'Perfect time' for Green's Illini to go on foreign trip

Jun. 14—CHAMPAIGN — Shauna Green felt the timing was right this summer for her Illinois women's basketball team to go on a foreign trip.

The third-year Illini coach had given some thought to traveling overseas last summer. But opted to wait a year. The result was Illinois finds itself with a core of players — including four of its top-five scorers returning — and looking to assimilate that group with five newcomers that includes two transfers and three incoming freshmen.

Still, Illinois' planned 10-day summer excursion to Italy and Greece from August 2-12 has as much basketball value as a team-building experience. The final details are still being finalized, but the Illini will play in a game setting against European competition and, perhaps more importantly, receive the benefit of 10 full summer practices in Champaign beforehand.

"We could have done it last year, but I wanted to push it back to this year just because of timing and every year is different," Green said Thursday at Ubben Basketball Complex. Illinois' summer trip will feature stops in Rome, Florence, and Naples in Italy in addition to Athens and Glyfada in Greece.

"I thought this year would be the perfect time," the Illini coach continued. "What a great opportunity and something to look forward to for our seniors. I knew we would probably have a big group coming back and I knew that we would have quite a few new kids. I think it's a nice reward for your seniors and then also a great bonding experience and also an experience playing in a live game for our young kids."

The NCAA allows programs to make an international trip every four years, and Illinois last went overseas in 2019 in visiting Australia when Nancy Fahey was entering her third year as Illini coach. This August trip will be the first of Green's tenure in C-U, with the former Dayton coach also taking her Flyers to Italy in 2018.

That Illinois' 13-player roster for the 2024-25 season is basically fully healthy is a key factor amid a significant offseason for the program. The Illini are hoping to build off a championship run in the spring to the inaugural WBIT title. That came after an up-and-down regular season that led to Illinois finishing 19-15 even after a five-game winning streak saw Illinois cut down the nets at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis in, albeit, a second-tier postseason tournament.

Getting back to the NCAA tournament is one of the top goals the Illini will set their sights on this upcoming season. From a health standpoint, one of the big offseason developments was having upcoming senior forward Brynn Shoup-Hill in a "really good place" with some "fresh motivation" after a wrist injury derailed her junior season. Shoup-Hill started all 28 games she played in as a sophomore in the 2022-23 season as Illinois reached the NCAA tournament and had one of its best seasons in nearly two decades in a debut campaign for Green as coach.

But Shoup-Hill's role decreased significantly last winter while dealing with the effects of her injury. The 6-foot-3 forward averaged only 12.6 minutes per game.

With Shoup-Hill progressing nicely, Green's Illini roster is coming together. Mostly.

"We have some nagging (injuries) from some things we've had from right after season to where we're working our way back," Green said. "Nothing major. Just being cautious with a few people to bring them back slowly."

That has Illinois in a place where Green feels good about her team. The roster-building for the Illini really started back in March when star point guard Makira Cook announced before the WBIT that she would take advantage of her bonus COVID season. Illinois' WBIT title was followed swiftly by the decisions of guard Genesis Bryant and forward Kendall Bostic to also use their COVID eligibility years and run it back at Illinois alongside Cook.

Illinois had four players transfer, but all four played limited minutes in Green's rotation. The Illini countered with sophomore transfer additions in 5-9 guard Jasmine Brown-Hagger (Mississippi State) and 6-7 center Lety Vasconcelos (Baylor) in addition to a freshman class that includes Spanish forward Irene Noya Catoira, Lincoln-Way East center Hayven Smith — the first and still only in-state freshman signee of the Green era — and five-star, top-25 wing Berry Wallace.

"To be able to have that core group that again believes in the culture and believes in one another is probably the thing that I am the most proud of," Green said. "All those guys decided to come back and not transferring, that means a lot about what we're building. It means a lot about the relationships and again the culture that we're putting in place. I think it's special. especially nowadays. and it's up to us to utilize that and does that experience and does that continuity pay off for us?

"That's the question, and that's on them to take the lessons learned and to put them into action so we can have a great year."