At Villanova, Maddie Webber was a scoring machine and now at Illinois, while coming off the bench, she’s being asked to do much more except just score in less minutes.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — One can conclude that Maddie Webber had to take a perceived step back in her on-court role at Illinois to take steps forward with her overall game development.

This is why it should come as little surprise to hear from Webber herself that she wasn’t promised anything from the Illinois coaching staff nor did she have a preconceived notion as to what this experience transferring around from her home state power conference program for what might be looked at as a lesser role.

At Villanova, Webber was needed to play nearly 40 minutes a game and constantly be on the mark offensively as she averaged 13 shot attempts per game and on good nights would be closer to 20. Webber, a 5-foot-11 wing player was strategically hidden on defense in order to keep her on the floor in order for her to inject her scoring into an otherwise lifeless Villanova attack. After two years of being in the role of box score filler, Webber went into the transfer portal seeking more and has come out of that experience being expected to provide more - as in more defense, more energy, more rebounding and more maturity in the third youngest power conference team this season.

“The discipline, the commitment to perfection and the core values of our program, it takes a lot to get used to. I’ll fully admit that,” Illinois head coach Shauna Green said. “You see that with older transfers that they know how to play but maybe it takes some time for them to play the way the new program wants to play. It’s a transition.”

The only thing she’s gotten less out of the experience is minutes on the court. On this 2025-26 Illinois squad, which has begun this season 8-1 that includes a 21-point victory in the Big Ten Conference opener against Indiana, Webber comes off the bench and gets anywhere in the vicinity of 15-20 minutes per game.

Green’s plan for Webber was to ask for twice the overall floor game on both ends of the floor in half of the playing time she was getting on a Villanova team that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament in either of Webber’s first two seasons.

“I don’t feel like that transition was hard because I was told there would be an emphasis on defense and doing the little things to help our team win,” Webber said. “I wanted to be part of it so it wasn’t that difficult but because we’re so young as a team, the coaches are doing a lot of teaching with everybody so I wasn’t expected to pick everything up immediately.”

Nothing was easy for Webber, an All-Big East second team selection last year at Villanova and a highly coveted wing scorer out of the transfer portal. In her second game at Illinois, Webber was told by Green during a win over Illinois State that she was subbed out immediately because she allowed an offensive fault to multiply into a defensive lapse on the opposite end.

“The offense was always going to come for her but when we sit down and talk, it’s always about defense, it’s always about rebounding and it’s always coaches showing her how she can become a more complete player,” Green said. “She’s doing it. And oh by the way, offensively what we run is a totally different system than she was doing (at Villanova). None of this has been easy for her and we believe in her.”

If that was the wake-up call for Webber, it may have worked because Green has certainly noticed over the latter part of these opening two months that Webber has gotten more and more comfortable in her role. Webber has produced double-figure scoring efforts in four of her last five games but it’s her defense and rebounding that has allowed her to grow into the much-needed energy player role off the bench. On Wednesday night, Webber’s defensive improvement will be challenged, along with the rest of the Illinois wins as they travel to play Missouri (9-2) and face Shannon Dowell.

Dowell has notched double-digit points in every game this season and has scored in double-figures in 20 straight contests, dating back to last season. The Illinois State transfer reached 1,000 career points in her second contest in a Missouri jersey and was the first player to lead Missouri in scoring in their debut game for the program since Sophie Cunningham.