Led by fifth-year head coach John Groce, the Illini played their home games at State Farm Center as members of the Big Ten Conference.

[3] On March 18, the school hired Brad Underwood as the new head coach.

The Illini defeated Minnesota and Iowa to advance to the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament where they lost to Purdue.

Sources: On September 16, 2015, Te'Jon Lucas of Milwaukee, Wisconsin verbally committed to attend Illinois in the fall of 2016 and signed his National Letter of Intent to finalize his recruitment on November 11, 2015.

Lucas attended the NBA Top 100 camp in June 2015, had scholarship offers from California, Memphis, Purdue, and Wisconsin, and he strongly considered both USC and Old Dominion before committing to Illinois.