Green Street Spring turning into summer
· Yahoo Sports
May 29—'s May schedule has been a full one for the Illinois women's basketball coach.
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The fifth-year Illini coach and her assistant coaches spent the weekend of May 15-17 on the road as part of an open recruiting weekend touring various AAU circuits. Green then went to the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., late last week for the Big Ten spring meetings getting together with the league's other 17 women's basketball coaches. Scheduling and the NCAA's proposed new "5-in-5" age-based eligibility model were among the major topics of conversation, Green said.
Now, Green is back on campus — with her players still at home — with Illinois just over two weeks away from the start of eight weeks of summer workouts in mid-June.
Still, the Illini have been active in filling out their 2026-27 roster as of late, too, with Illinois announcing this week the signings of Bosnian freshman center (from ŽKK Mega Superbet in Belgrade, Serbia) and junior-college guard (from Raritan Valley (N.J.) Community College)
Green said she expects Illinois to add one player to reach its full 15-player allotment.
What that means is the Illini will have replaced the four players they lost in the offseason, as graduate guard/forward exhausted her eligibility and guard (Loyola Marymount), forward (Cincinnati) and center (Western Kentucky) transferred elsewhere in the offseason. Illinois landed LSU transfer , a former five-star recruit in the 2025 class, as its first roster move.
This is, of course, without mentioning how successful the Illini were in the offseason in retaining their core group with the top nine in last season's rotation all back. A roster that was the youngest in the NCAA tournament field and saw Illinois finish with a 22-12 record after a first-round win against Colorado before second-round loss to host Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn.
"The great thing about this year and going into this season is that we retained our core group, and that was my No. 1 priority was to retain," Green said on Wednesday's 'SportsTalk' show on WDWS. "So, we didn't have to go out and get (too many players) in the portal. Divine is someone that was a no-brainer for us because we recruited her hard the first thing and knew her family so well. That really made sense and adds more depth. She can play really positions 1 through 4. Great versatility. Great athleticism. She has 3 years in left."
Green said the Illini have "8 or 9" players that could start for them during the 2026-27 season. The main two questions could be the health of guard after suffering back-to-back season-ending knee injuries (both knees, too) and what Illinois opts to do with as the senior guard is a rather obvious starting candidate despite coming off the bench almost all of last season in what was a highly successful year one for the Villanova transfer in Champaign.
Dolan is "doing well in where she's at," Green said, in the rehab process after the 5-foot-11 guard had surgery on Feb. 23 to repair a torn meniscus in her right knee.
"You know, one day a time in terms of getting her back to 100 percent," the Illini coach said in referencing Dolan's recovery from that injury, "but no one wants to be out there more than Gretchen, and we can't wait to have her out there and healthy and helping this team."
But Illinois is perhaps better equipped than ever before in Green's tenure to handle taking it slow with Dolan after the Buffalo, N.Y., native averaged 12.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.2 steals in the 18 games she suited up for the Illini this past season as a redshirt sophomore.
"On paper, this is the deepest team we've had," Green said. "Now, again, I hope that we can stay healthy. I would love to just have one year of a full healthy roster, which I know everyone wishes for. If we stay healthy, this will be our deepest team here and probably my deepest team as a head coach."
Green said she expects to have most of her team on campus throughout the summer. That's different than the situation a year ago when through injuries and with players overseas competing internationally for their respective national teams Illinois was shorthanded. Junior forward Irene will be playing for Spain this summer, and the Illini coach isn't sure if Brenjo or Riopedre will be on campus right away. Especially for Brenjo, who is making the move over from her native Bosnia, to the United States.
"That's the thing we're so deep we could potentially have 8, 9 people that can start," Green said. "What we do, who's going to start, who's going to be those first few people off the bench a lot of that is still (to be determined and) see how the summer goes."