Prior to the start of the 2022-23 season, Illinois basketball brought in one of the top coaching candidates in the country in former Dayton Flyers head coach Shauna Green.
The Illini were in need of an overhaul after failing to record a winning season in the nine years prior to Green’s arrival. But ever since she came to Champaign, the second-winningest coach in Dayton history has done nothing but win with the Orange and Blue.
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It has been a fruitful tenure so far with the Illini, as Green has already become the second-winningest coach in Illinois history with 84 wins in just five years with the program. But this past Friday, the magic sort of dissipated for the Illini, as they fell to the Iowa Hawkeyes in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament.
It was a rough end to an otherwise impressive regular season for the youngest team in the Big Ten. The Illini had flashes of brilliance throughout their 40 minutes facing head coach Jan Jensen’s crew, including an impressive 15-0 run in the final four minutes to cut the deficit to six. But it was unfortunately not enough, as the Illini dropped their 11th game of the season by a score of 64-58.
Shauna Green’s postgame speech was what the Illinois basketball team needed before the NCAA tournament
The Illini are fighters and have a knack for not quitting when the going gets tough. But like every great team, these young players are human, and they are going to experience obstacles in life that they need to learn how to overcome.
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That is exactly what happened this past Friday in Indianapolis against the Hawkeyes. Illinois was coming into this game with all of the momentum in the world after beating the Michigan State Spartans. This was supposed to be the game of the tournament after what Illinois and Iowa gave us the week prior, but it ended up being a one-sided affair that went in the Hawkeyes’ favor.
It was a sad sight to see, and it sort of made everyone take a step back to reassess what’s going on. But after the game, when the vibes were low, the elite coaching nature of Green shone through in one of the top-notch postgame speeches of the year.
That speech, as the kids like to say, had me ready to run through a brick wall. It wasn’t one of those embellished inspirational numbers that have been played up in every sports movie ever made. But it was one of those speeches that got to the point about playing a full 40 minutes, while also reminding everyone how far they’ve come in such a short amount of time.
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Illinois has a special group of individuals from top to bottom, and their greatness starts with the coaching. Even though the Illini are no longer in the Big Ten Tournament, it doesn’t mean that their March is officially over. The Illini are still alive and well in the postseason, as they await what seed they will be in this year’s NCAA tournament bracket.
Don’t be surprised if this scrappy young team upsets some teams when the tournament tips off. They may be trying to bounce back after a loss, but coach Green and Co. are going to have them ready to hunt.
This article was originally published on www.writingillini.com as Shauna Green rallying the Illinois basketball program with speech built for March.
