Basketball

Illinois head coach Shauna Green feels two wins in the Big Ten Tournament and at least two weeks in between a NCAA Tournament game could be exactly what her team needs.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 7, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

INDIANAPOLIS — Two more wins and a two-week break before playing again has Illinois coaches and players leaving Gainbridge Fieldhouse feeling energized about an upcoming NCAA Tournament.

Illini head coach Shauna Green watched her extremely veteran team limp figuratively and literally to the finish of a 2024-25 campaign with injuries and a frustrating one-and-done experience in the Big Ten Tournament. Two weeks later, Illinois did earned its first NCAA Tournament win since 2000 but Green was leaving Indianapolis with more questions than answers about how her team would react to a national postseason experience.

On Friday night following a 64-58 loss to No. 9 Iowa, Green sees a completely flipped script with her youthful Illini squad that completed three games in three night that included a tight 71-69 win over No. 18 Michigan State on Thursday evening.

“The understanding what it takes in a win or go home environment, the understanding how to have quick turnarounds and still be able to get a scout in, and again, with a team that has never been through a lot of this stuff together,” Green said on Friday night about what she quickly learned about her Illinois team this week. “A ton of things we can learn from it. A ton of things we're going to carry into the (NCAA) Tournament with us, and a ton of things that can really propel us into next year.”

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

A furious fourth-quarter was not enough to knock off […]

Closing out a 71-69 victory over No. 18 Michigan State in the second round of the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament, should remove the age and experience excuse from this Illinois squad.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 5, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

INDIANAPOLIS — The core group of this University of Illinois women’s basketball team would like for you and anybody else from now on to tag off any tag that uses the words ‘youthful’, ‘inexperienced’, ‘raw’ or ‘immature’.

Following a 71-69 win over No. 18 Michigan State in the second round of the 2026 Big Ten Tournament, the perceived baby Illini, who arrived at Gainbridge Fieldhouse this week, have announced to the college basketball world they’re wearing their big girl pants from now on.

“They're just learning,” Illinois head coach Shauna Green said Thursday night. “Probably my favorite moment of the game was walking into a timeout and seeing them pointing (at the dry erase board) and talking to the point for me to have to say, be quiet, listen to me. It's an amazing, beautiful thing that, as a coach, I knew right then, okay, we're growing. We’re getting better.”

Throughout the four months of regular season play, Illinois has worn the moniker of being the third-youngest power conference roster and youngest roster in the Big Ten Conference. No more after Thursday night.

By IlliniGuys Staff March 5, 2026 (Cover photo courtesy […]

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

March 5, 2026

As I was leaving the game on Tuesday night we somehow got into a conversation about Disney and Star Wars and so I couldn't resist using that in my title. Illinois guard Andrej Stojakovic Was The Phantom Menace against Michigan but was exceptional against Oregon with 21 points in a career high 12 rebounds, not to mention to assist for good measure. We could have gone with the Return of the Stoja or The Stoja Awakens, or maybe even the Attack of the Stoj. Regardless, it was good to have the good Andrej back against Oregon as he led the Illini to an 80-54 drubbing of the Ducks.

-Stojakovic can be a difference maker for this team. Yes, they want to play at a slow pace and that really doesn't fit his game, but they have to have a balance and they have to be able to take advantage of Fast Break opportunities. Stojakovic is the one player that can take advantage and get out and transition and finish on the break. The odd part about Andre is that it seems his defense and rebounding only come about when he gets opportunities on offense. Yes, Illinois wants to play through Keaton Wagler and that makes sense. But as we saw on Tuesday Illinois can score by playing through Stojakovic in isolation situations. He essentially won the Texas Tech game and if he can continue to share the ball when the defense collapses as he did on Tuesday it is huge for the Illini.

-Tomi is 2 for his last 15 from 3. Big Z is 2 for his last 16. Underwood wants Tomi especially to keep shooting, but he needs to start making some. Z looked like the old shot blocking Z, and he rebounded well, but he is so inconsistent from game to game, and even minute to minute.

-How did Oregon get so bad so fast? And how did they beat Wisconsin?

-David Mirkovic continues to impress. In many years he is a Freshman All-American. He is now shooting 41% from 3 in Big Ten play and continues to rebound at a high clip. His defense is actually a little underrated as well. He is going to be a star next season.

-AJ Redd stole the show on Senior night, but how about the pass from Mihailo Petrovic? It’s easy for players to be selfish late in blowouts, but Petro understood the assignment.

Illinois freshman point guard Destiny Jackson has spent the last four months trying to prove she doesn’t act or play like a first-year player. These next few day of a Big Ten Tournament might prove it.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

March 5, 2026

(Cover photo courtesy Illinois Athletics)

INDIANAPOLIS — There was a point during the second half of its Big Ten Tournament opening round win Wednesday night where Illinois players and coaches would’ve wanted the basketball in the hands of one person and one person only.

And it should come as little to no surprise that the person who Shauna Green and company wearing orange and blue feel the most comfortable minute to minute, possession to possession, dribble to dribble executing everything precisely. The destiny of Illinois’ postseason fate literally and figuratively resides in the fate of a 5-foot-6 guard playing in her first collegiate postseason inside an NBA/WNBA arena.

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.

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: