Off	Offensive rebounds
Def	Defensive rebounds	A	Assists	TO	Turnovers
Blk	Blocks	Stl	Steals	High	Team high

Final Individual Statistics ^[2]

			Minutes		Scoring		Total FGs			3-point FGs			Free-Throws			Rebounds
Player	GP	GS	Tot	Avg	Pts	Avg	FG	FGA	Pct	3FG	3FA	Pct	FT	FTA	Pct	Off	Def	Tot	Avg	A	TO	Blk	Stl
style=white-space:nowrap	Cook, Brian	30	30	940	31.3	599	20.0	202	422	.479	27	89	.303	168	205	.820	44	183	227	7.6	60	83	13	20
style=white-space:nowrap	Brown, Dee	32	31	1090	34.1	384	12.0	142	327	.434	51	155	.329	49	72	.681	35	84	119	3.7	159	62	0	57
style=white-space:nowrap	Powell, Roger	30	19	558	18.6	261	8.7	104	176	.591	20	49	.408	33	57	.579	40	61	101	3.4	12	24	12	9
style=white-space:nowrap	Harrington, Sean	32	6	718	22.4	235	7.3	76	171	.444	64	144	.444	19	30	.633	2	71	73	2.3	65	25	0	29
style=white-space:nowrap	Augustine, James	32	29	697	21.8	225	7.0	94	162	.580	5	14	.357	32	45	.711	64	122	186	5.8	25	45	27	20
style=white-space:nowrap	Williams, Deron	32	30	868	27.1	202	6.3	75	176	.426	28	79	.354	24	45	.533	15	80	95	3.0	145	59	5	46
style=white-space:nowrap	Head, Luther	25	8	509	20.4	198	7.9	68	131	.519	28	66	.424	34	46	.739	23	48	71	2.8	42	40	3	27
style=white-space:nowrap	Smith, Nick	31	5	539	17.4	163	5.3	60	121	.496	5	11	.455	38	44	.864	23	69	92	3.0	26	42	38	11
style=white-space:nowrap	Wilson, Kyle	18	0	118	6.6	46	2.6	14	37	.378	4	16	.250	14	18	.778	13	16	29	1.6	8	5	1	4
style=white-space:nowrap	Ferguson, Blandon	24	1	218	9.1	40	1.7	11	33	.333	0	3	.000	18	26	.692	11	21	32	1.3	20	20	0	3
style=white-space:nowrap	Spears, Aaron	6	0	55	9.2	19	3.2	8	12	.667	0	0	.000	3	7	.429	4	5	9	1.5	6	5	1	1
style=white-space:nowrap	Howard, Jerrance	14	1	52	3.7	9	0.6	4	16	.250	1	6	.167	0	0	.000	0	3	3	0.2	7	2	0	0
style=white-space:nowrap	Huge, Nick	8	0	17	2.1	4	0.5	0	3	.000	0	3	.000	4	4	1.000	0	1	1	0.1	0	1	0	0
style=white-space:nowrap	Thomas, Clayton	9	0	21	2.3	3	0.3	1	6	.167	0	1	.000	1	4	.250	1	3	4	0.4	0	2	0	0
Team																42	49	91			3
Total	32		6400		2388	74.6	859	1793	.479	233	636	.366	437	603	.725	317	816	1133	35.4	575	418	100	227
Opponents	32		6400		1970	61.6	657	1741	.377	192	655	.293	464	655	.708	356	686	1042	32.6	353	469	84	182

NCAA basketball tournament

• West regional
  • Illinois 65, Western Kentucky 60
  • Notre Dame 68, Illinois 60

^[3]

Awards and honors

• Brian Cook
  • Big Ten tournament Most Outstanding Player
  • Big Ten Player of the Year
  • Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball award
  • Team Most Valuable Player ^[4]
  • 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

^[5]

Rankings

See main article: 2002–03 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings.

Notes and References

1. http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-baskbl/records/year-2021.html University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 2002-03
2. http://www.fightingillini.com/sports/m-baskbl/records/year-2002.html University of Illinois Fighting Illini Statistics Summary for 2002-03
3. http://www.databasesports.com/ncaab/tourney.htm?yr=2003 2003 NCAA Tournament
4. Web site: List of MVPs . 2013-01-15 . 2014-10-30 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141030004049/http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/ill/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/05_mbb_guide_06.pdf . dead .
5. http://www.databasebasketball.com/draft/draftyear.htm?yr=2003&lg=N 2003 NBA draft