May 22—When asked about the predicted high expectations for her latest Illinois women’s basketball team, made clear the Illini coach viewed finishing the season ranked in the AP Top 25 as just important as starting the year there.
It’s been 28 years since the last time Illinois was ranked in the final AP Top 25 poll. The Illini ended the 1997-98 season at No. 16 in the final AP rankings. That team posted a 20-10 record and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament with wins against UW-Green Bay and UC Santa Barbara in Champaign before an 80-74 loss to North Carolina in a regional semifinal in Nashville, Tenn.
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The 1997-98 season also saw Illinois ranked in the preseason poll (ranked seventh in that initial poll) and the -led Illini spent a total of 18 weeks in the AP Top 25 (ranked as high as No. 5 in the nation).
Only one of Green’s teams has started a season in the preseason rankings. Illinois was 23rd in the opening poll of the 2023-24 season. That year didn’t go as planned as a veteran roster led by , , and finished the regular season with a 14-14 record. The Illini dropped below the .500 mark after a 75-65 loss to Maryland as part of a one-and-done showing at the Big Ten tournament in Minneapolis.
But given a second chance at the inaugural WBIT, Illinois won five straight games en route to capturing the first postseason tournament title in program history to end on a high note.
There’s a good chance this Illini team will tip off the 2026-27 season in the AP rankings and looks like a potential Top 20 team. Retention, retention, retention was the key word around Ubben Basketball Complex, and Illinois achieved that after returning basically its entire core from what was the youngest team in the NCAA tournament field last March.
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The core of , , , and , among others, that has put preseason expectations at an all-time high in the Green era.
“You know I think every year your expectations is to win every year,” Green said last month as she enters her fifth season as Illini coach. Illinois is 85-47 under Green with three NCAA tournament appearances, with the Illini reaching the second round of March Madness in back-to-back years.
“You don’t go into any season with any other thought process,” Green continued. “At least I don’t. You want to compete, and I want to win. I think the next step with this young team I talked about earlier we learned a lot. I think we have a clear understanding of the areas we need to improve upon and what we need to work on this offseason. So yeah, expectations are expectations. It’s a process.
“We have to be locked in day by day and every day matters and every game matters, and I think they understand that. They understand the big picture now. We’ll be another year older. So, again, excited, preseason rankings are preseason rankings, but I want to be ranked during the season and at the end of the season at a high level.”
