Feb. 20—CHAMPAIGN — The bar to achieve greatness in women’s college basketball is set sky high. Like shooting at a 20-foot rim.
Connecticut and Tennessee have combined for 19 national titles. Baylor, Stanford and South Carolina have three each. Get there and then you can talk about being a power.
For the Illinois program, becoming elite is the goal. It was a distant one three years ago, but now seems closer.
Despite getting hit hard by injuries and absences to key players, Shauna Green’s current team is ranked in The Associated Press Top 25 and heading back to the NCAA tournament for the second time in three seasons. Illinois won the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament the year it missed the NCAAs last season.
The first postseason title in program history sparked a winning follow-up season.
And now, a chance to take another monster step. On a long trip to the Left Coast, Illinois plays back-to-back games against a pair of top five programs. Big names in college basketball: UCLA and Southern California.
On Thursday night, the Illini (21-5, 11-4 Big Ten) face No. 3 UCLA (24-1, 12-1) at historic Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins, who had been ranked No. 1 for 12 straight weeks, just dropped their first game of the season, losing Feb. 13 at crosstown rival Southern Cal.
The fourth-ranked Trojans have lost twice during a 23-2 start, a 13-point game against current No. 1 Notre Dame on Nov. 23 in Los Angeles and a seven-point loss at Iowa on Feb. 2.
Superstar JuJu Watkins, who scored 38 in the win against UCLA, and her Southern Cal teammates welcome the Illini to the Galen Center for a 3 p.m. tip on Sunday afternoon. It will be televised on Fox Sports 1.
With success, comes notoriety for the Illinois players. More pats on the backs and kind words on campus and in the community,
“It’s been great,” sophomore guard Cori Allen said. “Just more fan love. The appreciation we’ve gotten has been so big.”
Golden opportunities
Beat either the Bruins or Trojans — or both — and Illinois checks another box toward national prominence. Green’s team has already ended the 0-for-Maryland drought.
“I don’t know the history of playing top five teams in the country, but it’s probably not that much at Illinois,” said fifth-year senior Genesis Bryant, Illinois’ No. 2 scorer. “Being able to do that and continuing to break records and make history at this school, that’s something that can never be taken away. Our names will always be in the history books for all these things we are doing.”
Green understands what success in California means.
“A win against them would be absolutely huge for this program, to get a road win like that,” Green said. “And obviously they have been great programs traditionally.”
Where the Bruins and Trojans are right now, program-wise, is where Illinois wants to go.
“Definitely,” Bryant said. “We want to make this a marquee program, one that is constantly fighting for Big Ten championships. To go from the very bottom to now fighting for a double-bye in the (Big Ten) tournament (with the Illini currently fourth in the conference standings), that’s a testament to what we’ve done so far.
“We just want to set the foundation. And everyone that comes after us should (try) to do more and better than us, so that when we come down as alumni 10, 15 years later, we can look back and say, ‘Wow, maybe this was the team that started the foundation.'”
Allen, who has two more seasons of eligibility after this, wants to “put up more banners and leave a legacy here.”
Green ticked off a list.
“We want to be a Top 25 team consistently. We want to compete for championships. We want to compete for national championships,” the third-year Illinois coach said. “If that’s not your goal, then you shouldn’t be playing college basketball. We want to win at the highest level and be as consistent as possible.”
The current team has embraced the “Illinois vs. the world” mentality.
“I really just think it’s the experience we’ve been through,” Green said. “The ups, the downs. When you’ve been through a lot together, I think you can handle more. Last year was a really good test for us. We learned a lot about each other. We learned what can do when we all come together, like we did at the end of the season. And I think that really prepared us for now. Sometimes, you’ve just got to go through it.”
Rising fast
Other than a stretch during the Theresa Grentz era, the history of the Illinois women’s program isn’t filled with success.
The highlights fall well short of the disappointments.
But Green has quickly turned the team in the right direction. Shockingly fast. Unexpectedly efficient. The transfer portal helped. What might have been a five-year project in the old days happened in one.
The team found the right players to help make it happen. Like Bryant, an North Carolina State transfer, and leading scorer/rebounder Kendall Bostic, a holdover from the previous coaching staff.
“Big picture is just a reflection of what we’ve done so far,” Bryant said. “You want to be happy about that, proud about that and still stay in the moment.
“Really that balance between, ‘We did some really big things since we got here.’ This senior class, being our last hurrah with Coach Green, how bittersweet it is. We want to end it as sweet as we can, doing something big this year and not just ending with the (current) eight-game (Big Ten) winning streak and the success we had during the season, but taking it to the playoffs.”
Music to Green’s ears. Yes, it is fun to exceed expectations. But far better to go beyond that.
