Illini Women's Basketball 2016-2017
- Status
They are certainly improved over early in the season. I haven't seen them play much but looking forward to seeing them finish strong.
ilphotog
The camera never lies
- Champaign
Doc you beat me to it, (had 4 games this weekend).
I'm really happy with what I'm seeing with the this young squad. The growth and development that they have shown is pretty remarkable to this point. The freshmen have really stepped up their game as a whole, they still make mistakes, but have cut them down from earlier in the year. Freshman PG Brandi Beasley, may be the best true point guard I've seen at Illinois in my 20 years of covering UIWB.
Another freshman guard Petra Holesinska has also come on strong, a really good 3pt threat and can drive to the basket and score.
Two other freshmen Ali Andrews and Brittany Joens are settling into their roles and are contributing.
For at nearly half of every game the Illini have all freshmen and sophomores on the court. Early in the season, it was difficult to watch at times. Watching the team now, its really a huge difference. They have a long way to go, but now at least it seems as they are heading in the right direction. With some luck and no injuries, it's not out of the realm that this team could finish at .500 or a little better.
They only lose a backup Senior after this season, they have 3 good recruits coming in for next season, and add Cierra Rice (back to back season ending injuries) and transfer Cydnee Kinslow.
What I have noticed is how close this team appears to be, players on the bench are "engaged in the game" and cheering on their teammates. So hopefully they continue to grow this season, add more pieces next year and end this tough 10 year stretch for UIWB.
I'm really happy with what I'm seeing with the this young squad. The growth and development that they have shown is pretty remarkable to this point. The freshmen have really stepped up their game as a whole, they still make mistakes, but have cut them down from earlier in the year. Freshman PG Brandi Beasley, may be the best true point guard I've seen at Illinois in my 20 years of covering UIWB.
Another freshman guard Petra Holesinska has also come on strong, a really good 3pt threat and can drive to the basket and score.
Two other freshmen Ali Andrews and Brittany Joens are settling into their roles and are contributing.
For at nearly half of every game the Illini have all freshmen and sophomores on the court. Early in the season, it was difficult to watch at times. Watching the team now, its really a huge difference. They have a long way to go, but now at least it seems as they are heading in the right direction. With some luck and no injuries, it's not out of the realm that this team could finish at .500 or a little better.
They only lose a backup Senior after this season, they have 3 good recruits coming in for next season, and add Cierra Rice (back to back season ending injuries) and transfer Cydnee Kinslow.
What I have noticed is how close this team appears to be, players on the bench are "engaged in the game" and cheering on their teammates. So hopefully they continue to grow this season, add more pieces next year and end this tough 10 year stretch for UIWB.
Over their last seven games they've been blown out by two MAC teams and two middle-of-the-pack B1G teams (Michigan State and Iowa).
It's hard for me to get too excited by their inconsistent results thus far.
They are almost exclusively freshmen and sophs so consistency will likely elude them for now.
I've been to the games at SFC. They primary run a 2-3 zone.
Several people did not think they would win at all this year. I haven't seen much of them, except I saw them blitz Rutgers. They are a very young team (7 of the 12 on the roster are freshmen, only one sr. who is playing 8 minutes per game on the avg.) (thus ups & downs) & have far exceeded my expectations. I see they beat Nebraska handily (though Nebraska doesn't appear to be having a very good season) this past weekend.
At one point I thought Bollant was gone. Not anymore. He has this team pointed in the right direction. Hopefully the upward trend will continue.
They are far better than I expected, as well. They have gotten progressively better as the season has gone on. Bollant had to make changes with the defense with the young team. They were playing more man defense in the beginning of the season, but with playing such young players they don't have the defensive skills for that. Bollant is doing an excellent job with this team!
I watched the game last night. They came out of the half and cut the lead down to 9, but then couldn't get anything else going. They had open shots, but a lot of the shots rimmed out.
Jabber Jabber
- Champaign, IL
10th loss in a row last night. Soon to be 11 with Indiana coming to town Saturday. Anyone's opinion changed?
Bollant has been in over his head the moment he stepped on campus. Illinois is currently 8-20 after finishing last season 9-21. Illinois' best win this year has been Iowa, which will finish 8-8 in the Big Ten. Illinois' other Big Ten wins came against Nebraska (currently 6-20) and Rutgers (currently 6-21).
I keep a close eye on the women's program since I have a number of friends who work with the program. It's time for Bollant to go and nothing in his tenure at Illinois suggests otherwise.
The Mens BB situation might buy Bollant another year. Or maybe not.
Doubt it. Bollant needs to go more than Groce. I actually think Groce stays if the men's team finishes strong, even if they miss the tournament. Bollant, on the other hand, is clearly done.
I have been attending the games the last few years. Last year, the team was on the bottom of the big 10. I thought, after White transferred, the team would go win less in the Big 10 and lose a majority if not all of the games. Especially since the schedule this year was much tougher than last year. The team was competitive in a majority of the games, which was a far different than past years. With the majority of the team freshman and only one senior, next year the team will be better in my opinion. The major problem this year has been production inconsistency, which with freshman I personally would expect.
I too didn't think this team would win a game in the Big. The fact that they have seven out of twelve players who are freshmen would seem that they will be doing better in the near future.
The only senior they have gets limited PT.
I would have no problem if Bollant was let go, but the men's program needs to get fixed first. The $ that the program is bringing in is shrinking.
Nice win by the women in the first round of the Big 10 tournament today. Four freshman started the game. They did an excellent job especially Andrews with 24 points. Wittinger, who is usually one of the top scorers and rebounders was dressed in street clothes. They play Purdue tomorrow.
I made a typo. Three freshman started.
Women lost to Purdue. They were down 12 twice and came back to tie it both times. Were down as little as 5 with a minute and change left and had to start fouling and ended up losing. The game was much closer than the score! They definitely will be better next year as they are only losing 1 player who didn't see that much action.
- Status