We have lost a role model, a friend, and a leader. He was responsible for almost 800 wins in the record book and countless Fighting Illini moments frozen in time, but Coach Henson's true measure will be felt in the lives he touched -- the lives of his former players, people on this campus, and friends in our broader community. With the likes of, “He’s a coach that pushed us, that expected a lot from us on and off the court. Defensively, the team was one of the best at guarding against the three-point shot. The Lou Henson Award is named after the former Illinois coach. In the national championship game, Illinois was defeated by North Carolina 70-75. "That's one of the reasons why it took him so long to get a job," said Matt Painter, who played at Purdue and was an assistant to Weber at Southern Illinois. [2], Helms and Premo-Porretta national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics, Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball, 2005 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team, men's basketball at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, winning the Big Ten Conference regular season title outright, 2004–05 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings, Big Ten Tournament Most Outstanding Player, Sporting News National Player of the Year, NCAA Tournament Regional Most Outstanding Player, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2004–05_Illinois_Fighting_Illini_men%27s_basketball_team&oldid=978749231, 2004–05 Big Ten Conference men's basketball season, Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball seasons, 2005 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament participants, NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament Final Four seasons, Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament championship seasons, Short description with empty Wikidata description, Pages using infobox college sports team season with redundant prev year or next year parameters, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, United States Basketball Writers Association 1st team All-American, National Basketball Coaches Association 2nd team All-American, This page was last edited on 16 September 2020, at 18:47. I so enjoyed my time with Coach these last five years, and I will miss him. Established in 2010, it is awarded to the most outstanding mid-major college basketball player. Later that year, Illinois dedicated the State Farm Center hardwood to Henson by forever naming it ‘Lou Henson Court’. Coach Henson may be gone, but the memories he provided us with and the legacy he created will last forever. Henson retired with a career record of 779-413, the sixth-winningest in Division I history at the time. Rest in peace to the best to ever wear the orange jacket; we'll miss you Coach. And maybe his mother should worry. 22 in ESPN 100, chooses Oregon, Badgers' Bowman takes leave for family reasons, Top-five senior Smith commits to Auburn, Pearl. Coach Henson may be gone, but the memories he provided us, and the legacy he created, will last forever. But it wasn’t just mid-major basketball that Henson affected. The North Carolina squad would go on to field six players in the NBA draft. CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Feb. 11 - Back in his preteen days in Milwaukee, Bruce Weber had surgery to remove polyps from his throat. The team finished with 11–5 conference and 26–7 overall records. I so enjoyed my time with Coach these last five years, and I will miss him. He is Illinois basketball’s all-time winningest coach with a 423-224 record and he took the program to the NCAA tournament 12 times. "His achievements are legendary, but what is immeasurable are the countless lives he impacted during his 21 years in Champaign and 41 years in coaching," Underwood said. “One of the reasons I wanted to be the basketball coach at Illinois is because of everything (Lou Henson) built,” Underwood said. The game featured a 15-point comeback from the Illini, triggered by several steals and Deron Williams' clutch three-point shooting, including several NBA range threes, in the last 3 minutes and 30 seconds of the game. Henson is the program’s all-time leader in wins with 423. Coach made everyone feel like a friend. In his second season as head coach at Illinois, Bruce Weber’s Illini put together the most successful season in U of I history. He made everyone feel like a friend. “We have lost an Illini icon. "We were going to buy in or we were going to be left behind.". The Illini have rolled since. The core of players he inherited from Self last season resisted Weber's motion offense and occasionally maniacal drills, which feature players taking charges or diving to the floor. "Our Orange and Blue hearts are heavy," Illini AD Josh Whitman said in a release. The Illini inducted Henson into the Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018. tournament games within three hours of Champaign -- Indianapolis to Chicago to St. Louis -- Illinois has few doubters inside or outside the program. Gottlieb recalled David Weber requesting to come out of the second half of a blowout his redshirt freshman year because he had already scored 29 points and did not want to appear selfish to his veteran teammates. That attitude kept Weber plugging away as Keady's assistant at Purdue for 18 seasons. Illinois averaged 77.0 points per game, while allowing 61.1 points per game, for an average point differential of nearly 16 points. In 1975, Henson moved to Illinois to replace Gene Bartow, after Bartow left Illinois to replace John Wooden at UCLA. The News-Gazette first reported that Henson passed away Saturday and was buried Wednesday morning. One entire summer he wore a body cast after unknowingly cracking a vertebra in his back. Illinois was a top-five seed in the Big Dance seven straight years under Henson from 1984-90. Henson rebuilt Illinois basketball into a national power in the late 1980s. In the process, Illinois handed the Badgers their first home court loss since a defeat to, coincidentally, Wake Forest, on December 4, 2002, and also assumed the nation's longest home court winning streak themselves. After the win, the Illini took over the number 1 overall spot in the national polls and held it for the remainder of the regular season, a run of 15 straight weeks. He was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015. Illinois made its fifth all-time NCAA Final Four appearance and first since 1989. "That's him," Price said. Webster has bounced around between coaching opportunities since leaving Illinois in 2007. It was 24-0, not 25-0. Per the DIA, the Henson family asks that in lieu of flowers, friends and fans consider a memorial contribution in Coach Henson’s name to one or more of the following: Boys & Girls Club of Las Cruces, New Mexico, Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club of Champaign, Illinois, Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club of Champaign, IL, Lou and Mary Henson Men’s Basketball Academic Assistance Fund, Lou Henson, Illinois Basketball’s all-time win leader, dies at 88, 2020 Illinois Football: Defensive Line Preview. Weber's voice comes from the place his unusual coaching journey began -- his blue-collar childhood in Milwaukee. The non-conference schedule is beginning to take shape. North Carolina relied upon stellar post play from Sean May, who managed to get James Augustine and Jack Ingram into foul trouble, while Illinois struggled offensively with what had succeeded the rest of the season, converting only 12 of a championship game record 40 three-point field goal attempts. Related organizations He led both schools to the Final Four -- the Aggies in 1970 and the Illini in 1989. Illinois celebrated its 100th season of varsity basketball in 2004-05. Collinsville boys basketball coach Darin Lee on Wednesday became the 40th coach in Illinois High School Association history to record 600 career wins. His 1988-89 Illini team won a then-school record 31 games and went to the Final Four. 3 overall by the Utah Jazz. "He's No. ", Illinois coach Brad Underwood called Henson's death "a sad day for the Illinois basketball family and Illini nation.''. 20 Wisconsin on Saturday, the last time the Illini will face a ranked opponent in the regular season. Illinois won its second-ever game over a No. Dee Brown was named to the Consensus All-American 2nd Team, the Associated Press 2nd team, the United States Basketball Writers Association 2nd team and the National Association of Basketball Coaches 2nd team for the 2005–06 season.