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Jul. 22—The Illinois women's basketball team already has the framework of its Big Ten schedule set in place.
That was clear when it was announced the 18 opponents the Illini will play during the 2026-27 season with Northwestern again the only double-play conference opponent Illinois will face. How that schedule will actually break down as far as the order of games is still yet to be finalized. Don't expect that to happen until late September in all likelihood.
There is even less known — at least to those outside Ubben Basketball Complex — about the teams Illinois will face during its nonconference schedule. And Illini coach was less than thrilled about a development on Tuesday as it relates to building — and making official — her team's nonconference slate.
The fifth-year Illinois coach did offer some details about her thought process in putting together a schedule.
"Yeah, we're getting there," Green said on Tuesday from the lobby at Ubben about the status of the Illini's nonconference schedule. "Actually, I just got news of someone that dropped us, which was a top 10 team. So, I'm not happy about that right now. Because we did want to go out and try to schedule harder. So, we're going to have to try to find somebody to take the place of that — whether it's in the tournament that we're in or if it's a home-and-home."
Waiting until late in the summer to actually announce a nonconference schedule is nothing new since Green has been the coach at Illinois. The official release dates have ranged from Aug. 17 to Sept. 9.
"But I think even all of our mid-majors that we're playing have won their conference last year," Green continued. "They're all good teams. Obviously, you're going to have some of those buy games in there. But I want to try to not have as many. I mean you're going to see us go and start a home-and-home on the road against a mid-major team. People are probably like why would you do that? But I want to try and get good, solid NET games, and if we have to go and start a home-and-home (on the road), then we'll do that."
But it's also clear that Green is continuing with what has been a common practice of producing a nonconference schedule that matches with the construction of her team's roster.
Having a core group back — 11 returners, including the top-nine players in last season's rotation, compared to just four newcomers — has demanded a more challenging schedule. Especially with the Illini coming off a 22-win season that included reaching the second round of the NCAA tournament. There's also the fact Illinois is trying to be in consideration come next March to earn early-round hosting duties as a top 16 NCAA tournament seed. That's where NET rankings and the number of Quad I wins a team has on its resume come into play for the NCAA tournament selection committee with the field expanding to 76 teams in 2027.
"We're going to a (multi-team event) tournament, where we'll play a couple, you know, good teams in that and a couple (power) four teams in that," Green said. "Just trying to go and elevate and rise the schedule. You can't make it too hard because, obviously, the Big Ten, but you also can't make it too easy because of the Big Ten. You have got to prepare and you have got to be tested early, and I think we have that now with some of the experience (on our roster)."
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That was clear when it was announced the 18 opponents the Illini will play during the 2026-27 season with Northwestern again the only double-play conference opponent Illinois will face. How that schedule will actually break down as far as the order of games is still yet to be finalized. Don't expect that to happen until late September in all likelihood.
There is even less known — at least to those outside Ubben Basketball Complex — about the teams Illinois will face during its nonconference schedule. And Illini coach was less than thrilled about a development on Tuesday as it relates to building — and making official — her team's nonconference slate.
The fifth-year Illinois coach did offer some details about her thought process in putting together a schedule.
"Yeah, we're getting there," Green said on Tuesday from the lobby at Ubben about the status of the Illini's nonconference schedule. "Actually, I just got news of someone that dropped us, which was a top 10 team. So, I'm not happy about that right now. Because we did want to go out and try to schedule harder. So, we're going to have to try to find somebody to take the place of that — whether it's in the tournament that we're in or if it's a home-and-home."
Waiting until late in the summer to actually announce a nonconference schedule is nothing new since Green has been the coach at Illinois. The official release dates have ranged from Aug. 17 to Sept. 9.
"But I think even all of our mid-majors that we're playing have won their conference last year," Green continued. "They're all good teams. Obviously, you're going to have some of those buy games in there. But I want to try to not have as many. I mean you're going to see us go and start a home-and-home on the road against a mid-major team. People are probably like why would you do that? But I want to try and get good, solid NET games, and if we have to go and start a home-and-home (on the road), then we'll do that."
But it's also clear that Green is continuing with what has been a common practice of producing a nonconference schedule that matches with the construction of her team's roster.
Having a core group back — 11 returners, including the top-nine players in last season's rotation, compared to just four newcomers — has demanded a more challenging schedule. Especially with the Illini coming off a 22-win season that included reaching the second round of the NCAA tournament. There's also the fact Illinois is trying to be in consideration come next March to earn early-round hosting duties as a top 16 NCAA tournament seed. That's where NET rankings and the number of Quad I wins a team has on its resume come into play for the NCAA tournament selection committee with the field expanding to 76 teams in 2027.
"We're going to a (multi-team event) tournament, where we'll play a couple, you know, good teams in that and a couple (power) four teams in that," Green said. "Just trying to go and elevate and rise the schedule. You can't make it too hard because, obviously, the Big Ten, but you also can't make it too easy because of the Big Ten. You have got to prepare and you have got to be tested early, and I think we have that now with some of the experience (on our roster)."
Continue reading...
