The women's Illinois basketball program had a plethora of injuries impact their 2025-26 season, with freshmen Manuella Alves and Erica Finney, just to name a few.
But at the top of that list, there was one Illini player who stood out from the rest, and that was redshirt junior Gretchen Dolan, who suffered a torn right meniscus that brought her season to an abrupt halt.
Gretchen Dolan will miss the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery for a torn meniscus. pic.twitter.com/bzUsluzSr3
— Illinois Women's Basketball (@IlliniWBB) February 25, 2026
Dolan, who was reclassified as a redshirt-sophomore in 2025, finished her season averaging 12.9 points and 3.4 rebounds per game through 18 games played. This was the second consecutive season that the Buffalo, New York, product suffered a season-ending knee injury, with her last one occurring in 2024 after just eight games.
In 2026, Dolan will be regarded as a key veteran on Illinois' roster, with Maddie Webber, Jasmine Brown-Hagger, and Lety Vasconcelos rounding out the experienced veterans. She will also become a key wing in a backcourt that includes transfer Divine Bourrage, as well as five-star point guard Destiny Jackson.
If Gretchen Dolan can stay healthy, she has a chance to be a major piece of Illinois' puzzle
Last season, Shauna Green lost a lot of offense when Dolan went down with her knee injury. It was a blow that the Illini tried their best to replace, but ended up hitting a few snags down the road.
Granted, inserting guards Aaliyah Guyton and Webber into the mix did have its advantages throughout the season, but it is just a difficult task to try to find a suitable replacement for a talent like Dolan.
This upcoming season, Green will have Dolan back in the mix and will be able to pair her with Bourrage. She will now have two top-scoring options at the perimeter who, combined with Illinois' elite frontcourt, will really be able to spread the floor to create open shots.
Not only that, but Dolan will also give Green another great perimeter defender on the other end of the court, as she showed she can have sticky hands with her 1.2 steals per game last season.
Dolan will certainly be an upgrade for the Illini as a whole, but we just need to make sure we can keep her on the floor. If she can shake this injury bug and play for the full season, then this team is going to be terrifying come March.
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