Illinois has announced the hiring of former Tennessee assistant coach Liza Fruendt to Shauna Green’s Illini coaching staff.

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

June 3, 2024

CHAMPAIGN — In the last two off seasons, Illinois women’s basketball head coach Shauna Green has hired away assistant coaches from the traditional power programs of Stanford and Tennessee.

Green has announced the hiring of Tennessee assistant coach Liza Fruendt as an assistant coach. Last summer, Illinois brought in Britney Anderson from Tara VanDerveer’s staff at Stanford out on the West Coast.

The difference between Anderson, who also has ties to the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, coming to Champaign in the summer of 2023 and this move to bring in a Southeastern Conference assistant coach to the Green’s Illini operation is that Fruendt is returning close to home. Fruendt, who will turn 28 years old this July, is a native of Batavia, Illinois - which is approximately 6-7 miles north of Aurora and approximately an hour west of Chicago, set the school record at Batavia High School with 1,921 career points and was a first-team all-state selection according to the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association and second-team pick by the Associated Press and Chicago Tribune as a senior after averaging 24.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 4.1 steals per game before playing her college basketball at Missouri State. Fruendt finished her college playing career ranked seventh in school history in points (1,656), fifth in three-pointers (242) and second in three-point attempts (721) and was one of five players in school history with 1,500 points, 400 rebounds and 200 three-pointers.

Fruendt joined the staff of her former coach at Missouri State, Kellie Harper, with the Lady Vols program prior to the 2021-22 season as the director of recruiting operations and served two years in that position before being elevated to an assistant coach. Fruendt played a role in Tennessee landing the No. 6 transfer class in 2023 and a group in 2022 that included No. 4-rated Rickea Jackson, No. 12 Jasmine Powell, and No. 16 Jasmine Franklin along with No. 35-ranked espnW 100 standout Kaniya Boyd. However, Harper was fired at Tennessee after five seasons and four straight NCAA tournament appearances leaving Fruendt with an opportunity to investigate her options and Green pitched her on the idea of joining the reigning WBIT champion program in her home state.

“She brings great experience from her time at Tennessee and I'm looking forward to her bringing fresh ideas to our program,” Green stated in the university release. “She knows what it takes to make runs in the NCAA tournament and recruit elite student-athletes from her time at Tennessee. Liza was a great player at Missouri State and will be able to use that knowledge as she helps our players develop both on and off the floor. I also love that she is from Illinois and has a passion for this state.”

Fruendt will take the vacant assistant coaching role left by Jenna Giacone - a former player for Green at Dayton.

“I am so excited to join Coach Shauna and to be coming home to the state of Illinois," Fruendt is quoted in the university release. “The opportunity to join a program on the rise with an elite coaching staff is something I couldn't pass up.”

As of June 3, Green’s staff appears to be completed as associate head coach Calamity McEntire along with a trio of assistant coaches (Anderson, DeAntoine Beasley and Emily Durr) are slated to return to coach a 2024-25 roster that is supposed to return four of the five starters from the end of last season’s postseason run along with bench contributors Gretchen Dolan, Brynn Shoup-Hill and Shay Bolin to mix in with Baylor transfer Lety Vasconcelos and McDonald’s High School All-American Berry Wallace.