# 1986–87 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

The 1986–87 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

## Regular season

The 1986–87 season saw the addition of an outstanding group of young players to the roster. Guards Steve Bardo, Kendall Gill and Larry Smith joined forward Nick Anderson in a highly touted recruiting class. This group produced another 20-win season (23-8) and a trip to the NCAA Tournament, where Illinois was beaten 68-67 by Austin Peay in arguably the school's most shocking upset.
This marked the first season in Big Ten Conference basketball history where two teams finished with 30 or more victories. This season also marks the NCAA's first unified 3-point line of 19 feet 9 inches after 5 years of experimentation.

### Roster
## Schedule

Source
| Date time, TV | Rank$^#$ | Opponent$^#$ | Result | Record | Site (attendance) city, state |
| Non-Conference regular season ||||||
| 11/28/1986* no, no | No. 14 | vs. New Mexico State BYU-Hawaii Classic | W 67–65 | 1–0 | BYU-Hawaii Campus (450) Laie, HI |
| 11/29/1986* no, no | No. 14 | vs. Duke BYU-Hawaii Classic | W 69–62 | 2–0 | BYU-Hawaii Campus (1,887) Laie, HI |
| 12/4/1986* no, no | No. 9 | Chicago State | W 92–78 | 3–0 | Assembly Hall (13,986) Champaign, Illinois |
| 12/6/1986* no, no | No. 9 | at No. 12 Pittsburgh | W 99–97 | 4–0 | Civic Arena (6,689) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| 12/8/1986* no, no | No. 9 | Eastern Illinois | W 85–51 | 5–0 | Assembly Hall (13,578) Champaign, Illinois |
| 12/12/1986* no, no | No. 6 | Baylor Illini Classic | W 92–68 | 6–0 | Assembly Hall (13,922) Champaign, Illinois |
| 12/13/1986* no, no | No. 6 | Princeton Illini Classic | W 81–55 | 7–0 | Assembly Hall (14,543) Champaign, Illinois |
| 12/20/1986* no, no | No. 5 | at No. 4 North Carolina | L 77–90 | 7–1 | Dean Smith Center (21,444) Chapel Hill, North Carolina |
| 12/23/1986* no, no | No. 9 | vs. Missouri Braggin' Rights | W 92–74 | 8–1 | St. Louis Arena (16,500) St. Louis, Missouri |
| 12/27/1986* no, no | No. 9 | at Loyola (Chicago) | L 82–83 | 8–2 | Alumni Gym (9,017) Chicago, Illinois |
| Big Ten regular season ||||||
| 1/3/1987 no, no | No. 16 | Michigan | W 95–84 | 9–2 (1–0) | Assembly Hall (16,468) Champaign, Illinois |
| 1/5/1987 no, no | No. 16 | Michigan State | W 79–72 | 10–2 (2–0) | Assembly Hall (13,672) Champaign, Illinois |
| 1/8/1987 no, no | No. 12 | at Wisconsin | W 68–66 | 11–2 (3–0) | Wisconsin Field House (8,054) Madison, Wisconsin |
| 1/10/1987 no, no | No. 12 | at Northwestern Rivalry | W 76–69 | 12–2 (4–0) | Welsh-Ryan Arena (8,117) Evanston, Illinois |
| 1/14/1987 no, no | No. 8 | No. 2 Iowa Rivalry | L 88–91 $^{OT}$ | 12–3 (4–1) | Assembly Hall (16,666) Champaign, Illinois |
| 1/17/1987 no, no | No. 8 | Minnesota | W 80–58 | 13–3 (5–1) | Assembly Hall (13,814) Champaign, Illinois |
| 1/22/1987 no, no | No. 9 | at No. 5 Purdue | L 86–87 $^{OT}$ | 13–4 (5–2) | Mackey Arena (14,123) West Lafayette, Indiana |
| 1/24/1987* no, no | No. 9 | Arizona | W 82–63 | 14–4 | Assembly Hall (15,884) Champaign, Illinois |
| 1/28/1987 no, no | No. 12 | at No. 4 Indiana Rivalry | L 66–69 | 14–5 (5–3) | Assembly Hall (17,249) Bloomington, Indiana |
| 1/31/1987* no, no | No. 12 | Colorado | W 69–65 | 15–5 | Assembly Hall (14,596) Champaign, Illinois |
| 2/2/1987 no, no | No. 12 | at Ohio State | W 93–70 | 16–5 (6–3) | St. John Arena (14,075) Columbus, Ohio |
| 2/5/1987 no, no | No. 14 | Northwestern Rivalry | W 72–43 | 17–5 (7–3) | Assembly Hall (14,095) Champaign, Illinois |
| 2/7/1987 no, no | No. 14 | Wisconsin | W 99–74 | 18–5 (8–3) | Assembly Hall (16,682) Champaign, Illinois |
| 2/12/1987 no, no | No. 11 | at Minnesota | W 79–67 | 19–5 (9–3) | Williams Arena (11,183) Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| 2/14/1987 no, no | No. 11 | at No. 4 Iowa Rivalry | L 61–66 | 19–6 (9–4) | Carver–Hawkeye Arena (15,500) Iowa City, IA |
| 2/23/1987 no, no | No. 14 | No. 6 Purdue | L 75–76 $^{OT}$ | 19–7 (9–5) | Assembly Hall (16,667) Champaign, Illinois |
| 2/25/1987 no, no | No. 14 | Ohio State | W 93–70 | 20–7 (10–5) | Assembly Hall (14,075) Champaign, Illinois |
| 3/1/1987 no, no | No. 14 | No. 3 Indiana Rivalry | W 69–67 | 21–7 (11–5) | Assembly Hall (16,793) Champaign, Illinois |
| 3/4/1987 no, no | No. 12 | at Michigan | W 89–75 | 22–7 (12–5) | Crisler Arena (13,145) Ann Arbor, Michigan |
| 3/7/1987 no, no | No. 12 | at Michigan State | W 77–64 | 23–7 (13–5) | Jenison Fieldhouse (10,004) East Lansing, Michigan |
| NCAA Tournament ||||||
| 3/12/1987* no, no | (3 SE) No. 11 | vs. (14 SE) Austin Peay First Round | L 67–68 | 23–8 | Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex (-) Birmingham, Alabama |
| *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 |
| Ken Norman | 31 | 1112 | 255 | 1 | 128 | 303 | 68 | 48 | 37 | 641 |
| Doug Altenberger | 30 | 996 | 63 | 76 | 55 | 138 | 91 | 6 | 41 | 409 |
| Tony Wysinger | 30 | 948 | 100 | 28 | 54 | 56 | 192 | 2 | 40 | 338 |
| Lowell Hamilton | 31 | 729 | 149 | 0 | 36 | 121 | 28 | 31 | 24 | 334 |
| Glynn Blackwell | 31 | 679 | 114 | 6 | 61 | 106 | 64 | 4 | 31 | 307 |
| Jens Kujawa | 31 | 499 | 53 | 0 | 35 | 109 | 22 | 14 | 14 | 141 |
| Stephen Bardo | 31 | 630 | 41 | 1 | 34 | 92 | 85 | 15 | 23 | 119 |
| Kendall Gill | 31 | 345 | 40 | 0 | 34 | 42 | 27 | 8 | 39 | 114 |
| Larry Smith | 20 | 108 | 12 | 0 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 2 | 6 | 38 |
| Phil Kunz | 23 | 161 | 13 | 0 | 10 | 30 | 3 | 11 | 4 | 36 |
| Olaf Blab | 8 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Jeff Finke | 6 | 25 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Jim Green | 12 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Bryan Brickner | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dave Wells | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

## Awards and honors

* Ken Norman
** Associated Press 2nd team All-American
** United States Basketball Writers Association 2nd team All-American
** National Association of Basketball Coaches 3rd team All-American
** Team Most Valuable Player
** 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 |
| Ken Norman | Los Angeles Clippers | 1 | 19 |
| Doug Altenberger | Chicago Bulls | 6 | 125 |