Illini Women's Basketball 2026-2027

#26      
Luwdoo
Gracie Merkle is in the portal. Penn State 6'6" similar to Audi Crooks. 15.5/8.8 All B1G honorable mention. 1 year eligibility left.
 
#27      
Illiniindian
the juiceman cometh said:
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.
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I actually think Naomi deserved more real time minutes. I thought her defense and ability to pick up offensive rebounds would have helped us against bigger teams.
Again, I trust Coach Green but I don’t think the higher seed was worth the loss of a 4 star recruit.
 
#28      
the juiceman cometh
Illiniindian said:
I actually think Naomi deserved more real time minutes. I thought her defense and ability to pick up offensive rebounds would have helped us against bigger teams.
Again, I trust Coach Green but I don’t think the higher seed was worth the loss of a 4 star recruit.
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I think you're putting too much stock on the 4-star ranking by one recruiting service (ESPN - which still ranked her the lowest of our 4 recruits in that class). Let's drill down into the minutes allocation though. I'm sure the transfer has more to do with future minutes than past minutes. Minutes are a finite resource. To give Naomi more minutes, you have to take them away from someone else.

I'm going to assume it would have taken her an opportunity to earn at least 20 mpg to keep her here. So for this upcoming season, where would those minutes come from? Our starting bigs this season were Wallace and Parchment. Wallace averaged almost 36 minutes, I could see dialing that back to 30 to give her a break. But Cearah averaged just under 29. You're not taking minutes away from her - if anything you're bumping her up a few minutes. So really, you can only free up maybe 4 or 5 minutes between the two of them. Haven leaving frees up maybe a couple minutes, though she played in about half the games so that's generous. But to be generous, let's say you now have an extra 7 minutes. Let's say you free up another 10 minutes by going bigger lineup more often (and to do this you're now cutting into minutes for players like Dolan and Webber who might be in line to get more playing time, not less). So anyway, now you have an extra 17 minutes lined up. But Lety only played 12 minutes a game and played well, so she's going to want more playing time and is going to fight for it. Catoria is also going to compete for more PT.

And then the big elephant in the room is Manuella. She was ranked higher than Naomi by every single recruiting service, and due to her injury, did not play at all. She needs minutes as well, and those are going to have to come from somewhere. You could see a scenario where she swallows up every available minute.

If Naomi wanted an assurance of playing time, there's just no way Coach Green would have been able to offer that to her. Even if she'd played a solid 10 mpg this entire season, she wouldn't be able to assure her she'd get that again. There is too much young talent on this team competing for minutes. If anything, with Manuella's return, the competition for minutes is going to be tougher next season.
 
#29      
Rlouizjr01
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.
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I'm thinking Illinois was the last cut.. She was on our radar til the last days and LSU ca.e along but they immediately recruited over her with the fulwiley pickup
 
#30      
Luwdoo
And there’s a possibility that we bring in another big. I hope.

I’m sure not sold on Lety going forward and Manu is coming off of a serious injury. The last thing we want to happen is to lose Cearah because we continue to play her out of position.

I wanted to see more of Naomi just like everyone else. But Shauna did see her everyday. She knew her talent level and her readiness. And she played her accordingly.
 
#31      
JimILL75
I think we are all loyal to our players, I would like to have seen Hayven develop because not many 6-6 players available. Naomi sure had the size and strength also and we all pulled for her, wanted more minutes for her. Just didn't happen for a variety of reasons. I say this almost every year, the ratings for women's players is not even close to what it is for men's players. A 4 star in women's doesn't always translate from high school to college. Look at Addie Deal for Iowa, 5 star and starter who ended up on the bench at the end of the year and averaged maybe 5 points a game. It happens. Naomi may still develop, but we can on this team replace her 7 off. rebounds for the year. Lets look forward, wish her the best.

I like what Luwdoo mentioned, Gracie Merkle or someone like her, Anete Adler from Boston U or many others. One of them might want to move to a team that has a chance to be successful and win. Penn State sure didn't and Merkle carried them usually. Would she want to give up scoring her almost 20 points a game to play on a winning team? Be the big who only scores 12 or 15 points and doesn't have to use her 5 fouls to get every rebound because we have Manuella and Cearah who are going to be huge on the boards. Instead she stops the other teams centers with that huge body of hers and draws fouls on the other team as she is excellent scorer with her back to the basket. Plus she would not have to play as many minutes with the team we have next year. What a nightmare match up we would be as we could go fast, go big and the idea of a line up with Berry and Cearah on the wings sometimes, with Maddie at a shooting guard.

Thanks to the players who were here this year, but we can and will move on to bigger and better, some of those players are here already.
 
#32      
ILLHoopsterFan
the juiceman cometh said:
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.
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I agree, but playing her 3.5 minutes per game for a team with a frontcourt that lacked size and strength sends a clear message. What little we saw of her, I think she can be a contributor at this level or a notch below. Best of luck, Naomi!
 
#33      
Illiniindian
the juiceman cometh said:
I think you're putting too much stock on the 4-star ranking by one recruiting service (ESPN - which still ranked her the lowest of our 4 recruits in that class). Let's drill down into the minutes allocation though. I'm sure the transfer has more to do with future minutes than past minutes. Minutes are a finite resource. To give Naomi more minutes, you have to take them away from someone else.

I'm going to assume it would have taken her an opportunity to earn at least 20 mpg to keep her here. So for this upcoming season, where would those minutes come from? Our starting bigs this season were Wallace and Parchment. Wallace averaged almost 36 minutes, I could see dialing that back to 30 to give her a break. But Cearah averaged just under 29. You're not taking minutes away from her - if anything you're bumping her up a few minutes. So really, you can only free up maybe 4 or 5 minutes between the two of them. Haven leaving frees up maybe a couple minutes, though she played in about half the games so that's generous. But to be generous, let's say you now have an extra 7 minutes. Let's say you free up another 10 minutes by going bigger lineup more often (and to do this you're now cutting into minutes for players like Dolan and Webber who might be in line to get more playing time, not less). So anyway, now you have an extra 17 minutes lined up. But Lety only played 12 minutes a game and played well, so she's going to want more playing time and is going to fight for it. Catoria is also going to compete for more PT.

And then the big elephant in the room is Manuella. She was ranked higher than Naomi by every single recruiting service, and due to her injury, did not play at all. She needs minutes as well, and those are going to have to come from somewhere. You could see a scenario where she swallows up every available minute.

If Naomi wanted an assurance of playing time, there's just no way Coach Green would have been able to offer that to her. Even if she'd played a solid 10 mpg this entire season, she wouldn't be able to assure her she'd get that again. There is too much young talent on this team competing for minutes. If anything, with Manuella's return, the competition for minutes is going to be tougher next season.
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Obviously I won’t argue with your excellent analysis. However, I will stick with my views as a fan in that I would often see Naomi come in for 5 minutes, perform very well, and then get yanked off the floor for no reason .
If Aviles is as great as everyone is saying, then yes, there is no room for Benson and I wish her a successful career wherever she goes.
 
#34      
JimILL75
Illiniindian said:
Obviously I won’t argue with your excellent analysis. However, I will stick with my views as a fan in that I would often see Naomi come in for 5 minutes, perform very well, and then get yanked off the floor for no reason .
If Aviles is as great as everyone is saying, then yes, there is no room for Benson and I wish her a successful career wherever she goes.
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Two thoughts for us to kick around about Benson. First I think her offensive skills held her back. I'll agree she was the physical, aggressive players we needed, well still need and have to add now. She and Smith both could play physical against a bigger player on the defensive end, neither were a threat to score. So no doubt that limited playing time. Trust me I agree with you I liked her and high up side. The great unknown is what is she thinking about playing time, her family, friends telling her she should be getting. Heck every expect on this board knows we want to add another front line player, so Benson knew it too. No matter how much we like her and want to keep her she wants to be the star like she was in High School. So could she improve her scoring to play enough and did she fell here or some place else was the right fit for her. Illiniindian I feel your pain, sometimes if you love someone you have to let them go.
 
#35      
Illiniindian
JimILL75 said:
Two thoughts for us to kick around about Benson. First I think her offensive skills held her back. I'll agree she was the physical, aggressive players we needed, well still need and have to add now. She and Smith both could play physical against a bigger player on the defensive end, neither were a threat to score. So no doubt that limited playing time. Trust me I agree with you I liked her and high up side. The great unknown is what is she thinking about playing time, her family, friends telling her she should be getting. Heck every expect on this board knows we want to add another front line player, so Benson knew it too. No matter how much we like her and want to keep her she wants to be the star like she was in High School. So could she improve her scoring to play enough and did she fell here or some place else was the right fit for her. Illiniindian I feel your pain, sometimes if you love someone you have to let them go.
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Yeah, makes sense. I would like 5 minutes with Shauna just to get her take on playing time for freshman like Benson. What is Coach Green’s plan? I guess we will see with the off season transfers.
Yes, definitely painful for me as she seemed like a great kid. Oh well, I will be rooting hard for her at her next school.
 
#36      
ptgrd23
Biggest addition would just to get Gretchen back with healthy knees. Our 3 headed monster offense - Berry, Cearah and Gretchen was very effective.
 
#46      
pruman91
is there any hope of adding Trinity Jones to next year's Illini squad ??....didn't see us mentioned in the article..................
 
#47      
Luwdoo
pruman91 said:
is there any hope of adding Trinity Jones to next year's Illini squad ??....didn't see us mentioned in the article..................
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UCLA and Tennessee recruited her and there are plenty of openings at both of those schools next year. I would think we recruited her just from the fact that she's from Illinois. But I know nothing. Just dreaming, hence the Dream Team. Sometimes dream come true. They really really do!
 
#49      
oldmanindian
Luwdoo said:
UCLA and Tennessee recruited her and there are plenty of openings at both of those schools next year. I would think we recruited her just from the fact that she's from Illinois. But I know nothing. Just dreaming, hence the Dream Team. Sometimes dream come true. They really really do!
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Trinity was a Mac Irvin Fire gal and Illinois never got any traction in her redruitment. ABI!!
 
#50      
ILLHoopsterFan
Luwdoo said:
How about this Dream Team for next year.

Destiny
Divine
Trinity
Berry
Cearah


Aaliyah
Jasmine
Maddie
Gretchen
Manuella

Lety
Erica
Irene

Plenty of depth in case of injury. And Maddie and Jasmine are the only Sr.'s.
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This sounds great, but I doubt we have enough money to pay them all and enough minutes to keep them all happy.
 
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