2024-25 Team Preview: Illinois
Can the Illini right last year's wrongs after the strong finish?
Since I last posted (on a rare Thursday even!), the Big Ten has released the women’s basketball conference schedule. With 18 teams, each team will play 16 of the opposing teams once and one specific team twice. To look at that in a positive lens, there will be a whole lot of variety in the matchups throughout the entire slate.
That level of variety will make just about any day worth watching, but these were the days that stood out to me the most as true bangers within the schedule:
Sunday, Dec. 29: Michigan at USC, Michigan State at Maryland, Nebraska at UCLA, Ohio State at Rutgers, Purdue at Iowa
Wednesday, Jan. 8: Indiana at Northwestern, Michigan State at Nebraska, Ohio State at Michigan, Rutgers at Minnesota, USC at Maryland
Thursday, Jan. 16: Illinois at Indiana, Nebraska at Iowa, Ohio State at Wisconsin
Sunday, Jan. 26: Ohio State at Nebraska, Rutgers at Penn State, UCLA at Maryland, Wisconsin at Minnesota
Thursday, Feb. 13: Minnesota at Ohio State, Nebraska at Maryland, Penn State at Illinois, Rutgers at Iowa, UCLA at USC
Sunday, Feb. 16: Michigan State at UCLA, Nebraska at Illinois, Oregon at Minnesota, USC at Washington, Wisconsin at Penn State
For individual matchups I most look forward to, it has to be both the UCLA-USC battles, both Maryland-Ohio State matchups and the Iowa-Indiana game on Jan. 12. We are getting oh so close to games folks.
Last Preview:
Overview
It was a long, winding 2023-24 season for Illinois, a team that two years ago was picked by a certain writer of this newsletter to be dead last in the Big Ten.
Shauna Green immediately turned around this Illini program upon arrival, getting them to the NCAA Tournament as part of the First Four group in 22-23. With the core all returning last year, expectations went from rock bottom to quite high within a year.
With a zoomed out scope in mind, this was a still a vastly improved Illinois product to the one that this program had for most of its recent history. Zoomed in, however, much of the season felt a tad underwhelming considering how much momentum was gained the year prior.
The Illini were eliminated from the Big Ten Tournament with a 14-15 record, but were picked up by the WBIT to make it two straight years of postseason competition. After a tough year of not meeting expectations, Illinois only went out there and won the dang thing, taking down its final two opponents by a combined 37 points to win the trophy and end the year on a big-time high.
That tournament run changes the entirety of how I view this unit entering 24-25. The stats on the whole were merely OK, with decent scoring, decent defensive work and above average rebounding and shooting for the team as a whole. There were big wins throughout the year (at Michigan by 13, vs. Indiana by 20), but a cohesive run through a tournament setting tells me this roster feels like it should have done more than it did, and is ready to do so heading into this upcoming season.
Here's last year’s Illinois roster, sorted by Her Hoop Stats win shares:
Departures
The lack of departures by the key contributors also tells me a “run it back” mentality has fully taken shape. Six players from the 23-24 team exit, but the two most involved exits were via graduation, while only one other player who saw more than 10 games — Kam’ren Rhodes — is leaving through the portal.
Camille Hobby will be a tough player to replace. Her one season with the Illini was strong, as she worked well on the interior as another efficient scoring option who was also solid on the offensive glass. Jada Peebles was also a very useful component of the rotation before going down with an Achilles tear that ended her season.
Returning Players
The same core four that started this rise with Shauna Green are running it back for a third season together, a huge sign of the faith this unit has in itself to right the wrongs of last season.
Makira Cook may be the perfect representation of this. Cook missed the first few games of the season recovering from injury, then took awhile to get going, shooting below 40 percent in 7 of her first 8 games. By the WBIT, she absolutely figured it out, averaging 21.0 PPG on 52.9% shooting through those five victories while earning the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player honor.
Illinois’ roster is deep with talent and has a nice assortment of skills within it, but Cook’s pure scoring ability takes the unit to a whole other level when it’s on. A similar thing can be said when it’s off. If she can maintain the consistency we saw by the end of the season, Cook should be a First-Team All-Big Ten candidate.
If Illinois is looking for consistency, Kendall Bostic has been the epitome of that over the last two seasons for Green. This is the second straight year with Bostic shooting north of 60 percent from the field, and this was her first year averaging a double-double after just missing out on rebounds in 22-23 (9.8 per game). Bostic’s an elite interior defender and will continue to be a massive part of what the Illini do.
Genesis Bryant slowed down a tad from her blistering first season in Champaign, but still was an extremely solid scorer who is not afraid to launch it from deep. Both Cook and Bryant are extremely capable passers and have split that role well between them, but I’ll be interested if either takes on more of that responsibility than the other this season.
I likely don’t talk about Adalia McKenzie’s contributions enough here, but she is a rock-solid piece of this starting lineup that adds important scoring and rebounding, while also leading the team in steals. Since the Illini lose so much size at guard with Cook and Bryant (both listed at 5-6), the 5-10 McKenzie’s interior abilities are that much more important, and she’s continued to shine in her role through three seasons with the team.
Those four will be the core of this team for one more year, but the potential ceiling of Illinois could be determined by how the rest of the rotation fills out. Brynn Shoup-Hill started every game in 22-23 and started last year the same way, but Hobby ultimately took the spot down the stretch. Shoup-Hill’s minutes shrunk in a big way last season, and it’ll be interesting to see if Green elects to go back to her now that Hobby has graduated.
Gretchen Dolan and Cori Allen are a pair of sophomore guards worth keeping an eye on. Dolan saw more consistent action in her first year and looked solid off the bench, but Allen also shot the ball well in limited minutes. Third-year forward Shay Bollin also has some intrigue as a stretch option after shooting a healthy 34.4% from deep last season.
Incoming Players
This is a fantastic set of additions for Illinois, all of which should pay dividends past the upcoming season. With that core four unit all set to play one more season, that mindset absolutely makes sense and it should lead to continued success within the program.
But let’s not pretend a five-star like Berry Wallace can’t immediately make a huge impact. The 6-1 forward is extremely versatile and gives Illinois a bit more of a size boost where it’s needed. She may start the year off the bench, but it would not surprise me to see Wallace make a huge impact in her first season with the program.
If Illinois wants to immediately boost its size, it has two incoming options in the 6-6 Hayven Smith and the 6-7 Lety Vasconcelos from Baylor. Smith is a nice in-state add for the Illini, while Vasconcelos was used only sparingly in her first collegiate season, but showed clear ability as a rebounder and shot blocker. Hobby was only 6-3, so this would be a size upgrade at minimum if Illinois chooses to go with either in the starting five.
Irene Noya Catoira was a late addition for the Illini, and is another forward option with good size and solid European experience. Finally, we have two guards with experience playing on the same team, as Mia Zenere and Jasmine Brown-Hagger both originally hail from Example Academy. Zenere is a rather accomplished walk-on add for the Illini after a solid senior year earned her a McDonald’s All-America nomination.
Brown-Hagger feels like a familiar move for Green. A former top-55 prospect out of high school, Brown-Hagger didn’t get a big opportunity to prove herself at Mississippi State, and now will head to Illinois to try and change that. If it works like the move for Bryant did out of NC State, the Illini will have some of the best guard play in the Big Ten.
Outlook
Projected Starters
Makira Cook - G
Genesis Bryant - G
Adalia McKenzie - G
Kendall Bostic - F
Lety Vasconcelos - C
Projected Big Ten Finish: 7th
I am back for the second straight year to buy the Illinois stocks. I’m fully prepared to believe that the beginning of the 2023-24 season was a lull, and what we saw by the end of the year is more indicative of what’s to come with this unit.
Four of these starters are about as locked and loaded as they can be, but where Green goes with the fifth will tell us a lot about the identity of this team. It could be Wallace, Dolan or Shoup-Hill easily, but Vasconcelos would be the most direct replacement of Hobby’s strengths while also beefing up Illinois’ interior presence.
The questions with this team come down to bench help and scoring consistency. We know how talented Cook and Bryant are as a duo, but they have some hot/cold tendencies that can force the team to follow suit. This is their third year together, and I’m hoping this is their most consistently excellent campaign yet.
You really could not ask for two better core starters to work with that duo than McKenzie and Bostic, as both make an impact in a wide variety of areas without needing a large share of the ball. They are a huge reason Illinois has gotten to the place it is now.
A lot of this seventh-place ranking is a belief in a roster that clearly believes in itself, and that’s really exciting to see. I also believe in Green, who has quickly established a culture that has led to more winning than this program has seen in decades. A five-star is already through the doors, another is signed on for 2025, and this program feels like it’s only going up.
All of this would just make it that much more special if the unit of Cook, Bryant, McKenzie and Bostic — a quartet that believed in Green before the wins showed up and who paved the way forward — was rewarded with a NCAA Tournament run in its final season.
Photo Credit: Illinois Athletics
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