March 9, 2003

Recap?|? Final Stats?|? Photo Gallery

• Illinois finishes second in the conference with an 11-5 league mark and has secured the No. 2 seed in next week's Big Ten Tournament. Illinois will play the winner of No. 7 Minnesota vs. No. 10 Northwestern on Friday, March 14 at 5:40 p.m. CT.

• Illinois finished the regular season a perfect 14-0 at the Assembly Hall. During Bill Self's three seasons, Illinois has compiled a 39-1 record at the Assembly Hall and has a 17-game winning streak.

• Illinois also has built up a 10-game winning streak against Minnesota. The last Minnesota win was Feb. 3, 1999.

• Included in that 14-0 home record this season have been a number of dominant wins. In the last four home games, Illinois has defeated Ohio State, Michigan State, Indiana and Minnesota by an average margin of 24.75 points.

• Illinois dished out a season-high 26 assists, seven of which came from Dee Brown and six from Deron Williams. The Illini's previous high for assists in a game was 25 on Jan. 4 vs. Oakland.

• Williams' six assists were also just enough to give him the conference assist title. In Big Ten contests, Williams averaged 4.81 assists per game, while Brown finished second in the conference averaging 4.75 assists a contest.

• While he finished second in the Big Ten in assists, Brown won the conference statistical title in steals. Brown had one theft this afternoon giving him 30 during conference play, an average of 1.87 steals per game.

• Senior Brian Cook scored a game-high 22 points giving him the Big Ten scoring title. Cook averaged 20.0 points during the conference slate making him the first Illini to win the scoring title since Kendall Gill in 1990. Cook is the eighth Illinois player to lead the Big Ten in scoring.

• Cook's 20-point average is also the first time an Illinois player has averaged 20.0 points in a season since Kendall Gill averaged 20.4 points during the 1990 season.

• Cook's 22 points give him 1,652 career points moving him to with in a point of fifth place on the Illini career scoring list, which is held by Mark Smith (1978-81), who scored 1,653 points.

• A final statistical champion for the Illini was Roger Powell. Powell led the Big Ten in field goal shooting during conference play hitting 50-of-78 shots (.641). Powell is the second straight Illini to lead the Big Ten in field goal shooting after Robert Archibald led the conference, hitting 65.2 percent of his shots from the floor.

• Nick Smith turned in a great all-around performance. Smith scored nine points, grabbed four boards, dished out three assists and had a career-high five blocked shots. Those five blocks tied James Augustine for the most by an Illini this season. Augustine had five blocks vs. Oakland on Jan. 4.