Green Street The standard bearer
· Yahoo Sports
Oct. 30—'s status as the longest-tenured player on the Illinois women's basketball team is clear.
That the now senior guard is entering her fourth year with coach 's program puts the Buffalo, N.Y., native in a unique position having experienced two different versions of the Illini.
Visit michezonews.co.za for more information.
First, as a newcomer on a veteran roster led by , , , and Co. ahead of the 2023-24 season when the 5-foot-11 wing was a freshman. Those roles were reversed when Dolan became a veteran presence on what was one of the youngest roster nationally during the 2025-26 season after Illinois brought in a top 10 recruiting class.
That Dolan has been an integral piece in bridging that gap and setting an example as to what the standards and expectations are for a Green-coached team isn't lost on the fifth-year coach.
"She's a critical piece to everything," Green said. "She's our longest tenured player on the team right now. She's been here with the old group and now this group. She understands what it means to win at a high level. She understands how it looks. She understands the day-to-day process and grind of it all. She's someone that I'm going to lean on and we're going to all lean on to really lead. To lead in her own way, but she has to step up and be that leader because she does know and she has been there (before). Whether she was hurt the last couple years or not, there's no one that understands the expectations and the standards and how we do things better than Gretchen."
With Dolan back to full strength after another season-ending knee injury, her role as a leader will be just as important with the Illini expected to do big things during the upcoming 2026-27 season after 99.3 percent of their scoring returned from a 22-win NCAA tournament team.
And Dolan sees some of the same characteristics that made Green's first few teams successful in this iteration of the Illinois roster.
"I think I would just say the connectiveness," Dolan said. "I think I saw it with that first group. I see it more this year with people coming back. So, I would just say it's pretty cool to see in this program that we get so much retention. People do come back and want to be a part of that, so that's been really cool to see."