Apr. 15—Illinois point guard will look to build off standout freshman season
showed off her lighthearted personality on social media on Tuesday.
An Instagram story where the Illinois women’s basketball assistant coach asked if the Illini point guard would be returning for another year in Champaign. Jackson gave the expected answer of “Yeah, I’m coming back.”
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This side of McEntire isn’t always seen. Even if McEntire is the associate head coach on a women’s basketball program that is clearly on the rise. That’s because is the face of Illinois women’s basketball in leading the Illini to three NCAA tournament appearances and a pair of March Madness wins in her first four seasons.
But make no mistake McEntire is viewed as a head coaching candidate every offseason when jobs open up. The longtime Green assistant just hasn’t made that leap yet despite also being on ‘s Texas staff for one season and also working as a student manager for legendary Tennessee coach .
Still, Green has had two other former assistant coaches now in charge of their own programs. The first to make that jump was , who left the Illinois program after Green’s first year to lead Akron.
It’s been a tough start to Gensler’s tenure in northeast Ohio with the Zips just 20-38 in three seasons. Genler’s first Akron team went 11-18 and the Zips have posted a 9-20 and 7-24 record the past two seasons.
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The most recent Green assistant to become a head coach was, of course, . The Kentucky native is “heading home” to lead the Morehead State women’s basketball program with the school naming her head coach on April 8.
Alexander inherits an Eagles program that showed marked improvement under . Morehead State finished with an 18-15 record this past season, an eight-win jump from the year before. But Feldhaus left Morehead, Ky., after one season to take the job at McNeese State.
Now, it’s Alexander’s turn to follow up on those gains.
