1942–43 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

The 1942–43 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season
The 1942–43 Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball team represented the University of Illinois. The Illinois Fighting Illini finished the season with a record of 17 wins and 1 loss. The season was cut short as three of the five starters headed off to active duty in the armed forces. Illinois won the Big Ten Conference Title and had finished the regular season as the nations' top ranked team. Paced by a group of players known as the Whiz Kids, the team consisted of 20-year-old All-America forward Andy Phillip and teenagers Ken Menke, Gene Vance, Jack Smiley and team captain Art Mathisen. These players were so dominant in the Big Ten, that only Northwestern's Otto Graham could crack the all-conference team.

The Army drafted Mathisen, Menke and Smiley. That left only Vance and Phillip, both good enough to be selected to Illinois' All-Century team. Head coach Doug Mills made a decision in February 1943 that all five always supported, the club did not participate in either the NCAA or NIT tournament. Wyoming's NCAA championship that season may not have happened had Illinois’ season not coincided with World War II. The team was retroactively named the national champion by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll.

Four of the five, minus Mathisen, returned to Illinois and tried to recapture the glory for one more season in 1946–47 after the war ended, but the chemistry had changed as well as their talent. Illinois went 14–6.

The final living Whiz Kid, Gene Vance, died in 2012.

Roster
Source

Schedule
!colspan=12 style="background:#DF4E38; color:white;"| Non-Conference regular season


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!colspan=9 style="background:#DF4E38; color:#FFFFFF;"| Big Ten regular season

Source

Awards and honors

 * Andy Phillip
 * National Player of the Year
 * Consensus All-American
 * Converse 1st team All-American
 * Helms 1st team All-American
 * Pic Magazine 1st team All-American
 * Look Magazine 1st team All-American
 * Sporting News 1st team All-American
 * Associated Press 1st team All-American
 * United Press International 1st team All-American
 * National Enterprise Association 1st team All-American
 * Big Ten Player of the Year
 * Team Most Valuable Player
 * Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)
 * Gene Vance 
 * Converse Honorable Mention All-American
 * Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)
 * Jack Smiley
 * Converse 3rd team All-American
 * Art Mathisen
 * Converse Honorable mention All-American