After Thursday’s exhibition win versus Maryville, Illinois women’s basketball officially returns to the court on Tuesday. The Illini will face off against the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks at State Farm Center at 6 p.m.
Point guard fixes
The injury bug has already struck the Illini with two freshmen, Erica Finney and Manuella Alves suffering season-ending injuries.
Despite their freshman status, both Finney and Alves were expected to produce big minutes for head coach Shauna Green.
Even so, Green is confident in her team to start the season off strong and is confident in the rest of the roster to step up in their place, especially freshman point guard Destiny Jackson.
“In hindsight, maybe this is really good because it gives Destiny a ton of experience, and a ton a minutes,” Green said.
While Green acknowledging the risk of having a freshman being in command of the offense, she also acknowledged how this opportunity out of the gate can only help Jackson grow as a player, and benefit the team in the long run.
Jackson will also look to shine on the defensive side of the ball for the Illini against SEMO.
“Obviously Destiny, with her quickness is really good,” Green said. “She just has to learn the discipline of the consistency of how hard you have to play every single rep, and that comes with experience.”
Although she may not have expected to play this much this early, Jackson did start in the exhibition game on Thursday and is likely to start again on Tuesday against SEMO.
Key factor on offense
The simple fact is three is greater than two. Everyone talks about the three-point evolution starting with Steph Curry and the NBA, but this year the Illini are looking to embrace the three ball as well.
Last season Illinois finished 15th in the Big Ten in total three pointers made and 8th in three-point percentage.
“I think we can shoot more [threes], and probably even a higher percentage,” Green said.
Much of last season’s success was due to now sophomore Berry Wallace. She averaged 1.4 threes per game last season at nearly 40%.
“Berry is a flat out shooter,” Green said.
She might not have been able to connect from deep against Maryville, but she will still be a leader for the Illini behind the arc.
In addition to Wallace, junior Gretchen Dolan, freshman Cearah Parchment, and junior Maddie Webber also excel with the long ball.
“Between her [Wallace], Gretchen, Maddie, Jaz [Jasmine Brown-Hagger] hit one the other night, I think we’re probably across the board a better three-point shooting team this year,” Green said. “We’ll never just totally rely on the threes, but we probably need to shoot even more.”
In the exhibition Illinois shot 6-of-14 from deep (43%), so be on the lookout for even more deep shots from them this season.
Elevated Leadership
This season will be the first in half a decade without star and leader Kendall Bostic suiting up for the Illini. This leaves the Illini with a massive leadership gap for them to fill if they want to be competitive in the Big Ten and on a national level.
With Wallace being the only player returning from last year’s starting lineup, and Gretchen Dolan returning from injury, they have been thrust into that leadership role to start the season.
“They’re going to continue to improve everyday, every game, and just get more comfortable and confident in that role,” Green said.
Dolan was only able to play in eight games for the Illini last season due to injury, so she and Wallace have not shared much time on the court together.
Despite that, their chemistry looked amazing on Thursday and the two played off each other with relative ease.
Wallace credits this chemistry to their off-court friendship and how close the two of them are even when they aren’t playing basketball.
“It was weird at first playing with her because we’re so close but we haven’t really gotten to play together,” Wallace said. “But it was really cool through the offseason practicing together. It’s been so much fun to get to play with her.”
Green met with both Dolan and Wallace over the offseason to discuss their elevated roles and they were happy to accept.
“We want to do everything we can to succeed, and me and Gretchen are trying to be the best leaders that we can be,” Wallace said.
What’s next?
After SEMO on Tuesday the Illini have a bit of a break to prepare for the Illinois State Redbirds who are coming to town on Sunday.
After this the Illini get into some more challenging power conference competition such as Oregon State and Florida State, both on the road.
