This Day In Illini Basketball History: March 18

Illinois men’s basketball has a rich history of playing on March 18 that includes some of the memorable postseason moments of its program.

Due to the concerns over the COVID-19 novel coronavirus epidemic, the NCAA released a statement Thursday afternoon announcing an unprecedented decision of canceling the 2020 NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Therefore, Illini Now/Sports Illustrated will be detailing the Illini’s history on specific dates in March.

Illinois has played eight games on March 18 in its program history going back to the 1984 NCAA tournament, which was Lou Henson’s first NCAA win with the Illini and the final collegiate game of Deon Thomas, the school’s all-time leading scorer.

Here are the following games Illinois has played on March 18:

1984 - NCAA Mideast Regional 2nd Round - No. 2 Illinois 64, No. 7 Villanova 56

The first NCAA tournament for the Illini with Lou Henson on the sideline comes a year before Villanova would win the national championship. Illinois would get to the second weekend of the tournament after having four players (Bruce Douglas, Doug Altenberger, Efrem Winters and Quinn Richardson) have double-figure scoring efforts. Winters had a double-double by also having 14 rebounds. Villanova got 24 points and 14 rebounds from center and former NBA first round pick Ed Pickney.

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1988 - NCAA Southeast Regional 1st Round - No. 3 Illinois 81, No. 14 Texas-San Antonio 72

Lowell Hamilton gets 21 points and seven rebounds off the Illini’s bench to lead them past this first round matchup in Cincinnati against a UT-San Antonio team led by a pair of 17-point efforts of Frank Hamilton and Eric Cooper. Nick Anderson struggled through foul trouble with just nine points and four turnovers. The Illini’s defense held UT-SA to 5 of 16 from beyond the 3-point line.

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1989 - NCAA Midwest Regional 2nd Round - No. 1 Illinois 72, No. 9 Ball State 60

The Flyin’ Illini gets through the first weekend of its eventual Final Four run by dispatching a 29-2 Ball State team led by Rick Majerus. Nick Anderson had a dominating performance with 24 points and seven rebounds while Lowell Hamilton had 19 points on 8 of 12 shooting inside the paint. Paris McCurdy and Curtis Kidd combined for 31 points but the rest of the team shot just 11 of 29 from the field.

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1993 - NCAA West Regional 1st Round - No. 6 Illinois 75, No. 11 Long Beach State 72

The Illini survived a 27-point performance from Long Beach State guard Lucious Harris, who was eventually drafted No. 28 overall by the Dallas Mavericks. Illinois entered the tournament with a 18-12 record and were led by 20 points and nine rebounds from Deon Thomas, which helped lift the Illini even after the shooting duo of Richard Keene and Andy Kaufman combined to go 7 of 21 from the field and 3 of 14 from two-point range. Long Beach State actually led by one at halftime but the Illini were able to rally to get the program’s first NCAA win since the Flyin’ Illini run four years earlier and would be the last NCAA win for the Illini with Henson on the sidelines.

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1994 - NCAA Midwest Regional 1st Round - No. 9 Georgetown 84, No. 8 Illinois 77

This game will always be remembered simply as Deon Thomas’ final collegiate game. In Oklahoma City, Thomas’ last game in an Illini jersey ended with a double-double (19 points and 10 rebounds) as the school’s all-time leading scorer couldn’t overcome John Thompson’s Hoyas program led by George Harris’ 25 points. The Hoyas defense held Richard Keene to just 1 of 4 from beyond 3-point range and Kiwane Garris was held without a 3-pointer.

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2001 - Midwest Regional 2nd Round - No. 1 Illinois 79, No. 9 Charlotte 61

The top-seeded Illini, under head coach Bill Self, used its defense winning a second-round game for the first time in 12 years in Dayton, Ohio. Frank Williams got a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds from the point guard spot. The Illini got four players (Williams, Brian Cook, Cory Bradford and Sergio McClain) put up double-figure scoring efforts. Illinois was just 10 of 27 from 3-point range but Cook dominated the paint and shut down Charlotte’s leading scorer Rodney White to just nine points. Charlotte missed 13 of its first 14 tries and never recovered.

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2006 - NCAA Washington D.C. Regional 2nd Round - No. 5 Washington 67, No. 4 Illinois 64

The final collegiate game of the career of Illini legends Dee Brown and James Augustine ended in San Diego just a year after the run to the National Championship Game thanks to a superstar effort from Washington star and Pac 10 Conference Player of the Year selection Brandon Roy. Illinois couldn’t stop Roy, who finished with a game-high 21 points and would eventually become an NBA lottery pick,, from getting to the foul line (11 of 14 from the line). Augustine finished with 19 points and nine rebounds and Brown, who was forced this season back to point guard without the services of Deron Williams after he left for the NBA, had 15 points but missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer ending his distinguished Illini career. The Illini grabbed some momentum from late in the first half to early in the second half to accumulate a 31-9 run, scoring 12 of the first 14 points of the second half to go up 45-37 but Roy and Justin Dentmon led the comeback.

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2011 - NCAA Southwest Regional 1st Round - No. 9 Illinois 73, No. 8 UNLV 62

In the last NCAA win under Bruce Weber, Illinois was able to block out a late-season stretch where they lost four of its last six games before the NCAA tournament to dominate a UNLV team led by former Illini coach Lon Kruger in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Illini took control with an early 15-0 run and led by as many as 25 in a surprisingly easy rout, after losing 10 of their previous 16 games to put an Illinois, which some national analysts thought was a bubble team on Selection Sunday. The Illini were on from the start, handling UNLV's in-your-face defense with ease and building a 23-point lead while shooting 63 percent in the first half. UNLV went scoreless for a span of nearly seven minutes in the first half.

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