2025-26 Team Preview: Illinois

Not to step over a rivalry line this preview, but a quick check-in on Veronica Burton, who continues to have a monster year for Golden State:

Burton is averaging 11.3 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 5.1 APG and 1.1 SPG while shooting 38.2 percent from three. Every single one of those stats is way, way up from the year prior as she is leading the charge for the Valkyries’ playoff chances. This is all off the back of a career performance of 30 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists on 10-of-13 shooting last week in a win over Washington.

Her two-way dominance has her in ninth in win shares (4.4) in the WNBA with only a few weeks of the regular season to go. So, perhaps the two best cases for Most Improved Player this season are Burton and Naz Hillmon? Hoopla is taking over the world? Many are saying this folks.

Last Week’s Preview (Oregon)

Table of Contents

• 2024-25 Overview

• Departures

• Returnees

• Incoming Players

• Outlook

2024-25 Overview

Illinois’ 2023-24 season can be viewed as a tad underwhelming or a continued showing of growth depending on how far you stretch the timeline.

When just looking at the previous season, the Illini missing the NCAA Tournament and settling for a WBIT bid felt like missing the mark considering the roster. But in the grand scheme of things, Illinois had nine straight losing seasons before Shauna Green took over as head coach, so a 19-win season ending with a WBIT championship was much more than this program could have asked for before Green’s hire.

Green matched her first-year record in 24-25, getting back over 20 victories with an impressive 22-10 record despite some poor injury look in the roster.

Illinois was 21-5 before losing five of its last six games, but that win was a massive one: A 66-57 victory against Creighton in the NCAA Tournament, the Illini’s first victory in the Big Dance since 2000. Their tourney run ended at the hands of Texas, but this season was a massive success thanks to that one victory and an impressive run through the Big Ten gauntlet.

The Division-I ranks tell the tale: Illinois was pretty good at just about everything, except playing fast. Where the Illini were elite came elsewhere. Illinois was one of the best free-throw shooting teams in the country (79.3%, 8th in NCAA) and among the best at avoiding turnovers (12.6 TOPG, 23rd in NCAA). If you were going to beat the Illini, you often had to do it the hard way, as this roster was great at avoiding costly mistakes.

This was an extremely important season for Illinois women’s basketball, and the group delivered. The roster was set up for success, but hit some major roadblocks early in the year, so to still manage 21 wins in 26 games and get that important win in the NCAA Tournament was very impressive by Green and co.

Here's last year’s Illinois roster, sorted by Her Hoop Stats win shares:

Departures

There are a total of seven exits for Illinois to replace, with just two coming from the portal. The other five are graduates, all of which were major players in this program making the turnaround it has.

Let’s start with Kendall Bostic and Adalia McKenzie, two players who were at Illinois prior to Green’s hire, and who were rewarded mightily for deciding to stay through the change. Bostic quickly became one of the Big Ten’s best interior players on both sides of the floor, and was a consistent double-double threat who continued to expand her game each season. McKenzie always felt like Illinois’ unsung hero, but she was a terrific complementary scorer who got inside and to the line very well and did a little bit of everything for this team.

We then have Genesis Bryant, a highly-regarded prospect who saw limited action at NC State before fully blossoming at Illinois as a three-point and playmaking threat. She took on a larger role in her final season because of two season-ending injuries to key guards, and continued to deliver as she always had.

One of those injuries was to Makira Cook, Illinois’ primary scorer for all of Green’s three seasons when she was active. She’s a high-volume bucket getter who is not afraid of the moment, as was clear when she earned WBIT Tournament MVP. Cook, along with Brynn Shoup-Hill, followed Green from Dayton to the Illini, and the move paid off for both the players and the program: the Illini’s 63 wins over Green’s first three seasons is more than Illinois had over its prior seven seasons combined (60).

Those players should be remembered for what they did for this program, and they will be leaving quite a void to fill. Joining them is guard Cori Allen, who earned a consistent reserve role last season, and Shay Bollin, who showed some shooting flashes in her one healthy season with the program.

Returnees

While clearly missing the top-end talent of last year’s team, Illinois returns about as much as it could have hoped for, including three important pieces with key experience.

The most experienced of the bunch is Jasmine Brown-Hagger, who took big strides after a year with minimal action on Mississippi State. Brown-Hagger started 17 games for the Illini and was a reliable scorer at all three levels, which makes her feel like someone who will be relied on with a very green bunch coming in.

The other core pieces are Berry Wallace and Gretchen Dolan, both of which have showed immense promise early on in their collegiate careers. Wallace really began to impress me down the stretch of the season, and the former five-star hit nearly 40 percent of her 88 three attempts to really add a scoring punch to the unit.

Dolan was off to the races to start last season, but, like Cook, went down to a season-ending injury after only eight games. If those early returns are a sign of what’s to come, though, she is going to fit right in alongside Wallace and Brown-Hagger to make for a very solid trio of returnees, especially considering all that left.

Wallace is one member of Illinois’ four-player 2024 class, all of which are back for their sophomore seasons. Hayven Smith was the only other member to get consistent action, but it wasn’t in large quantities. The 6-6 center has a great opportunity to earn a starting role with Bostic’s departure, along with the 6-7 Lety Vasconcelos, who I had as a projected starter last season before the Baylor transfer ended up missing the entire season.

Irene Noya Catoira and Mia Zenere likely signed with Illinois knowing that last season would be a tough draw for minutes with the veteran roster. I will be curious to see if either of them can break into larger roles this season, especially Zenere, who has experience playing with Brown-Hagger in high school.

Incoming Players

The Shauna Green ecosystem is in a tremendous place. With all four rising sophomores coming back, even a solid 2025 class would have felt significant. Instead, the Illini are bringing in one of the most impressive classes in the conference, with four Top 100 prospects and a fifth who has made great progress to her game in Australia.

Five-star Destiny Jackson is the top name to know, and the 5-6 guard seems to be an electric difference-maker right away. This was a massive get for the program, and the in-state star should have ample opportunities quickly to prove her potential.

Jackson is not alone in this class, not at all. International forwards Manuella Alves and Cearah Parchment both are Top 50 prospects with significant experience professionally. Guard Erican Finney does as well, and picked up some impressive accolades while in the NBL.

Naomi Benson follows Wallace’s pipeline from Ohio to the Illini, and I think she has a great opportunity to eventually take on Bostic’s role as she develops. She was a tenacious defender and rebounder in high school, two very important qualities for Green to find in this new-look roster.

So that’s the freshman class, and the team also added three intriguing players through the portal to go with it. Maddie Webber is the most likely plug-and-play option of the bunch as she was one of Villanova’s key scorers as a sophomore last season, starting all 36 of their games. Aaliyah Guyton is going to be a name to watch for, as while her stats don’t overly impress, that freshman year in Iowa showed a whole lot of flash at her best. The ceiling with her feels sky high, and hopefully she will get more opportunities to capitalize on that potential this season.

Finally, Gisela Segura feels like an important get for more veteran leadership if anything else. She joins this roster as the lone senior on it, which could lead to her getting some action as the newcomers develop.

Outlook

Projected Starters

• Destiny Jackson - G

• Jasmine Brown-Hagger - G

• Maddie Webber - G

• Berry Wallace - F

• Hayven Smith - F

Big Ten Finish: 11th

I could talk myself into Illinois being much higher on the list, I really think the ceiling is somewhere around the top five if this 2025 class is firing early, but with so much known talent out the door and the Big Ten being, well, very good and deep, the variance possibility leaves them here.

Wallace is the only true no-doubt starter in my eyes, which is more a testament to Illinois’ impressive depth of talent even after all of those exits. Jackson is the type of prospect that likely can earn a day one starting gig, and Brown-Hagger’s experience should matter for a roster like this in my eyes. Smith and Vasconcelos are likely competing for the starting center spot unless Illinois wants to play small, so I went with Smith merely based on the experience she got last season.

For that last spot, I think Gretchen Dolan could 100% be a starter if they want to go that way, but Webber started a whole lot of games for Villanova while Dolan has done her damage off the bench to this point. If this ends up being the case, remember Dolan for Sixth Player of the Year.

I can’t stress enough how good of a place Illinois feels to be in, both for this year and moving forward. This is a whole team of players with at least one more year of eligibility outside of Segura, and with a coach who has ignited this program that so recently felt like it was without a pulse.

This roster is probably a year away from becoming a true terror in the Big Ten, but they also might not be. It’s a team that still has so much to offer despite its entire core leaving through graduation. To even be right back in the NCAA Tournament picture — which the Illini absolutely are — is a triumph, and I’m not expecting anything more than a slight drop-off from this new, much more inexperienced, but still very talented bunch.

Photo Credit: Illinois Women’s Basketball (@IlliniWBB), Twitter

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