Illini Women's Basketball 2025-2026

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#1      

Dan

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Welcome to the Illini Women's Basketball Thread :illinois:


Schedule | Tickets | Roster


Illini Women's Basketball 2025-2026 (12-1, 2-0)
DateOpponentResult
Tue, Nov 4SEMOW 91-67
Sun, Nov 9Illinois StateW 75-65
Fri, Nov 14at Oregon StateL 59-64
Tue, Nov 18Murray StateW 84-64
Sun, Nov 23at Florida StateW 86-63
Wed, Nov 26Western KentuckyW 70-41
Sun, Nov 30Le MoyneW 100-28
Tue, Dec 2BellarmineW 90-41
Sat, Dec 6IndianaW 78-57
Wed, Dec 10at MissouriW 70-62
Sun, Dec 14North TexasW 81-69
Fri, Dec 19Jackson StateW 86-43
Sun, Dec 28at PurdueW 83-73
Thu, Jan 1Maryland3:00pm BTN
Sun, Jan 4at Michigan State11:00am BTN
Wed, Jan 7Ohio State6:00pm B1G+
Sun, Jan 11at Penn State2:00pm BTN
Thu, Jan 15at Michigan6:00pm Peacock
Sun, Jan 18Northwestern2:00pm B1G+
Sat, Jan 24at Nebraska1:00pm BTN
Wed, Jan 28UCLA6:00pm B1G+
Sun, Feb 1at Washington5:00pm FS1
Wed, Feb 4at Oregon8:00pm B1G+
Sun, Feb 8USC12:00pm B1G+
Wed, Feb 11Wisconsin6:00pm B1G+
Tue, Feb 17Rutgers6:00pm BTN
Sun, Feb 22at Northwestern2:00pm B1G+
Thu, Feb 26at Iowa8:00pm BTN
Sun, Mar 1Minnesota2:00pm B1G+

All times CT
 
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#2      
Champaign Toast
It's been said before, but the not-overly-challenging non-conference schedule sets up nicely for this young and jelling team. I'm psyched for this year of growth and discovery.

Maddie Webber in the Maryville game was quicker than I expected. I loved watching her intensity. I can see her being a leader and a big-time player this season.

I have questions about our frontcourt. Noya Catoira and Hayven Smith rarely looked like Big Ten-capable players last year. Vasconcelos remains a new commodity from my perspective and her performance in the Maryville game left me hoping for more polish, more mobility, more tenacity, more competitiveness... just would love to see hints of dominance rather than mere size. Parchment just knows how to play. Still young and should have learning moments, but we could be depending on her the most as a frontcourt player. Berry Wallace has some height, but hasn't played with great physicality--her major contribution last year was shooting threes--so I think of her as a wing-type and have doubts about her guarding bigs. I thought Naomi Benson looked like an energetic, strong player in her limited time on the floor, though. We'll see some strong opposing frontcourts later in the season. It's possible Webber draws defensive assignments against bigger players.

Jackson, Hagger-Brown, Dolan, Webber, and Parchment (or Benson?) could be our all-grit lineup.

Destiny Jackson as a first-year point guard reminds me of when Frank Williams arrived in Champaign. There should be some novice moments, but the talent and confidence are there.

I wonder whether Kendall Bostic and Adalia Mackenzie spend time in the gym with the players. Since I have questions about this team playing defense, rebounding, and playing in the paint, I imagine their tips would be helpful.
 
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#3      
Champaign Toast
Not sure it got posted before: Trinity Jones of Naperville, IL committed to Clemson. As far as I knew, she was our big, exciting recruiting target in the 2026 class--consistently ranked in the top 15 of ESPN's rankings--though I don't think we made her list of finalists.
 
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#4      
JKR
Champaign Toast said:
It's been said before, but the not-overly-challenging non-conference schedule sets up nicely for this young and jelling team. I'm psyched for this year of growth and discovery.

Maddie Webber in the Maryville game was quicker than I expected. I loved watching her intensity. I can see her being a leader and a big-time player this season.

I have questions about our frontcourt. Noya Catoira and Hayven Smith rarely looked like Big Ten-capable players last year. Vasconcelos remains a new commodity from my perspective and her performance in the Maryville game left me hoping for more polish, more mobility, more tenacity, more competitiveness... just would love to see hints of dominance rather than mere size. Parchment just knows how to play. Still young and should have learning moments, but we could be depending on her the most as a frontcourt player. Berry Wallace has some height, but hasn't played with great physicality--her major contribution last year was shooting threes--so I think of her as a wing-type and have doubts about her guarding bigs. We'll see some strong opposing frontcourts later in the season. It's possible Webber draws defensive assignments against bigger players.

Destiny Jackson as a first-year point guard reminds me of when Frank Williams arrived in Champaign. There should be some novice moments, but the talent and confidence are there.

I wonder whether Kendall Bostic and Adalia Mackenzie spend time in the gym with the players. Since I have questions about this team playing defense, rebounding, and playing in the paint, I imagine their tips would be helpful.
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Two things. We could virtually run it back again next year. Segura is the only player who exhausts her eligibility this year. I expect that there will be some turnover though. Webber is really quick and she is playing with some type of injury now. Every time she came out of the game they applied something (ice bag?) to her thigh. She is going to be fun to watch.
 
#5      
oldmanindian
Champaign Toast said:
Not sure it got posted before: Trinity Jones of Naperville, IL committed to Clemson. As far as I knew, she was our big, exciting recruiting target in the 2026 class--consistently ranked in the top 15 of ESPN's rankings--though I don't think we made her list of finalists.
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She was Mac Irvin Fire protege. Little chance(or love} for the Illini.
 
#13      
ptgrd23
Champaign Toast said:
Not sure it got posted before: Trinity Jones of Naperville, IL committed to Clemson. As far as I knew, she was our big, exciting recruiting target in the 2026 class--consistently ranked in the top 15 of ESPN's rankings--though I don't think we made her list of finalists.
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Clemson was 12-19 last year, finished 15th of 18 in ACC. Clemson coach Shawn Poppie was HC 2 years UT Chattanoga and is in his 2nd year at Clemson.
If we lost Trinity to USC, LSU, SC or UConn I would understand.
 
#15      
pruman91
43-31 Illini at the half in a whistle-fest game with the refs wanting to be the point of interest in this game........

Gretchen and Berry doing what we expect from them and more.......Maddie W. with a sweet steal then behind the back dribble and finished with the layup..........I expect the Illini will pull away more in the second half especially if the refs let the players decide the outcome of the game......

I really like the depth and height of this years Illini .........it will take some more time to start to jell as a unit but expect Dolan and Wallace to lead us down the path to victory...............LET'S GO ILLINI !!!!!!!!!!
 
#20      
pruman91
91-67 Illini win their season opening game with the pace and flow of the game like a car running out of gas ....chugging then a spurt then chugging again thanks to 2 refs that felt the spotlight should have been on them.....the gray haired ref must be a fan of Phantom of the opera as many of her foul calls were of the phantom mode...............coach Green even mentioned we never foul that much ever..............

Wallace with her first double double...27 pts and 11 rebs.........
Dolan with I think 16 pts and a great floor game.......please stay healthy Gretchen..........
Webber with 16 pts also and she's a sparkplug on the court.......her steal and behind the back dribble for a layup was special.......
Jackson is a great PG , playing great D and had 5 assists and also great court awareness.....she is very impressive for being a frosh...
Parchment had 8 pts in limited action as she was a victim of the terrible officiating.........
Brown-Haggar is the ideal all around player and played great D as usual.....
Lety C. was aggressive down low and I liked that very very much.....6'7" with an attitude is a welcomed addition to the squad.....

I am enjoying the win but my eyes are bleeding at one of the worst efforts ever by the refs....2 of them HAVE to be related to either
dj bald head ref or high knees - low skills ref jeff........they really really have to be.....................

psyc99.gif


the more you know...............btw , Kendal B. is great as a color woman on the radio....she really really is..............
 
#22      
DICKnaggie
steelmen72 said:
The Illini committed 30 fouls against this competition. This is a very bad sign going forward against really good competition.
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Total of 58 fouls called in the game. The refs absolutely needed to dial it back. Completely destroyed game tempo. Illinois dies need to work on fouling but the refs were terrible and SEMO is an aggressive team.
 
#25      
JimILL75
Such a different team from last year, as the comments above noted the bench is so much deeper this year. Our guards and the guards/wing players show the ability to score, play aggressive D, play a variety of roles depending who they are on the floor with. I would rate Webber, Brown-Hagger, Jackson as exceptional defensive players. We have a team full of very good defensive players but those three so far are game changing type on D. Some might consider Dolan with that group also just because of her ability to be physical and mix it up no matter how big of player she is going against.

One thing I am thrilled to point out is I think we only had one turnover against the press. Even that was because we were trying to be fast in breaking it. Not only did we break the press, we did my favorite thing, we punished the press by scoring, often it was a wide open 3. Last few years we lost a few games struggling with bigger guards pressing us and we were tired. I don't think with our size and depth that will be a problem this year.

Tested our bigs with all the fouls last night, real or imagined fouls, and we had depth there also. Thanks to 11 rebounds from Wallace, we overcame the loss of Parchment, Vasconcelso to 5 fouls. Noya Catoira gave some good minutes off the bench. Smith had to pitch in with 10 minutes and her size helps when we surround her with 4 aggressive players. Just wish she could grab rebounds with people leaning on her, I have not given up on her, its nice to have size depth and last night we needed it. She does set great screens and not get called for fouls.

Best news as good as we are, we still have not seen Guyton. Our guards are good but if she can get healthy what a great boost she will be.
 
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