# 1943–44 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

The 1943–44 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

## Regular season

March 1, 1943, changed the future of Fighting Illini men's basketball when the team was broken up due to all five starters from back-to-back Big Ten Conference championships heading to active duty in the armed forces. The group who left, known as the Whiz Kids, consisted of 21-year-old All-America forward Andy Phillip and 20-year-olds Ken Menke, Gene Vance, Jack Smiley and Art Mathisen. Phillip went on to become a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Four of the five, minus Mathisen, returned to Illinois and tried to recapture the glory for one more season in 1946–47 after the war ended, but the chemistry had changed as well as their talent. Illinois went 14–6.
The 1943–44 season, however, was a struggle for head coach Doug Mills, as it was the second worst season of his career. The overall record was 11 wins and 9 losses with a conference mark of 5 and 7. The team finished with a 6 - 4 record at home and a .500 record on the road at 5 - 5. The Illini returned only one player from the 1942-43 season, Gordon Horton, who wasn't even a starter, which meant the entire lineup was made up of rookie/unproven players. The starting lineup consisted of Walton Kirk, Howard Judson, Ray DeMoulin, Bob Morton, Don Delaney and Gordon Gillespie.

### Roster
## Schedule

| Date time, TV | Opponent | Result | Record | Site (attendance) city, state |
| Non-Conference regular season |||||
| 12/4/1943* no, no | Alumni | W 53–35 | 1–0 | Huff Hall (3,041) Champaign, IL |
| 12/7/1943* no, no | Detroit | W 56–25 | 2–0 | Huff Hall (2,011) Champaign, IL |
| 12/11/1943* no, no | at Great Lakes | L 44–52 | 2–1 | Chicago Stadium (12,000) Chicago, IL |
| 12/18/1943* no, no | at Missouri Rivalry | W 39–29 | 3–1 | Brewer Fieldhouse (-) Columbia, MO |
| 12/20/1943* no, no | Kentucky | W 43–41 | 4–1 | Huff Hall (2,719) Champaign, IL |
| 12/29/1943* no, no | Great Lakes | W 64–51 | 5–1 | Huff Hall (4,429) Champaign, IL |
| Big Ten regular season |||||
| 1/3/1944 no, no | at Wisconsin | W 45–43 | 6–1 (1–0) | Wisconsin Field House (-) Madison, WI |
| 1/7/1944 no, no | Wisconsin | L 38–43 | 6–2 (1–1) | Huff Hall (4,660) Champaign, IL |
| 1/8/1944 no, no | at Michigan | L 45–52 | 6–3 (1–2) | Yost Field House (-) Ann Arbor, MI |
| 1/15/1944 no, no | at University of Chicago | W 69–32 | 7–3 (2–2) | Henry Crown Field House (300) Chicago, IL |
| 1/21/1944 no, no | at Iowa Rivalry | L 51–62 | 7–4 (2–3) | Iowa Field House (-) Iowa City, IA |
| 1/22/1944 no, no | at Iowa Rivalry | L 44–53 | 7-5 (2–4) | Iowa Field House (-) Iowa City, IA |
| 2/7/1944* no, no | at Kentucky | L 40–51 | 7–6 | Alumni Gymnasium (2,900) Lexington, KY |
| 2/11/1944 no, no | Northwestern Rivalry | L 29–42 | 7–7 (2–5) | Huff Hall (2,834) Champaign, IL |
| 2/12/1944* no, no | at DePaul | W 45–33 | 8–7 | DePaul Auditorium (-) Chicago, IL |
| 2/18/1944 no, no | Ohio State | L 41–52 | 8–8 (2–6) | Huff Hall (2,577) Champaign, IL |
| 2/19/1944 no, no | Ohio State | L 53–54 | 8–9 (2–7) | Huff Hall (2,717) Champaign, IL |
| 2/25/1944 no, no | at Northwestern Rivalry | W 50–47 | 9–9 (3–7) | Patten Gymnasium (-) Evanston, IL |
| 3/3/1944 no, no | Minnesota | W 50–32 | 10–9 (4–7) | Huff Hall (2,420) Champaign, IL |
| 3/3/1944 no, no | Minnesota | W 53–27 | 11–9 (5–7) | Huff Hall (2,717) Champaign, IL |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time. |||||
Source

## Player stats

| Player | Games Played | Field Goals | Free Throws | Points |
| Stan Patrick | 20 | 97 | 46 | 240 |
| Walt Kirk | 20 | 84 | 55 | 223 |
| Howard Judson | 20 | 74 | 12 | 160 |
| Gordon Gillespie | 20 | 20 | 26 | 55 |
| Jimmy Seyler | 20 | 18 | 13 | 49 |
| Dick Foley | 6 | 20 | 8 | 48 |
| Don Delaney | 11 | 18 | 6 | 42 |
| Jake Staab | 12 | 14 | 12 | 40 |
| Robert Morton | 16 | 13 | 3 | 29 |
| Ray DeMoulin | 12 | 11 | 1 | 23 |
| Gordon Hortin | 11 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| Kermit Knetsch | 6 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| Lou Possehl | 7 | 3 | 2 | 8 |
| Jack Larson | 6 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Donald Sudkamp | 3 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Bob White | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Leo Gedvilas | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Lee Stickler | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Raymond Fregan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Maurice Dolan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Carl Bontemps | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

## Awards and honors

* Walt Kirk
** Converse Honorable Mention All-American (1944)
* Stan Patrick
** Team Most Valuable Player