May 27—has brought in a mix of assistant coaches that know her well and are familiar with her system and some new blood.
It’s an approach that she has developed as the Illinois women’s basketball coach has established her imprint on the program as she now enters year five in Champaign. Green’s first few Illini staffs were almost exclusively her inner circle. Green brought and over with her from Dayton ahead of her first season as Illinois coach in 2022-23, and — while at Texas at the time — was also a former Green assistant coach with the Flyers. That made perfect sense given what Green had to do to remake the Illini program in year one.
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But, as Green has aimed to elevate Illinois she’s also gone outside her coaching circle. fits that mold, and has been a very good addition considering her previous experience working alongside one of best coaches in the women’s game as a former assistant coach on Hall of Fame coach ‘s staff at Stanford. But there have also been up-and-coming assistant coaches like and that Green has hired.
Regardless of how Green has structured her staff, the results have been good. The Illini have now played in the NCAA tournament in three of the last four years and have reached the second round in back-to-back seasons. It’s the most prevalent run of success for a once-downtrodden Illinois program since the late 1990s/early 2000s when led the Illini to four straight NCAA tournament berths.
What’s also become clear is Green understands the importance of having assistant coaches with head-coaching aspirations.
Gensler has gone on to coach his own team — he left for the Akron women’s basketball head coaching position after the 2022-23 season. And make no mistake: Anderson — and especially McEntire — are consistently considered as future head coaches.
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Alexander followed the path Gensler took, as after one season with the Illini, the Kentucky native was named the head coach of the Morehead State women’s basketball team in April. It marked the third time in the last four years Green has had to replace an assistant coach on her staff.
That freed up a spot on Green’s staff — and the Illinois fifth-year coach went back to the well and picked a familiar name: .
Harris worked under Green at Dayton from 2014-2018, and the Pittsburgh native was also on the same Flyers’ staff as current Illini assistants McEntire and Beasley and part of the Dayton team that made a deep NCAA tournament run to the Elite Eight in 2015.
The former North Carolina State men’s basketball player also checks another box, as someone with head-coaching experience having led East Tennessee State during the 2021-22 season (the Buccaneers struggled and finished 6-22 during his lone year leading the program). More recently, Harris has been an assistant coach at Loyola Chicago and back at his alma mater for his second stint with the Wolfpack on ‘s coaching staff this past season in 2025-26.
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“I am so excited to have Simon join our (family),” Green said in a statement. “Simon is someone who I’ve known for over 10 years, and he brings a wealth of experience to our team. … Simon will help us immediately in all aspects of our program. It’s always special when you can bring someone that has worked with multiple people on our staff before back to your program. His familiarity with our culture and system will make the transition very smooth. Simon has a broad skill set and is a winner. We can’t wait to get to work.”
