CHAMPAIGN — Illinois women’s basketball is undergoing its most seismic personnel shift of Shauna Green‘s tenure.
A senior class that shaped Green’s tenure and helped the Illini elevate the program is out of eligibility, meaning next season will be led by new faces or a handful of returning players stepping into bigger roles. It’s all entirely new for Green, who had heavily relied on a group that included Kendall Bostic, Genesis Bryant, Adalia McKenzie, Makira Cook and Brynn Shoup-Hill during her first three seasons in charge.
Illinois returns Berry Wallace, Gretchen Dolan, andJasmine Brown-Hagger, who have shown they are critical parts of the rotation when healthy. The post combination of Lety Vasconcelos and Hayven Smith also returns, though neither has significant Division I experience. Transfer guards Aaliyah Guyton and Maddie Webber should immediately slot into the rotation, and Illinois adds a freshman class that ranks among the top 10 classes nationally.
The talent is there, but Green and the coaching staff still have to put the pieces together.
“There’s going to be some anxiety and some probably stress of, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re losing 70-something percent of our scoring,’ but then on the other hand, as coaches it’s going to be fun too because it is so new,” Green told Illini Inquirer last month. “We can really mold and if there’s a time we can change things up, I think now is the time. We can just do some different things offensively, even defensively. That’s where this offseason, kind of knowing our pieces, I’ve really challenged our staff and myself about, ‘Hey, let’s go out and see what could fit this personnel. What do we want to add offensively? Do we want to play a little bit more free? We can go smaller even with Cearah (Parchment) at the four, the five, she can pick-and-pop.’ A lot of different things that we’re looking at and also going over and watching some of those WNBA practices and how they play with a lot of four, five out stuff has really got us all thinking and thinking about all the possibilities, which is fun.”
Illini Inquirer broke down potential roles and fits for the 2025-26 roster. It’s important to note that this isn’t a guess at minute allocation or starters. It’s simply a broad look at who could play what roles this upcoming season, and even that is likely to change as players arrive on campus and the staff identifies what they do and don’t like and which pieces fit better together than others in certain lineups.
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