Illinois Basketball: Nancy Fahey needs time to build the Illini roster
There was a big switch for the Illinois basketball program on both the men’s and women’s side in 2017.
Athletic Director Josh Whitman made a drastic change to both programs. On the men’s side of things, Brad Underwood was left with some talent but not a lot. There were transfers and decommitments that would have helped his team. On the women’s side, first-year head coach Nancy Fahey has something similar on her hands.
Fahey is in her first season still, and I see some people giving her and Whitman criticism already. They don’t like the hire and have been questioning Whitman’s decision making across the board. I am not sure why this is happening, though. Early career struggles at Illinois should be expected from not only the men’s basketball and football teams but from the women’s basketball team as well.
The two years before Fahey took over the program, Illinois had a combined Big Ten record of 5-29. Yes, that isn’t a typo. The Illini have only won five total Big Ten games in the last two seasons. That is horrific and one of the reasons – along with other issues with the program – that Matt Bollant was let go in March 2017.
What was left by the Bollant regime was a tattered Illinois program that needed a reboot. That is Fahey’s job now. Bollant left a roster that needs some serious overhauling if the Illini want to be competitive in the Big Ten in the future. That doesn’t mean some of the players on the roster are bad people or players, but there is a level of player that needs to be on the roster and it just isn’t there for the Illini right now.
Since 2014, Illinois has only been able to bring in a total of four four-star recruits and two of them – Chatrice White and Amarah Coleman – transferred out due to the issues with the Bollant regime.
Right now, the Illini roster consists of two four-star players – Ali Andrews and Cierra Rice – and the rest are either three-star players or not even ranked. This isn’t good enough to compete in one of the strongest conferences in the country. I would like the Illini to get to somewhere in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten at least. So, I took a look at the type of talent Iowa has, who currently sits at No. 8 in the conference.
Iowa’s roster is immensely better than Illinois’ right now. They currently have six four-star recruits and one five-star recruit on their roster, and they are middle of the pack in the Big Ten. That means Illinois needs a lot more talent to just get to that point.
There are some pretty good players coming in next season, though. Fahey has landed two top 100 players in Mckenzie Blazek – 6-foot-2, four-star forward – and Arieal Scott – 5-foot-9, four-star guard – both of who will improve this team greatly. I imagine they will both be early impact players for this Illini program.
Next: 5 takeaways from the Illini win over Indiana
The current Illinois women’s basketball situation looks bleak right now, but the future looks to be getting brighter. Fahey is bringing in more talent and they should start building this team into a competitive Big Ten program once again.