The Big Dance is just days away, and once again, the women’s Illinois basketball team will be partaking.
Just a few years ago, I wasn’t sure the direction of the Illini program. We were floundering to single-digit wins every season, and there was no hope for anything going on with the team.
In steps Shauna Green, and everything changed. She came from Dayton and brought some key transfer portal players with her. This season, some of those transfers helped keep Illinois basketball in the limelight.
An 11-2 start to the 2024-25 season was huge for the Orange and Blue. This start included beating then-No. 19 Florida State, and the two tough losses were to top 15 programs in Kentucky and Ohio State.
Injuries then plagued the program. If losing our leading scorer Makira Cook wasn’t bad enough, the Illini also lost key contributor Gretchen Dolan as well. Both players can light up the scoreboard.
Illinois didn’t throw in the towel. In fact, after the injuries, the team came together and forged ahead. There were a couple of bumps in the road, but Illinois did go on an eight-game winning streak which featured a win on the road against No. 14 Maryland.
The end of the season did look a bit ugly, but that was due to a tough ending schedule. Back-to-back games against top five programs on the road and then two games against solid teams fighting for NCAA tournament seeding. Illinois was in all four games too.
Now that the dust has settled, Illinois is going back to the NCAA tournament. On Sunday night, ESPN revealed the women’s bracket, and the Illini will be a No. 8 seed. We will be heading to Austin, Texas, and will play on Saturday. The time has yet to be set. Illinois will be taking on No. 9 Creighton in the first round.
The women’s Illinois basketball team breaks a quarter-century rough patch
What Green has done with the Illini program is something that I will never forget. She took a team that had a total of 12 Big Ten wins in a span of seven seasons, and in the blink of an eye, we have now made back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances.
Just think about that for a second. The seven seasons prior to Green, Illinois had 12 Big Ten wins. In three seasons with Green at the helm, we have had 30 Big Ten wins.
Now Illinois is heading back to the Big Dance. Not only is that a great accomplishment alone, making two postseason appearances in three seasons hasn’t happened in a long time. In fact, the last time it happened was back in 1999 and 2000. It has been a quarter-century since this feat has been achieved.
The depth of Illinois’ NCAA tournament run is unknown. We have gone up against some of the best teams in the country in the regular season, so we know what it takes to knock off a giant. Let’s see if this once dumpster fire can set a few brackets on fire with a run to the Sweet 16.
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