Basketball

Illinois center Lety Vasconcelos provided her best game of the 2025-26 season in the Illini’s first round league tournament victory on Wednesday night.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 4, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

INDIANAPOLIS — As they took the elevator ride up a couple floors of Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Illinois head coach Shauna Green joked with Lety Vasconcelos that she likely didn’t believe the 6-foot-7 center would be joining her for this post-game media conference.

Sure, the Brazilian native, who has battled multiple knee injuries in her collegiate career, hasn’t had a double-figure scoring output throughout the 2025-26 season and hadn’t produced more than six rebounds in Big Ten Conference play. However, what might have made it a safe bet that Vasconcelos could be a non-factor in this Big Ten Tournament opening round contest was a coach-player blowup in the practice on Tuesday inside Ubben Basketball Complex in Champaign before the Illini left for Indianapolis.

“I just lit into her,” Green said Wednesday night. “I'm like, I know you want to be great I know you want to be elite. It needs to be better. I'm telling you that there was that practice and (in the game Wednesday night) she's up there flying in for rebounds. It was so different.”

By IlliniGuys Staff March 4, 2026 (Cover photo courtesy […]

Maddie Webber, who has scored 1,000 points in her collegiate career, will be a key bench element to Illinois’ run through the month of March as they begin postseason play tonight.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 4, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN — With Illinois struggling so much to find consistency in their starts after two-day preparations, Shauna Green hopes the schedule postseason play is the solution to this problem.

Essentially, from a layman’s perspective, more games and less practice might just be the best thing for this team to concentrate on.

“The honest answer is we’ll see, right? Maybe it’s about us just telling them to go play and not worry about so much. I really don’t know at this point,” Green said. “What I do know is March is about executing and being able to perform and it’s really not so much about preparation and practice time anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiuMZLneZkU    

By IlliniGuys Staff March 3, 2026 (Cover photo courtesy […]

By Brad Sturdy - IlliniGuys Insider/Analyst & Co-Host, IlliniGuys […]

(From Illinois Sports Information Office) March 3, 2026 CHAMPAIGN, […]

Illinois head coach Shauna Green believes her team is simply being outexecuted and coming up with poor overall efforts in the first 20 minutes of games leading to six losses in the last 10 games.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 2, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

CHAMPAIGN — As her team enters postseason play having stumbled in six of its last 10 games, Shauna Green sounds like a coach who is done trying to find excuses for her players lack of execution.

Another sleepy first-half effort saw another double-digit deficit before halftime leading to another loss where Green leaves a locker room full of players knowing Sunday afternoon could have been a win.

The 78-73 loss to No. 22 Minnesota put Illinois in a game on the first day of the Big Ten Conference Tournament for the first time since Green took over the Illini program and was the seventh time this season Illinois found itself in a huge deficit before the 20-minute break.

“Play hard,” Green said on her WDWS post-game radio interview when Illini play-by-play broadcaster Mike Koon asked what led to the second-half comeback. “I don't know why we didn't do that when we came out today. You need to play with 40 minutes of effort to beat anybody in this league and we had about 15 minutes of playing like who we need to be today.”

One more effort like that and Illinois (19-10, 9-9 in Big Ten) could be sweating out whether they are selected for the NCAA Tournament in a few weeks. And even if Illinois hears its name called in the NCAA selection process, two more opening efforts like the one on Sunday that saw Minnesota get 30 of its 36 first-half points in the paint and the Illini’s 2025-26 campaign is likely over.

March 2, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Joe Clark/IlliniGuys)

It's like an hours-long car ride to your favorite destination.  You suddenly look up and realize...

March is here!

On a journey that began back in October, we've reached the month when every college basketball season will come to an end, with four exceptions.

It comes on the heels of a nine-day stretch when the Associated Press top ten lost a combined 10 games, leaving the top two seed lines of most NCAA tournament projections largely unscathed.

Illinois began that period as a projected 2-seed with a shot at the Big Ten regular season title. But after a crazy effort that saw a 23-point lead evaporate at UCLA and then a bruising double-digit loss Friday night to arguably the best team in the nation, the latter is gone while the former remains.

The next two weeks are pretty simple for Brad Underwood's Illini:

(From Illinois Sports Information Office) March 1, 2026 CHAMPAIGN, […]

Illinois got down as many as 15 points in […]

By Brad Sturdy - IlliniGuys Insider/Analyst & Co-Host, IlliniGuys Sports Spectacular

March 1, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Joe Clark/IlliniGuys)

The Illini fell to Michigan 84-70 at the State Farm Center on Friday night, and the Wolverines showed why they are one of the 3 favorites to win the title on April 6th in Indianapolis, while the Illini showed why matchups are going to be very important to their success in March.

Here is what we learned about the Illini and Michigan in this one.

*Illinois likes to hunt matchups, and they did that against Michigan. The problem is that they have a hard time finding mismatches due to the versatility of the Michigan lineup. The Wolverines have more strength and athleticism, and they have the length to match up with Illinois and contest shots as well. The good news is that there are not many, maybe only 3 or 4 teams, that have the size and athleticism to do that.

*That doesn’t mean that Illinois can’t beat Michigan, but it means they are going to beat them consistently. You hope the one time will be in the Final Four. See 1989.

*Despite that, Illinois still got good looks.

What was supposed to be sweet revenge toward Morez Johnson Jr. for everybody associated with the Illini program instead became a reality check for everybody on the home sideline.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

February 28, 2026

CHAMPAIGN — On a night where nearly everybody inside State Farm Center wanted to create a nightmare scenario for Morez Johnson Jr., the former Illini forward led the charge toward a dream for Michigan’s front court.

From the moment he was introduced as a starter in pre-game to when he contributed 13 points, four offensive rebounds and four free throws, Johnson’s former head coach Brad Underwood had no choice but acknowledge his former signee and player was simply at another level.

“I love Morez to death. That’s the new world. He left (Illinois) for the reasons he did and you’d have to ask him why but he’s a terrific young man,” Underwood said. “He’s a next level type of player and he showed that tonight.”

By IlliniGuys Staff February 27, 2026 (Cover photo courtesy […]

By Brad Sturdy - IlliniGuys InsiderAnalyst & Co-Host, IlliniGuys Sports Spectacular

February 27, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

It is the next ‘biggest game of the year’ for the Illini as they host the #3 Michigan Wolverines in a showdown of the top 2 teams in the Big Ten standings on Friday night. The Wolverines and Illini both stubbed their toes last weekend and are looking to solidify their NCAA and Big Ten Tournament seeds. The Wolverines will clinch the Big Ten title outright with a win, and Illinois can put themselves in a great position for a 2 seed in the NCAA tournament and a 2 seed and triple bye in the Big Ten tournament.

Here’s a look at the matchup.

Setting the Stage
#10 Illinois (22-6, 13-4 B1G) vs. #3 Michigan (26-2, 16-1 B1G)
Friday, Feb. 27, 2026 // 7 p.m. CT // Champaign, Ill. // State Farm Center
TV: FOX – Jason Benetti (Play-by-Play) & Bill Raftery (Analyst)
Radio: Busey Bank Illini Sports Network – Brian Barnhart (Play-By-Play) & Deon Thomas

Notable
*No. 10 Illinois opens a two-game homestand on Friday night with a Top-10 matchup against No. 3 Michigan. Illinois carries a nine-game winning streak vs. Michigan (began Dec. 11, 2019), including four straight at home.

*In facing No. 3 Michigan, Illinois is looking for its highest-ranked win since beating No. 2 Texas on Dec. 6, 2022, its highest-ranked Big Ten win since a 76-53 rout at No. 2 Michigan on March 2, 2021, and its highest-ranked home win since upsetting No. 1 Indiana on Feb. 7, 2013 on a Tyler Griffey layup at the buzzer.

*Illinois has defeated two Top-5 teams entering the game against No. 3 Michigan, with wins at No. 4 Purdue and at No. 5 Nebraska. The school record for Top-5 wins in a season is three, set by the 1951-52 Illini squad.

*Friday will mark the first game in 20 years at State Farm Center with both teams ranked in the Top 10, since No. 6 Illinois beat No. 7 Michigan State on Jan. 5, 2006, behind Dee Brown's career-high 34 points.