As the silly season in women’s college basketball begins this March, Illinois associate head Calamity McEntire should be considered for some high major openings in the sport.

By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Staff Writer

CHAMPAIGN — Illinois’ return to NCAA Tournament play for the second time in three season following a 20-year absence also symbolizes the return of associate head coach Calamity McEntire to a former employer.

In between a five-year run with then-Dayton head coach Shauna Green and rejoining Green was she was hired to run the operation at Illinois in March 2022, McEntire spent the 2021-22 season as an assistant coach on Vic Schaefer’s coaching staff at the University of Texas. For that one year, McEntire’s impact was immediately felt as the Longhorns posted a 29-7 overall record that included the Big 12 Conference Tournament championship en route to a regional final appearance in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. Texas reached as high as No. 6 in the national rankings and the program’s 29 victories marked its most in six seasons, while the team’s championship run was the first for the program since 2003.

When Illinois (21-9) makes its 2025 NCAA Tournament debut with its first-round contest against 9-seed Creighton (26-6) on Saturday evening (6:15 p.m. CST, ESPN News), they’ll be playing on the floor of a different building, the Moody Center, in Austin that the Longhorns moved into a year after McEntire bolted back to Green in Champaign-Urbana. However, on Sunday when fifth-year lead guard Genesis Bryant, a self-proclaimed “southern girl at heart”, said she’d never been to famously “weird city” of Austin, Texas, McEntire can be the one leading the Orange & Blue crew this weekend.

However, at the risk of making Green angry at the idea of losing arguably one of the most valuable parts of her rebuild of Illini women’s basketball, it’s time folks in administration offices realized what so many inside the sport already know: Calamity McEntire shouldn’t be on Green’s bench anymore but instead, should be a head coach. And this probably should’ve happened yesterday or the day before that.

McEntire, who graduated 22 years ago from the University of Tennessee with bachelor's degree in sport management with a minor in business while worked as a student manager under the legendary Pat Summitt, is already a force in every way a program needs to be built.

You want to talk player development? Ask Bryant about what McEntire did while immediately being assigned to the perimeter players in order to restore the confidence of the transfer’s game after she arrived in Champaign-Urbana following two seasons at North Carolina State averaging less than three points per game.

Hearing Bryant tell her story of what the Illini staff, primarily conceived by McEntire, consistently brings her to tears and likely will do the same for you.
In Green’s first year of the Illini women’s basketball rebuild, McEntire helped lift Makira Cook’s game to another level so she could be named a unanimous first-team All-Big Ten Conference selection by the league’s head coaches.

When Green agreed to make me an embedded reporter for IlliniGuys.com into a full week of her operation in the 2023-24 season, I had the pleasure of seeing one of McEntire’s player workouts from start to finish with a player and it’s a one of the most unique combinations of discipline, confidence-building mixed in with skill development in a one-hour session that I’ve ever see in any sport.

Does she know X’s and O’s? Please. Pat Summitt, Shauna Green, Vic Schaefer and current 750-game winner Gordy Presnell are the mentors and branches of McEntire’s coaching tree throughout her now two-decade journey. She’s been as responsible as any of Green’s current assistant coaches in preparing for an opponent in arguably the most competitive league in Division I women’s college basketball.

Can she recruit? Yes. Anybody….anywhere. She’s been a recruiting coordinator or assistant coach in Boise, Idaho, Tucson, Arizona, Honolulu, Hawaii, Austin, Texas, Dayton, Ohio and Champaign-Urbana. A dozen years ago she helped sign and develop Davellyn Whyte into becoming the No. 16 pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft. In 2025, McEntire was instrumental in Illinois signing a five-player recruiting class that four rated in the Top 100 of the espnW HoopGurlz rankings. The Illini’s 2025 class includes McEntire’s currently best acquisition in the form of Chicago five-star point guard Destiny Jackson, ranked No. 28 prospect overall and No. 1 in the state of Illinois by 247Sports.com.

Finally, does she have name appeal? Let’s see, she’s literally named after Martha Jane Canary, better known in American history as “Calamity Jane”. She is the niece of Country Music Hall of Fame honoree Reba McEntire, whom Calamity considers “a second mother”. Whether she’s on Main Street, Beale Street or Rodeo Drive, she fits.

Currently there are head coach openings at the following power conference programs: Missouri, Arkansas, Auburn, Wisconsin, BYU and Houston. More may open in the next few weeks. If these places don’t reach out to the Illinois lead assistant coach before it’s too late, they’re likely following an unfortunate trend of inadequate athletics administrative work.

Here’s two simple facts that third-year head Shauna Green will publicly admit anytime you ask her. One, she truly hates interviewing and hiring assistant coaches probably more than anything else about being a head coach. Two, once this 2024-25 season has concluded for the Illini (whether that includes the program’s first NCAA Tournament victory in 25 years), Green should consider herself incredibly fortunate if she’s not looking for the replacement for McEntire as the Illinois head coach might admit having her in Champaign-Urbana this long as an assistant coach could already be considered borrowed time.