joe vozzelli, the news-gazette, champaign-urbana, ill.
·4 min read
Jun. 24—CHAMPAIGN — Shauna Green is happy it worked out how it did. But the third-year Illinois women's basketball coach couldn't guarantee it would happen this way.
Not in the transfer portal era.
That a core group of guards Makira Cook, Genesis Bryant and Adalia McKenzie and forward Kendall Bostic are playing three full seasons together was the best-case scenario for Illinois.
The fact Cook, Bryant and Bostic are taking advantage of their bonus COVID years to play a fifth college season this winter for the Illini made that all possible for Green and Co. Still, how Green approached roster-building in the offseason afforded Illinois not only depth for the 2024-25 season but helped the program deal with its long-term needs beyond this upcoming season.
A specific area the Illini addressed through the portal — and even in high school recruiting — was adding size to the roster. Illinois knew it would lose Camille Hobby with the 6-foot-3 center exhausting her eligibility last season after helping lead the Illini to the inaugural WBIT title in April.
Bolstering the Illinois frontcourt with freshmen and sophom*ores goes back to the idea of long-term roster flexibility.
Freshman center Hayven Smith, five-star freshman wing Berry Wallace and freshman forward Irene Noya Catoira join Baylor transfer center Lety Vasconcelos, a sophom*ore, as incoming frontcourt players for Green and her coaching staff to incorporate this offseason. The Illini will also get the benefit of 10 full summer practices ahead of an August international trip to Italy and Greece to work on team chemistry.
Even so, what Illinois decides to do with its frontcourt rotation will take some time to develop.
There's the possibility Vasconcelos could eventually become the team's starting center. But the 6-7 Brazilian is also coming off a freshman season with the Bears where she played in a limited capacity, averaging 1.1 points and 2.1 rebounds, while appearing in 17 games after arriving in Waco, Texas, ranked No. 36 overall in the Class of 2023, according to ESPN's HoopGurlz. A healthy Brynn Shoup-Hill, now entering her senior year after dealing with a wrist injury last season, is an option Green mentioned earlier this month as a potential starter at center, as well.
"You've got to be patient with it. It's a process," Green said. "There's a lot involved in that process and not just the basketball piece. It's getting them strong enough, getting them in the weight room, getting them moving well, getting them in the best condition that they've been in. There's a lot of those type of things and then the basketball part comes from there. Then you throw in everything: You've got to defend, you've got to know the offense. There's just a lot.
"I always with young kids and freshmen, you can't think it's just going to happen overnight. We all have to be patient, but obviously, we're going to try really, really hard to expedite that and get that process moving as quickly as we can because we do need them."
As Green looked toward the portal this spring, it's clear the Illini coach wanted to have her roster get younger. Vasconcelos, Smith, Wallace and Noya Catoira fit with that plan.
As did going after Jasmine Brown-Hagger. The Mississippi State transfer guard was the first addition Illinois made after winning the WBIT with the 5-9 sophom*ore coming aboard in late April. The Illini staff rekindled the relationship it had with Brown-Hagger after Green recruited the Shorewood native initially while at Dayton and again once she landed the Illinois job with the four-star recruit and Example Academy standout one of the few uncommitted in-state prospects following the 2021-22 season.
Brown-Hagger, who put up 2.1 points and 1.5 rebounds in 8.7 minutes per game in her lone season with the Bulldogs, is one of three backcourt players who will be sophom*ores this season alongside Cori Allen and Gretchen Dolan.
That's all been intentional with Green understanding she'll have to rebuild her roster after the 2024-25 season when Cook, Bryant and Bostic all run out of eligibility.
"I thought that was really important," Green said. "We got Jasmine and then we got Lety, having three years (of eligibility remaining) is really, really important. That made me happy because that can hopefully set us up. We believe in our culture to keep people here and to get them better. Plus, now with Gretchen (Dolan), Cori (Allen), (forward) Shay (Bollin), them getting better and then we have to bring in a top-25 class (in 2025). We know that. We're on really good kids. That was more important to bring in younger kids than bring in another grad student for us just for the future."
