Green Street | Playing all the hits (so far)

Oct. 25—The news on Thursday of ‘s two-year contact extension that will carry the Illinois women’s basketball coach through the 2029-30 season got me to thinking about five of the key moments from her tenure in Champaign.

A tenure that includes 41 wins, an NCAA tournament appearance and WBIT championship. Here’s my list:

It wasn’t the tournament the Illini expected to be in, but the WBIT run was still something to savor for Green and her players after an up-and-down 2023-24 regular season. The takeover was in full effect at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in the title game despite some first-half foul trouble. As was ‘s standout defense on Villanova guard (and throughout the five-game tournament). A heavily pro Illinois crowd watched as confetti fell after a 71-57 Illini win against the Wildcats in Indianapolis, with Illinois crowned the inaugural WBIT champions — the first postseason tournament title in program history.

The moment was dampened slightly by an ESPN bracket release snafu and the fact the Illini landed a spot in a play-in game. But this Selection Sunday was a crowning moment of Green’s first year with Illinois returning to the NCAA tournament for the first time in two decades. What Green accomplished in year one no one thought possible before the 2022-23 season began four months earlier. Green admitted as much. A 70-56 loss to Mississippi State in a First Four game amid an injury to left unfinished business. Business that is still unfinished entering Green’s third year.

There’s little doubt the upset win against Iowa on New Year’s Day was the first true indicator that Green was building something special at Illinois. That it came with the show on full display was that much more impressive. Clark dropped 32 points with some jaw-dropping three-pointers (the future WNBA No. 1 overall pick poured in seven made three-pointers). But ‘s scoring punch (24 points) and Cook flashing her skills at both ends of the floor tipped the scales, as the Illini thrilled a State Farm Center crowd of 4,803 fans with the 90-86 win against the Hawkeyes.

The Indiana win felt like a game in which Illinois exacted some of its frustrations after a difficult first three months of the 2023-24 season. The Illini didn’t just beat the Hoosiers. Illinois ran Indiana off the floor. An 86-66 victory on President’s Day at State Farm Center with a national TV audience watching on Fox, where Illinois only played six players and finished with 20 made free throws while shooting 52.5 percent from the field. Hoosiers coach summed up how the game went rather matter-of-factly. “I felt like we got bullied all afternoon,” Moren said afterward.

Green made clear when she took over a downtrodden Illini program in March 2022 that a lot of the program’s recruiting success would be defined by keeping the state’s top in-state talent at home. wasn’t the first in-state player to say “yes” to Illinois in the Green era. That distinction belongs to , now a freshman center on the 2024-25 roster. But Jackson’s addition was a game-changer. A five-star recruit from a tradition-rich girls’ basketball program in Whitney Young. The kind of recruiting win that drew potential comparisons to what did for ‘s program, with the Chicago native elevating Illinois men’s basketball to great things again.