1986–87 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

The 1986–87 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team represented the University of Illinois.

Regular season
The 1986–87 season saw the addition of an outstanding group of young players to the roster. Guards Steve Bardo, Kendall Gill and Larry Smith joined forward Nick Anderson in a highly touted recruiting class. This group produced another 20-win season (23-8) and a trip to the NCAA Tournament, where Illinois was beaten 68-67 by Austin Peay in arguably the school's most shocking upset.

This marked the first season in Big Ten Conference basketball history where two teams finished with 30 or more victories. This season also marks the NCAA's first unified 3-point line of 19 feet 9 inches after 5 years of experimentation.

Schedule
Source

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

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

!colspan=9 style="text-align: center; background:#DF4E38"| NCAA Tournament



Awards and honors

 * Ken Norman
 * Associated Press 2nd team All-American
 * United States Basketball Writers Association 2nd team All-American
 * National Association of Basketball Coaches 3rd team All-American
 * Team Most Valuable Player
 * Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)
 * Kendall Gill
 * Fighting Illini All-Century team (2005)