# 1993–94 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

The 1993–94 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

## Regular season

The 1993-94 season saw Illinois again advance to the NCAA tournament and in the process, senior Deon Thomas broke a 13-year-old record and became the school’s all-time leading scorer. Thomas scored his record-breaking 1,693rd point in the championship game of the Illini/Pepsi Classic against American University and he went on to finish his career with 2,129 points. Also during this season, a young upstart freshman, Kiwane Garris, would begin his assault on the all-time scoring list. He notched 446 points as a freshman and would be the catalyst on the Illini team over the next few years.

### Roster
## Schedule

Source
| Date time, TV | Rank$^#$ | Opponent$^#$ | Result | Record | Site (attendance) city, state |
| Non-Conference regular season ||||||
| 12/1/1993* no, no | No. 16 | LaSalle | W 99-73 | 1-0 | Assembly Hall (12,831) Champaign, IL |
| 12/4/1993* no, no | No. 16 | Illinois-Chicago | W 101-80 | 2-0 | Assembly Hall (16,321) Champaign, IL |
| 12/7/1993* no, no | No. 16 | at Marquette | L 65-74 | 2-1 | Bradley Center (14,195) Milwaukee, WI |
| 12/10/1993* no, no | No. 16 | Morehead State Illini Classic | W 110-75 | 3-1 | Assembly Hall (13,914) Champaign, IL |
| 12/11/1993* no, no | No. 16 | American Illini Classic | W 108-84 | 4-1 | Assembly Hall (14,523) Champaign, IL |
| 12/18/1993* no, no | No. 19 | Chicago State | W 121-52 | 5-1 | Assembly Hall (14,023) Champaign, IL |
| 12/20/1993* no, no | No. 19 | Jackson State | W 79-63 | 6-1 | Assembly Hall (11,997) Champaign, IL |
| 12/22/1993* no, no | No. 19 | vs. Missouri Braggin' Rights | L 107-108 $^{3ot}$ | 6-2 | St. Louis Arena (18,273) St. Louis, MO |
| 1/2/1994* no, no | No. 22 | Texas | W 83-78 | 7-2 | Assembly Hall (16,129) Champaign, IL |
| Big Ten regular season ||||||
| 1/8/1994 no, no | No. 21 | at Michigan State | L 74-79 | 7-3 (0-1) | Breslin Student Events Center (12,118) East Lansing, MI |
| 1/12/1994 no, no | | Northwestern Rivalry | W 81-53 | 8-3 (1-1) | Assembly Hall (14,229) Champaign, IL |
| 1/15/1994 no, no | | at Ohio State | W 83-75 | 9-3 (2-1) | St. John Arena (13,276) Columbus, OH |
| 1/19/1994 no, no | | Iowa Rivalry | W 105-90 | 10-3 (3-1) | Assembly Hall (16,011) Champaign, IL |
| 1/23/1994 no, no | | No. 15 Michigan | L 70-74 | 10-4 (3-2) | Assembly Hall (16,321) Champaign, IL |
| 1/25/1994 no, no | | at No. 16 Wisconsin | L 56-66 | 10-5 (3-3) | Wisconsin Field House (11,500) Madison, WI |
| 1/30/1994 no, no | | No. 11 Indiana Rivalry | W 88-81 | 11-5 (4-3) | Assembly Hall (16,321) Champaign, IL |
| 2/2/1994 no, no | | at Penn State | W 83-65 | 12-5 (5-3) | Rec Hall (7,103) University Park, PA |
| 2/9/1994 no, no | No. 24 | Michigan State | W 72-64 | 13-5 (6-3) | Assembly Hall (14,676) Champaign, IL |
| 2/12/1994 no, no | No. 24 | at Northwestern Rivalry | L 68-79 | 13-6 (6-4) | Welsh-Ryan Arena (8,117) Evanston, IL |
| 2/15/1994 no, no | | Ohio State | W 80-68 | 14-6 (7-4) | Assembly Hall (15,096) Champaign, IL |
| 2/19/1994 no, no | | at Iowa Rivalry | L 69-83 | 14-7 (7-5) | Carver–Hawkeye Arena (15,500) Iowa City, IA |
| 2/22/1994 no, no | | at No. 3 Michigan | L 70-79 | 14-8 (7-6) | Crisler Arena (13,548) Ann Arbor, MI |
| 2/27/1994 no, no | | Wisconsin | W 76-65 | 15-8 (8-6) | Assembly Hall (16,321) Champaign, IL |
| 3/1/1994 no, no | | at No. 17 Indiana Rivalry | L 77-82 | 15-9 (8-7) | Assembly Hall (17,066) Bloomington, IN |
| 3/5/1994 no, no | | Penn State | W 84-59 | 16-9 (9-7) | Assembly Hall (16,321) Champaign, IL |
| 3/9/1994 no, no | | at No. 20 Minnesota | W 90-75 | 17-9 (10-7) | Williams Arena (15,267) Minneapolis, MN |
| 3/13/1994 no, no | | at No. 6 Purdue | L 77-87 | 17-10 (10-8) | Mackey Arena (14,123) West Lafayette, IN |
| NCAA tournament ||||||
| 3/18/1994* no, no | (8 MW) No. 18 | vs. (9 MW) Georgetown First Round | L 77-84 | 17-11 | Myriad Gardens (13,336) Oklahoma City, OK |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time. ||||||

## Player stats

| Player | Games Played | 2 pt. Field Goals | 3 pt. Field Goals | Free Throws | Rebounds | Assists | Blocks | Steals | Points |
| Deon Thomas | 28 | 206 | 1 | 133 | 194 | 43 | 37 | 23 | 548 |
| Kiwane Garris | 28 | 104 | 29 | 151 | 98 | 107 | 1 | 33 | 446 |
| T.J. Wheeler | 26 | 69 | 30 | 61 | 119 | 97 | 3 | 22 | 289 |
| Shelly Clark | 26 | 97 | 0 | 54 | 166 | 33 | 6 | 15 | 248 |
| Jerry Hester | 28 | 66 | 21 | 32 | 111 | 43 | 6 | 19 | 227 |
| Richard Keene | 28 | 33 | 48 | 14 | 97 | 113 | 4 | 30 | 224 |
| Robert Bennett | 28 | 49 | 0 | 43 | 103 | 10 | 6 | 16 | 141 |
| Tom Michael | 26 | 11 | 30 | 11 | 45 | 21 | 4 | 4 | 123 |
| Chris Gandy | 19 | 23 | 1 | 15 | 36 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 64 |
| Steve Roth | 16 | 10 | 0 | 5 | 25 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 25 |
| Gene Cross | 15 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 13 |

## Awards and honors

* Deon Thomas
** Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American
** Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)
** Team Most Valuable Player

## Team players drafted into the NBA

| Player | NBA Club | Round | Pick |
| Deon Thomas | Dallas Mavericks | 2 | 1 |