# 1988–89 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

The 1988–89 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

## Regular season

The 1988-89 team may have been the most talented team ever assembled at the University of Illinois. The team was so athletic that they could "run and alley-oop" baskets using even the non-starting players, and a record number of 100+ game scores reflected this fact. The players known as the “Flying Illini,” included all the important pieces from the 1987-88 squad (Kenny Battle, Kendall Gill, Steve Bardo, Lowell Hamilton, Nick Anderson and Larry Smith) as well as junior college All-American P.J. Bowman and former high school All-American Marcus Liberty. The Fighting Illini won their first 16 games and were ranked No. 2 in the nation going into a nationally televised game against Georgia Tech, whom Illinois had already beaten, 80-75, at the Rainbow Classic in December. The Yellow Jackets led, 47-31, but Illinois managed to surge back to force overtime, eventually needing two extra periods to win the game. Along with the No. 1 ranking the next day came some bad news. Illinois’ catalyst, Gill, had broken a bone in his foot and would miss the next 12 games. Hurt by the loss of Gill, Illinois lost three of the next four games and its No. 1 ranking. The Illini rallied to finish second in the Big Ten with a 14-4 record and with Gill back in the lineup, the Illini were awarded a No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region of the NCAA tournament. After rolling to victories over McNeese State and Ball State at the Hoosier Dome, a powerpacked regional in Minneapolis with Missouri, Louisville and Syracuse, stood in the way of Illinois’ trip to the Final Four. Louisville fell victim to Illinois, losing 83-69, which set up a regional final matchup with Syracuse. The Fighting Illini held off Syracuse to advance to the Final Four in Seattle where Illinois faced Michigan, a team it had beaten twice already in conference play, in the national semifinals. Michigan was inspired by the firing of their coach prior to the tournament, and won a game that contained 33 lead changes. Despite Battle's 29-point, 11-rebound effort, Illinois fell to eventual national-champion Michigan, 83-81.

### Roster
## Schedule

Source
| Date time, TV | Rank$^#$ | Opponent$^#$ | Result | Record | Site (attendance) city, state |
| Non-Conference regular season ||||||
| 11/26/1988* 7 p.m., WCIA | No. 9 | Illinois-Chicago | W 85-59 | 1-0 | Assembly Hall (13,800) Champaign, IL |
| 11/29/1988* 7 p.m., WCIA | No. 7 | Metro State | W 86-55 | 2-0 | Assembly Hall (13,911) Champaign, IL |
| 12/3/1988* 7 p.m., WCIA | No. 7 | Ole Miss | W 91-79 | 3-0 | Assembly Hall (14,386) Champaign, IL |
| 12/6/1988* 8:30 p.m., ESPN | No. 7 | No. 19 Florida | W 97-67 | 4-0 | Assembly Hall (15,020) Champaign, IL |
| 12/9/1988* 7 p.m., WCIA | No. 7 | Duquesne Illini Classic | W 112-81 | 5-0 | Assembly Hall (14,532) Champaign, IL |
| 12/10/1988* 8 p.m., WCIA | No. 7 | Arkansas-Little Rock Illini Classic | W 107-88 | 6-0 | Assembly Hall (14,887) Champaign, IL |
| 12/17/1988* 7 p.m., WCIA | No. 6 | Tennessee Tech | W 105-77 | 7-0 | Assembly Hall (12,794) Champaign, IL |
| 12/19/1988* 8 p.m., WCIA | No. 6 | vs. No. 10 Missouri Braggin' Rights | W 87-84 | 8-0 | St. Louis Arena (18,561) St. Louis, MO |
| 12/22/1988* 7:30 p.m., WCIA | No. 5 | at Louisiana State | W 127-100 | 9-0 | Pete Maravich Assembly Center (14,192) Baton Rouge, LA |
| 12/28/1988* 10 p.m., none | No. 4 | vs. Tulsa Rainbow Classic | W 85-58 | 10-0 | Neal S. Blaisdell Center (3,173) Honolulu, HI |
| 12/29/1988* 6 p.m., none | No. 4 | vs. No. 17 Georgia Tech Rainbow Classic | W 80-75 | 11-0 | Neal S. Blaisdell Center (5,775) Honolulu, HI |
| 12/31/1988* 12:15 a.m., none | No. 4 | at Hawaii Rainbow Classic | W 96-87 | 12-0 | Neal S. Blaisdell Center (6,379) Honolulu, HI |
| Big Ten regular season ||||||
| 1/7/1989 7 p.m., WCIA | No. 3 | Michigan State | W 71-54 | 13-0 (1-0) | Assembly Hall (16,497) Champaign, IL |
| 1/12/1989 7 p.m., WCIA | No. 2 | Wisconsin | W 103-80 | 14-0 (2-0) | Assembly Hall (14,433) Champaign, IL |
| 1/14/1989 12 p.m., WCIA | No. 2 | No. 6 Michigan | W 96-84 | 15-0 (3-0) | Assembly Hall (14,499) Champaign, IL |
| 1/19/1989 9 p.m., ESPN | No. 2 | at Northwestern Rivalry | W 75-70 | 16-0 (4-0) | McGaw Hall (8,117) Evanston, IL |
| 1/22/1989* 12 p.m., ABC | No. 2 | Georgia Tech | W 103-92 $^{2OT}$ | 17-0 | Assembly Hall (16,561) Champaign, IL |
| 1/26/1989 7 p.m., WCIA | No. 1 | at Minnesota | L 62-69 | 17-1 (4-1) | Williams Arena (13,766) Minneapolis, MN |
| 1/28/1989 7 p.m., WCIA | No. 1 | No. 16 Indiana Rivalry | W 75-65 | 18-1 (5-1) | Assembly Hall (16,563) Champaign, IL |
| 2/2/1989 7 p.m., WCIA | No. 2 | at Purdue | L 72-76 | 18-2 (5-2) | Mackey Arena (14,123) West Lafayette, IN |
| 2/5/1989 3 p.m., ABC | No. 2 | at No. 9 Iowa Rivalry | L 82-86 | 18-3 (5-3) | Carver–Hawkeye Arena (15,500) Iowa City, IA |
| 2/9/1980 7 p.m., WCIA | No. 7 | No. 16 Ohio State | W 62-60 | 19-3 (6-3) | Assembly Hall (16,439) Champaign, IL |
| 2/11/1989 7 p.m., WCIA | No. 7 | Northwestern Rivalry | W 86-69 | 20-3 (7-3) | Assembly Hall (16,471) Champaign, IL |
| 2/16/1989 7 p.m., WCIA | No. 5 | at Michigan State | W 75-56 | 21-3 (8-3) | Jenison Fieldhouse (10,004) East Lansing, MI |
| 2/18/1989 7 p.m., WCIA | No. 5 | at Wisconsin | L 52-72 | 21-4 (8-4) | Wisconsin Field House (11,886) Madison, WI |
| 2/20/1989 8:30 p.m., ESPN | No. 5 | Purdue | W 102-75 | 22-4 (9-4) | Assembly Hall (16,415) Champaign, IL |
| 2/26/1989 3 p.m., ABC | No. 10 | at Ohio State | W 94-71 | 23-4 (10-4) | St. John Arena (13,276) Columbus, OH |
| 3/2/1989 7 p.m., WCIA | No. 8 | Minnesota | W 63-58 | 24-4 (11-4) | Assembly Hall (16,455) Champaign, IL |
| 3/5/1989 3 p.m., ABC | No. 8 | at No. 3 Indiana Rivalry | W 70-67 | 25-4 (12-4) | Assembly Hall (17,311) Bloomington, IN |
| 3/8/1989 9 p.m., ESPN | No. 4 | No. 15 Iowa Rivalry | W 118-94 | 26-4 (13-4) | Assembly Hall (16,552) Champaign, IL |
| 3/11/1989 3 p.m., ABC | No. 4 | at No. 8 Michigan | W 89-73 | 27-4 (14-4) | Crisler Arena (13,609) Ann Arbor, MI |
| NCAA tournament ||||||
| 3/16/1989* 6 p.m., CBS | (1 MW) No. 3 | vs. (16 MW) McNeese State First Round | W 77-71 | 28-4 | Hoosier Dome (37,242) Indianapolis, IN |
| 3/18/1989* 1:20 p.m., CBS | (1 MW) No. 3 | vs. (9 MW) No. 18 Ball State Second Round | W 72-60 | 29-4 | Hoosier Dome (37,444) Indianapolis, IN |
| 3/24/1989* 7 p.m., CBS | (1 MW) No. 3 | vs. (4 MW) No. 12 Louisville Regional semifinals | W 83-69 | 30-4 | Metrodome (33,560) Minneapolis, MN |
| 3/26/1989* 1 p.m., CBS | (1 MW) No. 3 | vs. (2 MW) No. 7 Syracuse Regional Finals | W 89-86 | 31-4 | Metrodome (33,469) Minneapolis, MN |
| 4/1/1989* 7 p.m., CBS | (1 MW) No. 3 | vs. (3 S) No. 10 Michigan National semifinals | L 81-83 | 31-5 | Kingdome (39,187) Seattle, WA |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time. ||||||

## Player stats

| Player | Games Played | Minutes Played | 2 pt. Field Goals | 3 pt. Field Goals | Free Throws | Rebounds | Assists | Blocks | Steals | Points |
| Nick Anderson | 36 | 1125 | 238 | 24 | 99 | 285 | 72 | 32 | 57 | 647 |
| Kenny Battle | 36 | 1105 | 209 | 9 | 151 | 174 | 64 | 13 | 89 | 596 |
| Lowell Hamilton | 36 | 943 | 219 | 0 | 50 | 204 | 24 | 31 | 21 | 488 |
| Kendall Gill | 24 | 681 | 105 | 38 | 46 | 70 | 91 | 6 | 51 | 370 |
| Marcus Liberty | 36 | 748 | 114 | 6 | 57 | 141 | 42 | 10 | 38 | 303 |
| Stephen Bardo | 36 | 1000 | 65 | 29 | 76 | 144 | 148 | 8 | 34 | 293 |
| Larry Smith | 36 | 695 | 63 | 3 | 40 | 73 | 157 | 5 | 28 | 175 |
| P.J. Bowman | 29 | 284 | 6 | 22 | 9 | 28 | 26 | 1 | 7 | 87 |
| Ervin Small | 36 | 392 | 26 | 0 | 27 | 76 | 5 | 0 | 10 | 77 |
| Andy Kaufmann | 12 | 136 | 11 | 5 | 14 | 20 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 51 |
| Mike MacDonald | 23 | 60 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 15 |
| Brian O'Connell | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Eddie Manzke | 18 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* Head Coach Lou Henson (14th year at Illinois)

## Awards and honors

* Stephen Bardo
** Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year
* Nick Anderson
** Team Most Valuable Player
** NCAA Tournament Regional Most Outstanding Player
** Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)
* Kenny Battle
** Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)
* Kendall Gill
** Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)

## Team players drafted into the NBA

| Player | NBA Club | Round | Pick |
| Kendall Gill | Charlotte Hornets | 1 | 5 |
| Nick Anderson | Orlando Magic | 1 | 11 |
| Kenny Battle | Detroit Pistons | 2 | 27 |