Illini Women's Basketball 2026-2027
Well the player I wanted has hit the Portal Divine Bourrage has left LSU, but watch out for Rutgers,but you can bet Coach Green will be in the mix...Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Do we have the NIL money to get her?
We should get money, especially this year because barring any new injuries,this team is top ten at the beginning of the season...So adding what they need is very likely profitable.
Surprised Catoria does not transfer. I don’t see any minutes for her next year with Aviles returning
I'm sure we can squeeze a couple million out of few of these donors... The women are very close to similar success,if not the same as the men..
217sports
- Springfield
Donors are going to focus on MBB and FB, let's be honest. NCAAW is so top heavy that I'm sure 90% of teams are going to wonder if its even worth the investment at this point. Not a single elite 8 game was close and it was mainly between 1 vs 2/3 seeds. Illinois is in a 10x better place than it was and it still won't be close to winning a championship in today's game.
pruman91
- interviewing new NL's daily....I really really am
It's going to take 4-5 + more years of high major recruiting , at least , for the WBB to get to F4 level consideration.....I wish they were close now but frontcourt needs more athletic and taller recruits to get there.....I watched all of this years WBB tourney games so far and we have a lot to do to be where the MBB program is now..........JMHO , and I want coach Green to get us there , but there still is work to be done to reach what teams I watched playing yesterday....I'm confident HC Green is the right coach to do it..........
We are not close to the long range success of these top programs but we are just one great player away from competing with the best teams. Add a Lauren Betts or a Sara Strong to our roster and we’d be in the conversation. It seems to me that in most cases you need that superstar surrounded by some very competent others to reach that upper level. Betts, Strong, Fudd, Booker, Hidalgo. We have 3 very good young players. I don’t know if they will ever reach the level of the aforementioned though. We need to keep adding talent.
We also need to keep growing the fan base so that our income increases. Only winning will do that. It’s not easy but I’m confident that Shauna is the person that can do it.
If only the State would produce another Candace Parker with loyalty towards the beloved!!!!!
We also need to keep growing the fan base so that our income increases. Only winning will do that. It’s not easy but I’m confident that Shauna is the person that can do it.
If only the State would produce another Candace Parker with loyalty towards the beloved!!!!!
ptgrd23
- orange county CA
Destiny was first home grown star to commit and stay in a long time.
247sports.com
Aliyah is 2nd.
The top 30 still go to UCONN, USC, SC and LSU
Destiny Jackson, Whitney Young , Point Guard
Destiny Jackson is a Point Guard from Chicago, IL.
247sports.com
Aliyah is 2nd.
The top 30 still go to UCONN, USC, SC and LSU
Or Clemson, apparently.Destiny was first home grown star to commit and stay in a long time.
Destiny Jackson, Whitney Young , Point Guard
Destiny Jackson is a Point Guard from Chicago, IL.
Aliyah is 2nd.
The top 30 still go to UCONN, USC, SC and LSU
If you look at the construction of this team they have shooting rebounding free throw acumen, defense,size clutch play(intraing).and talent.. Experience which is what you need without a Megastar.Im pretty confident that if they Gretchen,Alves,and Finney,there would have been at least 5 more wins..The team coming back will wreak havoc on the league..One scoring big and it's as complete.
I agree but I think it only takes two more elite post players. If we get that, we can be top 10.
But I understand how difficult that is too achieve
Juju is back next year so I think the rest of us might be playing for 2nd. Michigan returns everyone. Minnesota returns their top 3 scorers. Jaloni Cambridge is back too. It's gonna be a tough conference again. Our goal next year will be to get a top 4 seed and host 2 games. We're gonna need everybody back and healthy at the very least. A proven big would go a long way to help reach our goal. If not maybe a 3 headed monster of Manu, Lety, and Naomi could get us there.
Naomi Benson is following Hayven Smith into the transfer portal. Damn. I think she can be a good player down the road, but I get it.
ptgrd23
- orange county CA
Bad decision. Unless she is getting manhandled by Manuela in practice the minutes are there. Naomi had size and skill.
Shauna is like Brad - plays to win today. Coaches used to take a longer term approach and gave people minutes during regular season to develop them.
I trust Shauna saw this coming and is bringing some bigs in.
Shauna is like Brad - plays to win today. Coaches used to take a longer term approach and gave people minutes during regular season to develop them.
I trust Shauna saw this coming and is bringing some bigs in.
Ugh. She had so much potential.
I am going to continue to vent. I watched Benson all year. She had high potential. I knew she would transfer if she did not see more playing time.
She was a 4 star recruit. I trust Shauna but how easy it to replace 4 stars? I just wish our coach would allow more playing time for our bench players.
But I will have to trust the process.
ptgrd23
- orange county CA
Illini has had very little margin of error to make the NCAAs past 4 years so I get Shauna's desire to win every game possible
2023 11 seed first 4 play in
2024 missed NCAAs won CBIT
2025 8 seed
2026 7 seed
However losing Naomi because we did not play her in our 14 blowout wins (we won by +18) is unfortunate
2023 11 seed first 4 play in
2024 missed NCAAs won CBIT
2025 8 seed
2026 7 seed
However losing Naomi because we did not play her in our 14 blowout wins (we won by +18) is unfortunate
Champaign Toast
Fan since Kiwane Garris
I wonder if Divine Bourrage follows Gary Redus II to Rutgers. Redus was an assistant at LSU who was hired last month as the new Rutgers head coach.
Last edited:
But how do we know that getting mop up duty in some blowout wins would have kept her here? That still may not have made a difference. Everyone who was part of the rotation is eligible to return and Manuella, who was a higher ranked recruit, is going to be back from injury. She just didn't see a path forward to minutes. I doubt a few dozen more minutes in blowouts was going to change that.
But keeping those margins probably did help us get a better tournament seed.