{"id":945192,"date":"2026-10-29T13:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T13:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/945192\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T13:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T13:24:10","slug":"illini-open-2026-27-campaign-with-exhibition-vs-uis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/945192\/","title":{"rendered":"Illini Open 2026-27 Campaign with Exhibition vs. UIS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Head Coach Shauna Green<\/a><\/p>\n

Career Record:\u00a0241-122\u00a0(.664), 13th season

\nDivision I Record:\u00a0212-97\u00a0(.686), 11th\u00a0season

\nAt Illinois:\u00a085-47\u00a0(.644), Fifth season

\nBig Ten Record:\u00a039-33\u00a0(.542), Fifth season<\/p>\n

LIVE STREAM<\/p>\n

Fans unable to attend Friday night’s exhibition game can watch Illinois vs. UIS\u00a0online by purchasing a subscription to\u00a0B1G+<\/a>, a streaming service of non-televised events produced by the Big Ten Network in partnership with the Big Ten Conference schools.<\/p>\n

Fans who sign up can choose either the monthly rate of $12.99\u00a0or the annual rate of $89.99. The B1G+ subscription includes access to live streaming of non-televised games, next day on-demand archives, and access to Big Ten Network’s library of Illinois’ previous season classics and originals.<\/p>\n

OPENING TIP<\/p>\n

No. 23\/22 Illinois faces Illinois Springfield (UIS)\u00a0on Friday, Oct. 30, at 6 p.m. CT in State Farm Center for an exhibition. Action will be on B1G+.<\/p>\n

The Fighting Illini enter Year 5 under the guidance of Shauna Green<\/a>. Friday’s contest marks the lone preseason tilt open to the public for the Orange and Blue.<\/p>\n

ABOUT THE OPPONENT<\/p>\n

UIS (DII) went 14-14 overall last season and 11-9 in GLVC play. The Prairie Stars enter their third season under head coach Olivia Birt in 2026-27. UIS was picked to finish ninth in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) preseason coaches poll.<\/p>\n

LAST EXHIBITION<\/p>\n

Illinois eased into the fourth year of the Shauna Green<\/a> era in Champaign with a dominant 79-60 victory over Maryville in the team’s lone exhibition game of the 2025-26\u00a0campaign. Green used the preseason game to give playing time to 12 different student-athletes, eight of them contributing in the scoring column led by Cearah Parchment’s<\/a> 22.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Green is 4-0 in exhibition games at Illinois.<\/p>\n

PRESEASON RANKING<\/p>\n

For the second time under head coach Shauna Green<\/a>, Illinois women’s basketball is ranked in the Associated Press Preseason Poll. The Fighting Illini come in at No. 23, matching their 2023-24 ranking under Green.<\/p>\n

Prior to the ranking ahead of Green’s second season at the helm of the Orange and Blue, Illinois had not appeared in an\u00a0AP Preseason Top-25\u00a0Poll since the 1999-2000 campaign.<\/p>\n

The 2026-27\u00a0season marks the fifth time in program history that Illinois has appeared in the AP Preseason Poll. Prior to this year, the Illini had appeared ahead of the 1997-98 (No. 7), 1998-99 (No. 25), 1999-2000 (No. 12), 2023-24 (No. 23) campaigns \u2013 with the first four occurrences coming\u00a0under Hall of Fame head coach Theresa Grentz.<\/p>\n

Illinois has now appeared in an AP Top-25 poll at some point during the season all five years under Green.\u00a0The Illini\u00a0have\u00a0been ranked in 12 combined AP polls under Green. In 2022-23, the Illini appeared in four Top-25 polls, followed by the preseason rankings in 2023-24, five weeks across 2024-25, on Jan. 12, 2026, and most recently in the 2025-26 preseason ratings.<\/p>\n

THE SHAUNA GREEN EFFECT<\/p>\n

Illinois’ 63 wins through Green’s first three seasons match the program record in that span while also marking the most by a head coach in their first three years with the Orange and Blue. Across that period, Illinois is 38-11 at home under Green, and the program has secured double-digit wins in three straight seasons for the first time in program history. The Illini won 11 consecutive games from March 21-Nov. 26, 2024, a new program record and the longest active win streak in the country at the time. Additionally, Illinois strung together a program-record eight-game Big Ten winning streak en route to an 11-7 record in league play.<\/p>\n

Illinois’ 85 wins through Green’s first four seasons are the second-most in a four-year span while also marking the most by a head coach in their first four years with the Orange and Blue. Across that period, Illinois is 51-15 at home under Green, and the program has secured double-digit wins in four straight seasons for the first time in program history. The Illini won 11 consecutive games from Nov. 18, 2025-Jan. 1, 2026, a new single-season program record despite being the youngest team in the Big Ten and third-youngest Power 4 team in the country.<\/p>\n

THE RETURN<\/p>\n

Envied by many, the Illinois staff has done a remarkable job with roster retention year after year. From the 2025-26 squad, 11-of-14 players with remaining eligibility returned to Illinois for the 2026-27 campaign. In terms of production, that equates to the top nine scorers as well as 99.27% of points scored, 97.65% of minutes played,\u00a0and 100% of games started.<\/p>\n

HOME ATTENDANCE NUMBERS<\/p>\n

2022-23: Across 15 home games, Illinois Women’s Basketball saw 52,295 fans fill the State Farm Center en route to a 12-3 record. That total attendance ranked 5th in program history and made Shauna Green<\/a> the only head coach to bring in 50,000 or more fans in her first season with the Illini.<\/p>\n

2023-24: In Illinois’ season – and home – opener, the attendance of 2,680 marked the largest ticketed season-opening crowd at State Farm Center since 2000 (3,954). In the Illini’s 17 home games last season, Illinois finished with a combined attendance of 63,242 for an average of 3,720 a game. 63,242 is now the fifth-best all-time attendance.<\/p>\n

2024-25: Illinois’ season average finished at 4,967 per game across 17 home regular-season contests. The Illini went 14-3 at State Farm Center this season. Illinois’ total attendance of 84,437 during the 2024-25 campaign ranks second-best in a season in program history.<\/p>\n

2025-26: Illinois’ first attendance of 4,227 was the largest crowd at a home-opener since 1997-98 (8,275). A crowd of 14,361 was called for Field Trip Day, the third-largest mark in program history, and largest ever for both Field Trip Day and a non-conference game. The Feb. 8 game vs. USC was sold out, with all 15,544 tickets purchased to mark the third sellout in program history in SFC and first under Shauna Green<\/a>. The average attendance finished at 5,766, the third-best mark in program history. The total attendance of 98,014 is the second-highest mark ever.<\/p>\n

A FAMILIAR FACE<\/p>\n

On May 26, 2026, Coach Green announced the hiring of Simon Harris<\/a> as an assistant coach. Harris also worked under Green from 2016-18 at Dayton and both were assistants on Dayton’s 2014-15 Elite Eight coaching staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most recently, Harris returned to NC State for his second stint as an assistant coach during the 2025-26 campaign. Prior to that, Harris joined the Loyola Chicago staff as an assistant coach from 2023-25. Harris spent the 2021-22 campaign at ETSU, where he was the head coach.<\/p>\n

Harris served as an assistant coach at Ohio State from 2020-21 following his first stint at NC State from 2018-20. From 2014-18 the\u00a0Pittsburgh, Pa., native worked with the Dayton women’s program after spending 2011-14 on the men’s side.<\/p>\n

During his time at UD, he crossed paths with Shauna Green<\/a> and\u00a0Calamity McEntire<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Head Coach Shauna Green Career Record:\u00a0241-122\u00a0(.664), 13th season Division I Record:\u00a0212-97\u00a0(.686), 11th\u00a0season At Illinois:\u00a085-47\u00a0(.644), Fifth season Big Ten…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-945192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}