List of Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball head coaches

Last updated November 25, 2024

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	80-58	.580	147-89	.623	1	1	3	0
Totals	18 coaches	989-752	(.568)	1,878–1052	(.641)	18	3	40	1

The National Invitation Tournament began in 1938.
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship began in 1939.
The Big Ten Conference men's basketball tournament began in 1998.
Jamall Walker coached 3 games as interim head coach in the National Invitation Tournament.

*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.

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References

↑ "2023-24 Men's Basketball Record Book".

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

[1]

v t e Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
Venues	Kenney Gym (1906–1925) Huff Hall (1926–1963) State Farm Center (1963–present) Prairie Capital Convention Center (2015)
Rivalries	Indiana Iowa Missouri Northwestern
Culture & lore	Whiz Kids Flyin' Illini Orange Krush Fighting Illini Sports Network Oskee Wow-Wow Illinois Loyalty Chief Illiniwek 1960s slush fund scandal
People	Head coaches NBA draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Helms and Premo-Porretta national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics