Early impact from 5-star recruit has Illinois basketball rolling in the Big Ten

The way head coach Shauna Green has the women's Illinois basketball squad playing this season makes the disastrous former regimes in Champaign feel like they were ages ago.

Green has completely turned the Illini around, both on the court and with stellar recruiting. Enter Berry Wallace. 

Green has landed back-to-back five-star recruits, and one is already making quite an impact. In-state phenom Destiny Jackson will bring her five-star status to the Illini in the upcoming class. Ohio native Wallace currently carries the five-star torch, and she’s lapping the field with it. 

When Wallace signed her letter of intent to join Illinois’ squad in the Big Ten, she did so while having offers from the likes of Michigan, Clemson, and of course, the small school 22 miles down the road from her hometown of Pickerington. Ohio State.

That’s right kids, before our beloved Bret Bielema was nabbing Buckeye’s recruits right out of their backyard, Green was grabbing them right out from under their noses. 

Shauna Greene has completely revived women's basketball at Illinois

The ESPN HoopGurlz No. 37 ranked recruit for the class of 2024 seems to have made the right decision.

Since Green took over the program, the Illini are 28-21 in Big Ten play and 60-30 overall. They currently sit at No. 4 in the Big Ten standings with a 9-4 conference record, 19-5 overall, and they are inexplicably still unranked after rattling off six straight wins. 

They swept Northwestern home and away, knocked off No. 16 Maryland on the road, and took care of business against inferior opponents in Wisconsin, Rutgers, and Purdue. During their six-game winning streak, Wallace has found her groove. She is putting up 12.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.0 assists per game while shooting 54% from inside the arc and 40% from three-point range. 

As she was finding her footing at the beginning of the season, Wallace suffered a hand injury that slowed early progress. Still, her numbers were considerably lower. In the eleven games played before the winning streak, Wallace averaged about 20 minutes per game while putting up 6.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 0.5 assists in each contest.

Berry Wallace gaining experience and seems to improve every game

Since Illinois suffered a loss to No. 22 Michigan State on January 19, the team has been a completely different kind of animal. Also, this seems like a good time to mention that the Spartans have been ranked for several weeks with one fewer win overall and one fewer conference win than Illinois. The Illini are 2-3 against ranked teams and the Spartans are 2-2. 

With all of the Illinois injuries, we have seen Wallace get important minutes and experience, hit buzzer-beaters from deep, and have to guard some of the best players in the country. Recently she was tasked with chasing down Maryland’s Shyanne Sellers. Not an easy task for anyone, let alone a freshman coming off a hand injury, but she was up for the challenge. 

Sellers was still able to add 14 points to the Terrapins' score that night, but that’s her average, and most nights, she gets it. Sellers hung 27 points on Minnesota and 26 points on USC just a few weeks prior, and USC is ranked No. 2 in all of college basketball in defensive rating. Wallace’s offensive game has been fun to watch, but I’ve been more impressed at her ability to defend multiple positions at a high level. 

Could Illinois basketball see one of their own in the WNBA soon?

Wallace could be Illinois' first WNBA draft pick in 14 years, but that’s still a long Illinois career away.

One thing is certain, the Illini play better and win more when she is in the lineup and shooting. In Illinois losses this season, Wallace is only putting up about five field goals per game and averaging only 6.0 points. She is attempting almost seven shots and averaging almost 10 points per game in wins. 

As long as the freshman can keep it up on the defensive end, she will remain Illinois’ first player off the bench and keep getting vital minutes. Those minutes translate into experience, which will only further unlock all aspects of Wallace’s game. After all, in her final year of high school, she averaged over 15.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. 

If Wallace can bring 15 points and 10 rebounds next season, with the arrival of another five-star in Jackson, the future looks even brighter than the present. And the present for the Illini women is pretty damn bright. We are just waiting for the AP and NET to catch up.