# 2001–02 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

The 2001–02 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

## Regular season

In 2002, the Illini earned a four-way share of the Big Ten title before advancing to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament. Frank Williams again earned first-team All-Big Ten honors as the five seniors who finished their careers took the Illini from an 11th-place finish in the league in 1999 to consecutive Big Ten titles in 2001 and 2002.

### Roster
## Schedule

Source
| Date time, TV | Rank$^#$ | Opponent$^#$ | Result | Record | Site (attendance) city, state |
| Non-Conference regular season ||||||
| 11/16/2001* no, no | No. 3 | Gonzaga | W 76–58 | 1–0 | Assembly Hall (16,500) Champaign, Illinois |
| 11/19/2001* no, no | No. 2 | Eastern Illinois Las Vegas Invitational (1st Round) | W 93–53 | 2–0 | Assembly Hall (13,827) Champaign, Illinois |
| 11/22/2001* no, no | No. 2 | vs. Penn Las Vegas Invitational | W 78–71 | 3–0 | Valley High School (1,700) Las Vegas, Nevada |
| 11/23/2001* no, no | No. 2 | vs. Georgia Tech Las Vegas Invitational | W 105–66 | 4–0 | Valley High School (2,000) Las Vegas, Nevada |
| 11/24/2001* no, no | No. 2 | vs. Southern Illinois Las Vegas Invitational, (Championship) | W 75–72 | 5–0 | Valley High School (2,500) Las Vegas, Nevada |
| 11/27/2001* no, no | No. 2 | at No. 5 Maryland Big Ten-ACC Challenge | L 63–76 | 5–1 | Cole Field House (14,500) College Park, Maryland |
| 12/1/2001* no, no | No. 2 | Texas A&M–Corpus Christi | W 80–56 | 6–1 | Assembly Hall (16,500) Champaign, Illinois |
| 12/6/2000* no, no | No. 5 | vs. No. 7 Arizona | L 82–87 | 6–2 | US Airways Center (10,697) Phoenix, Arizona |
| 12/8/2001* no, no | No. 5 | vs. Arkansas | W 94–91 | 7–2 | United Center (18,671) Chicago, Illinois |
| 12/16/2001* no, no | No. 10 | Western Illinois | W 98–62 | 8–2 | Assembly Hall (14,653) Champaign, Illinois |
| 12/18/2001* no, no | No. 9 | Illinois State | W 87–73 | 9–2 | Assembly Hall (16,500) Champaign, Illinois |
| 12/22/2001* no, no | No. 9 | vs. No. 8 Missouri Braggin' Rights | W 72–61 | 10–2 | Scottrade Center (22,153) St. Louis, Missouri |
| 12/29/2001* no, no | No. 7 | Loyola (Chicago) | W 87–72 | 11–2 | Assembly Hall (16,500) Champaign, Illinois |
| Big Ten regular season ||||||
| 1/2/2002 no, no | No. 7 | Minnesota | W 76–53 | 12–2 (1–0) | Assembly Hall (16,500) Champaign, Illinois |
| 1/5/2002 no, no | No. 7 | at Wisconsin | L 66–72 | 12–3 (1–1) | Kohl Center (17,142) Madison, Wisconsin |
| 1/9/2002 no, no | No. 9 | at Purdue | L 74–84 | 12–4 (1–2) | Mackey Arena (12,876) West Lafayette, Indiana |
| 1/12/2002 no, no | No. 9 | Michigan | W 94–70 | 13–4 (2–2) | Assembly Hall (16,500) Champaign, Illinois |
| 1/15/2002 no, no | No. 11 | No. 17 Iowa Rivalry | W 77–66 | 14–4 (3–2) | Assembly Hall (16,500) Champaign, Illinois |
| 1/23/2002 no, no | No. 9 | Wisconsin | W 80–48 | 15–4 (4–2) | Assembly Hall (16,500) Champaign, Illinois |
| 1/26/2002 no, CBS | No. 9 | at Indiana Rivalry | L 57–88 | 15–5 (4–3) | Assembly Hall (17,456) Bloomington, Indiana |
| 1/29/2002 no, no | No. 12 | at No. 25 Ohio State | L 67–78 | 15–6 (4–4) | Value City Arena (19,200) Columbus, Ohio |
| 2/3/2002 no, CBS | No. 12 | Michigan State | L 61–67 | 15–7 (4–5) | Assembly Hall (16,500) Champaign, Illinois |
| 2/7/2002 no, no | No. 21 | at Michigan | W 68–60 | 16–7 (5–5) | Crisler Arena (10,710) Ann Arbor, Michigan |
| 2/9/2002 no, no | No. 21 | Purdue | W 69–67 | 17–7 (6–5) | Assembly Hall (16,500) Champaign, Illinois |
| 2/12/2002 no, no | No. 18 | at Michigan State | W 63–61 | 18–7 (7–5) | Breslin Student Events Center (14,759) East Lansing, Michigan |
| 2/16/2002* no, CBS | No. 18 | at Seton Hall | W 75–65 | 19–7 | Continental Airlines Arena (10,070) South Orange, New Jersey |
| 2/20/2002 no, no | No. 16 | Penn State | W 83–56 | 20–7 (8–5) | Assembly Hall (16,500) Champaign, Illinois |
| 2/23/2002 no, no | No. 16 | at Northwestern Rivalry | W 56–41 | 21–7 (9–5) | Welsh-Ryan Arena (8,117) Evanston, Illinois |
| 2/26/2002 no, no | No. 15 | No. 25 Indiana Rivalry | W 70–62 | 22–7 (10–5) | Assembly Hall (16,500) Champaign, Illinois |
| 3/3/2002 no, CBS | No. 15 | at Minnesota | W 67–66 | 23–7 (11–5) | Williams Arena (14,612) Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Big Ten tournament ||||||
| 3/8/2002 no, no | (3) No. 10 | vs. (6) Minnesota Quarterfinals | W 92–76 | 24–7 | Conseco Fieldhouse (18,996) Indianapolis, Indiana |
| 3/9/2002 no, CBS | (3) No. 10 | vs. (2) No. 21 Ohio State Semifinals | L 88–94 | 24–8 | Conseco Fieldhouse (18,996) Indianapolis, Indiana |
| NCAA tournament ||||||
| 3/15/2002 no, CBS | (4 MW) No. 13 | vs. (13 MW) San Diego State First Round | W 93–64 | 25–8 | United Center (20,850) Chicago, Illinois |
| 3/17/2002 no, CBS | (4 MW) No. 13 | vs. (12 MW) Creighton Second Round | W 72–60 | 26–8 | United Center (21,525) Chicago, Illinois |
| 3/22/2002 no, CBS | (4 MW) No. 13 | vs. (1 MW) No. 2 Kansas Sweet Sixteen | L 69–73 | 26–9 | Kohl Center (16,310) Madison, Wisconsin |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time. ||||||

## Season Statistics

Final Individual Statistics :
| | | | Minutes | Minutes | Scoring | Scoring | Total FGs | Total FGs | Total FGs | 3-point FGs | 3-point FGs | 3-point FGs | Free-Throws | Free-Throws | Free-Throws | Rebounds | Rebounds | Rebounds | 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 |
| Williams, Frank | 35 | 34 | 1135 | 32.4 | 566 | 16.2 | 174 | 443 | .393 | 54 | 159 | .340 | 164 | 203 | .808 | 32 | 131 | 163 | 4.7 | 153 | 96 | 10 | 71 |
| Cook, Brian | 35 | 34 | 1008 | 28.8 | 471 | 13.5 | 174 | 342 | .509 | 27 | 74 | .365 | 96 | 110 | .873 | 64 | 169 | 233 | 6.7 | 44 | 77 | 50 | 29 |
| Bradford, Cory | 35 | 35 | 1133 | 32.4 | 406 | 11.6 | 133 | 312 | .426 | 74 | 189 | .392 | 66 | 86 | .767 | 32 | 78 | 110 | 3.1 | 87 | 68 | 5 | 29 |
| Archibald, Robert | 34 | 31 | 769 | 22.6 | 362 | 10.6 | 114 | 173 | .659 | 0 | 1 | .000 | 134 | 205 | .654 | 70 | 118 | 188 | 5.5 | 44 | 67 | 38 | 25 |
| Harrington, Sean | 35 | 14 | 868 | 24.8 | 223 | 6.4 | 73 | 178 | .410 | 56 | 141 | .397 | 21 | 29 | .724 | 7 | 53 | 60 | 1.7 | 87 | 39 | 0 | 28 |
| Head, Luther | 35 | 13 | 581 | 16.6 | 156 | 4.5 | 63 | 124 | .508 | 16 | 55 | .291 | 14 | 25 | .560 | 17 | 50 | 67 | 1.9 | 59 | 43 | 5 | 34 |
| Krupalija, Damir | 21 | 1 | 332 | 15.8 | 146 | 7.0 | 49 | 84 | .583 | 11 | 23 | .478 | 37 | 50 | .740 | 37 | 62 | 99 | 4.7 | 29 | 23 | 5 | 7 |
| Smith, Nick | 33 | 4 | 334 | 10.1 | 127 | 3.8 | 49 | 91 | .538 | 0 | 3 | .000 | 29 | 44 | .659 | 26 | 48 | 74 | 2.2 | 20 | 28 | 19 | 5 |
| Powell, Roger | 27 | 0 | 160 | 5.9 | 79 | 2.9 | 27 | 50 | .540 | 3 | 5 | .600 | 22 | 36 | .611 | 19 | 29 | 48 | 1.8 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 3 |
| Ferguson, Blandon | 30 | 7 | 232 | 7.7 | 67 | 2.2 | 23 | 60 | .383 | 0 | 3 | .000 | 21 | 28 | .750 | 18 | 28 | 46 | 1.5 | 18 | 26 | 1 | 10 |
| Johnson, Lucas | 17 | 2 | 304 | 17.9 | 64 | 3.8 | 15 | 38 | .395 | 7 | 24 | .292 | 27 | 37 | .730 | 14 | 29 | 43 | 2.5 | 30 | 18 | 3 | 13 |
| Howard, Jerrance | 21 | 0 | 81 | 3.9 | 20 | 1.0 | 7 | 18 | .389 | 2 | 7 | .286 | 4 | 4 | 1.000 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 0.6 | 14 | 11 | 0 | 4 |
| Melton, Brett | 7 | 0 | 45 | 6.4 | 17 | 2.4 | 5 | 11 | .455 | 4 | 8 | .500 | 3 | 5 | .600 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0.4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Thomas, Clayton | 8 | 0 | 13 | 1.6 | 2 | 0.3 | 1 | 5 | .200 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Young, Walter | 2 | 0 | 5 | 2.5 | 2 | 1.0 | 1 | 3 | .333 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Team | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 49 | 63 | 112 | | | 3 | | |
| Total | 35 | | 7000 | | 2708 | 77.4 | 908 | 1932 | .470 | 254 | 692 | .367 | 638 | 862 | .740 | 392 | 872 | 1264 | 36.1 | 590 | 512 | 141 | 258 |
| Opponents | 35 | | 7000 | | 2369 | 67.7 | 815 | 1960 | .416 | 235 | 691 | .340 | 504 | 760 | .663 | 405 | 711 | 1116 | 31.9 | 449 | 540 | 101 | 195 |

## NCAA basketball tournament

* Midwest regional
** Illinois 93, San Diego State 64
** Illinois 72, Creighton 60
* Regional semifinal
** Kansas 73, Illinois 69

## Awards and honors

* Frank Williams
** Associated Press All-American honorable mention
** Team Most Valuable Player
** Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)
* Brian Cook
** Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)

## Team players drafted into the NBA

| Player | NBA Club | Round | Pick |
| Frank Williams | Denver Nuggets | 1 | 25 |
| Robert Archibald | Memphis Grizzies | 2 | 31 |