1943–44 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team one player from the 1942-43 season, Gordon Horton, who wasn't even a starter, which meant the entire lineup was made up of rookie/unproven players. The starting lineup consisted of Walton Kirk, Howard Judson, Ray DeMoulin, Bob Morton, Don Delaney and Gordon Gillespie. !colspan=12 style="background:#DF4E38; color:white;"| Non-Conference regular season !colspan=9 style="background:#DF4E38; color:#FFFFFF;"|Big Ten regular season 1943–44 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team The 1943–44 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois. March 1, 1943, changed the future of Fighting Illini men's basketball when the team was broken up due to all five starters from back-to-back Big Ten
1988–89 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team 1988–89 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team The 1988–89 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois. 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