List of Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball head coaches

Bill Self led the team to 2 Big Ten titles in 3 seasons of coaching.

The following is a list of Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball head coaches updated through the U of I official record book.[1]

The men's college basketball program of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign was founded in 1905 and is known competitively as the Fighting Illini. The team has had 18 head coaches in its history, and they have won 2 Helms and Premo-Porretta National Championship. Ralph Jones won the first national championship while finishing his career with an overall record of 85–34 (.714 winning percentage). Douglas Mills coached the second national champion while finishing his career with an overall record of 151–66 (.696 winning percentage). Lou Henson, after a 21-year stint as head coach, compiled the most wins in Illini history finishing his time in Urbana-Champaign with a record of 423–224. Additionally, Bill Self maintains the highest winning percentage of all-time at .765 (78 wins and only 24 losses).

Coach Years Conference Record Winning Pct Overall Record Winning Pct Conference Titles Conference Tournament Titles NCAA Tournament/NIT Appearances National Championships
Elwood Brown 1905–1906 3–6 .333 6–8 .426 0 – – 0
Frank L. Pinckney 1906-1907 0–8 .000 1–10 .090 0 – – 0
Fletcher Lane 1907–1908 6–5 .545 20–6 .769 0 – – 0
Herb Juul 1908–1910 10–10 .500 12–10 .545 0 – – 0
Thomas E. Thompson 1910–1912 10–13 .435 14–14 .500 0 – – 0
Ralph Jones 1912-1920 64–31 .674 85–34 .714 2 – – 1
Frank Winters 1920–1922 14–10 .583 25–12 .676 0 – – 0
J. Craig Ruby 1922–1936 94–74 .559 148–95 .609 2 – – 0
Douglas R. Mills 1936–1947 88–47 .652 151–66 .696 3 - 1* 0
Harry Combes 1947–1967 174–104 .626 316–150 .678 4 - 4 0
Harv Schmidt 1967–1974 43–55 .439 89–77 .536 0 - 0 0
Gene Bartow 1974–1975 4–14 .222 8–18 .308 0 - 0 0
Lou Henson 1975–1996 214–164 .566 423–224 .654 1 - 15 0
Lon Kruger 1996–2000 38–28 .576 81–48 .623 1 0 3 0
Bill Self 2000–2003 35–13 .729 78–24 .765 2 1 3 0
Bruce Weber 2003–2012 89-65 .576 210-101 .675 2 1 7 0
John Groce 2012–2017 37–53 .411 95–75 .559 0 0 1 0
Jamall Walker 2017 0–0 .000 2–1 .667 0 0 0 0
Brad Underwood 2017-current 66-52 .559 114-79 .591 1 1 3 0
Totals 18 coaches 989-752 (.568) 1,878–1052 (.641) 18 3 40 1

*The 1942-43 team elected not to enter the NCAA tournament; however, it was named national champion by the Premo-Porretta foundation. The university does not recognize this as a National Title in its count.

References

  1. ^ "2023-24 Men's Basketball Record Book".