Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball

UniversityUniversity of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignFirst season1905–06; 121 years agoAthletic directorJosh WhitmanHead coachBrad Underwood
9th season, 193–110 (.637)LocationChampaign, IllinoisArenaState Farm Center
(capacity: 15,544)NCAA divisionDivision IConferenceBig TenNicknameFighting IlliniColorsOrange and blue
Student sectionOrange KrushAll-time record1,955–1,085 (.643)NCAA tournament record50–37 (.575)NCAA Division I tournament runner-up2005Pre-tournament Helms national champions1914–15Conference tournament championsBig Ten: 2003, 2005, 2021, 2024Conference regular-season championsBig Ten: 1915, 1917, 1924, 1935, 1937, 1942, 1943, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1963, 1984, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2022Uniforms

The Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team is a men’s college basketball team representing the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The Fighting Illini compete at the NCAA Division I level as a member of the Big Ten Conference, and play their home games at State Farm Center, located in Champaign, Illinois. The team is currently coached by Brad Underwood, who was hired on March 18, 2017.

Through the end of the 2025–26 season, Illinois ranks tenth all-time in Associated Press (AP) poll appearances, eighth all-time in AP Top 25 finishes, and top-fifteen all-time in wins and win percentage among high-major NCAA Division I men's college basketball programs. Illinois has appeared in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament thirty-six times, and has competed in six Final Fours and eleven Elite Eights. In conference play, Illinois has won eighteen Big Ten regular season championships and four Big Ten Tournament championships. Illinois has one retroactive national championship designation for the 1915 season by the Helms Athletic Foundation. Additionally, the 1943 team was retroactively listed as the top team of the season by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll. Illinois has finished ranked No. 1 in the final AP poll once, in 2005.

Seventy-nine former Illini have been drafted into the National Basketball Association (NBA); two of these draft selections have been enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, and a total of six former Illini have been enshrined for various contributions to basketball. Notable contributions to the sport by former Illini include the creation of the Harlem Globetrotters; participation in multiple gold medal victories in Olympic basketball; significant executive impact in the NBA; and organizational contributions to the formation of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Illinois has had seventeen different consensus All-Americans, selected for a total of twenty-four times.